Anwar: Yes, I'll go to prison again
Published: Apr 24, 2014 3:33 PM | Updated: Apr 24, 2014 6:34 PM
He spent six years in prison on charges he claimed were trumped up. Conspiracy or otherwise, it did not stop him from rocking the foundations of the ruling coalition in two subsequent general elections.
Now the 67-year-old politician is in the final leg of exhausting the legal avenues over another sodomy charge, which he claims was also fabricated by his political rivals.
If the Federal Court rejects his appeal, Anwar Ibrahim will have to spend another five years behind bars.
And in an interview with international magazine The Diplomat , the opposition leader is certain that he will not get a fair hearing and that going back to prison is a foregone conclusion.
In an interview with The Diplomat, he warns of possible street protests.
He spent six years in prison on charges he claimed were trumped up. Conspiracy or otherwise, it did not stop him from rocking the foundations of the ruling coalition in two subsequent general elections.
Now the 67-year-old politician is in the final leg of exhausting the legal avenues over another sodomy charge, which he claims was also fabricated by his political rivals.
If the Federal Court rejects his appeal, Anwar Ibrahim will have to spend another five years behind bars.
And in an interview with international magazine The Diplomat, the opposition leader is certain that he will not get a fair hearing and that going back to prison is a foregone conclusion.
"Looking at the names of the (Court of Appeal) judges and the way they expedited the process, they even disallowed me to ask for just a few days to get medical documents.
"So looking at the (Court of Appeal) judgment I think it is clearly fundamentally flawed, because they did not deal with the facts that were abused. So I think that it is clear that the judiciary is acting under the instruction of their political masters.
"Therefore I'm not too optimistic that I will get a fair hearing and I think that it is a foregone conclusion. Notwithstanding we are of course doing our very best to get the best team of lawyers to expose the whole fiasco in the courts. Since Karpal Singh died in the accident I am now faced also with the problem of getting new lead counsel," he added.
Stating that he was convinced of landing in prison again, Anwar revealed that some of his friends and Muslim groups in the UK had attempted to persuade him to remain in London.
"In fact colleagues I was with in London for the Al Gore group meeting as well as some friends and Muslim groups in the UK, all of them without hesitation tried to persuade me to remain in London instead of coming back.
"They all know and assume that because of the opaque system here and the judiciary that I will go to prison. But I said to them, 'Thank you very much, but I have made my decision, I will continue the fight from within Malaysia'," he added.
People have a limit
On the same note, Anwar told The Diplomat that he did not rule out the possibility of street protests similar to those during the Reformasi era in the aftermath of his sacking from government in 1998.
"Well the system is still oppressive and there are serious signs of it. It was not just me they are trying to haul to prison, but also a few other MPs, assemblypersons, party leaders and protest leaders and I think this trend will continue.
"Therefore you are giving people hardly any option for recourse. Where do you go if you have a problem? Are you going to go to the courts? You will not get a fair trial. So I think what the authoritarian leaders fail to realise is that there is a limit to what people and the society can endure.
"However, I think with the ineptitude in dealing with MH370, the international community and the international media are becoming aware of the opaqueness of the system and the failure of governance.
"So I think we are left with no option but to demand our rights not within the prescribed method of elections that are fraudulent or the courts," he added.
But asked if Pakatan Rakyat would urge the people to take to the streets if he is jailed, Anwar replied: "Well I'm not suggesting that; that is for people to decide."
"For now we are just organising a series of meetings to explain what is going on. As you know, even the funeral of Karpal - one of the great opposition leaders and icons—was not reported at all in the mainstream media.
"And during the final funeral possession not one leader from the ruling party or the government attended, so you can see the tendency to consider opposition leaders as the enemies of the state and I think it is very unhealthy.
"I can't predict exactly what will happen. There is also this movement on May 1 for example. There is already this call to protest in opposition to new taxation, fraudulent elections, and the beginning for Reformasi 2.0 will be on May 1," he added.
During the interview, Anwar also suggested that Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak is more ruthless than his predecessors, including Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
"I think that when they become more desperate they become more ruthless and this series of measures is unprecedented. We’ve seen it under Mahathir, we have seen it under Abdullah (Ahmad Badawi), but under Najib now it has gotten worse...," he said.
Click here to read the full interview
Now the 67-year-old politician is in the final leg of exhausting the legal avenues over another sodomy charge, which he claims was also fabricated by his political rivals.If the Federal Court rejects his appeal, Anwar Ibrahim will have to spend another five years behind bars.
And in an interview with international magazine The Diplomat, the opposition leader is certain that he will not get a fair hearing and that going back to prison is a foregone conclusion.
"Looking at the names of the (Court of Appeal) judges and the way they expedited the process, they even disallowed me to ask for just a few days to get medical documents.
"So looking at the (Court of Appeal) judgment I think it is clearly fundamentally flawed, because they did not deal with the facts that were abused. So I think that it is clear that the judiciary is acting under the instruction of their political masters."Therefore I'm not too optimistic that I will get a fair hearing and I think that it is a foregone conclusion. Notwithstanding we are of course doing our very best to get the best team of lawyers to expose the whole fiasco in the courts. Since Karpal Singh died in the accident I am now faced also with the problem of getting new lead counsel," he added.
Stating that he was convinced of landing in prison again, Anwar revealed that some of his friends and Muslim groups in the UK had attempted to persuade him to remain in London.
"In fact colleagues I was with in London for the Al Gore group meeting as well as some friends and Muslim groups in the UK, all of them without hesitation tried to persuade me to remain in London instead of coming back.
"They all know and assume that because of the opaque system here and the judiciary that I will go to prison. But I said to them, 'Thank you very much, but I have made my decision, I will continue the fight from within Malaysia'," he added.
People have a limit
On the same note, Anwar told The Diplomat that he did not rule out the possibility of street protests similar to those during the Reformasi era in the aftermath of his sacking from government in 1998.
"Well the system is still oppressive and there are serious signs of it. It was not just me they are trying to haul to prison, but also a few other MPs, assemblypersons, party leaders and protest leaders and I think this trend will continue."Therefore you are giving people hardly any option for recourse. Where do you go if you have a problem? Are you going to go to the courts? You will not get a fair trial. So I think what the authoritarian leaders fail to realise is that there is a limit to what people and the society can endure.
"However, I think with the ineptitude in dealing with MH370, the international community and the international media are becoming aware of the opaqueness of the system and the failure of governance.
"So I think we are left with no option but to demand our rights not within the prescribed method of elections that are fraudulent or the courts," he added.
But asked if Pakatan Rakyat would urge the people to take to the streets if he is jailed, Anwar replied: "Well I'm not suggesting that; that is for people to decide."
"For now we are just organising a series of meetings to explain what is going on. As you know, even the funeral of Karpal - one of the great opposition leaders and icons—was not reported at all in the mainstream media."And during the final funeral possession not one leader from the ruling party or the government attended, so you can see the tendency to consider opposition leaders as the enemies of the state and I think it is very unhealthy.
"I can't predict exactly what will happen. There is also this movement on May 1 for example. There is already this call to protest in opposition to new taxation, fraudulent elections, and the beginning for Reformasi 2.0 will be on May 1," he added.
During the interview, Anwar also suggested that Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak is more ruthless than his predecessors, including Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
"I think that when they become more desperate they become more ruthless and this series of measures is unprecedented. We’ve seen it under Mahathir, we have seen it under Abdullah (Ahmad Badawi), but under Najib now it has gotten worse...," he said.
Click here to read the full interview
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