Political Sex Scandals Rock Modest Malaysia – By THOMAS FULLER

New York Times – United States | KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, 04-Aug-2008 — Government censors in this majority Muslim nation have upheld an ethos of modesty by snipping sex scenes from films and banning entertainers from wearing outfits that reveal too much on Malaysian stages; bare belly buttons and figure-hugging outfits are off limits.

But these days Malaysians looking to avoid R-rated content might be advised to steer clear of news reports about their own leaders. Two top politicians are embroiled in scandal, one accused of sodomy and the other of romantic links to a Mongolian woman gruesomely killed in 2006.

Reports on the finer points of a rectal examination and revelations about the sexual preferences of the dead woman make other sex scandals that once shocked people here — including Monica Lewinsky and her blue dress — seem almost Victorian.

This is not the first time that sex and politics have collided in Malaysia. In the 1990s, the sodomy trial of Anwar Ibrahim, a former deputy prime minister, featured, among other highlights, a bloodstained mattress being hauled into the courtroom.

This time, wider use of the Internet has helped disseminate documents, facts and rumors that would otherwise have been filtered out of the mainstream news media that are tightly controlled by the government.

The scandals encompass much more than sex; each is a potential career-ender for a man vying to become Malaysia’s next prime minister, with control over a political patronage system that dominates the economy.

Mr. Anwar is now facing new accusations of sodomy — a crime punishable here by up to 20 years in prison — at a time when he is making strides toward unseating the governing coalition, which has run Malaysia since its independence from Britain 51 years ago. His principal political rival, Najib Razak, the deputy prime minister and anointed heir to the current prime minister, has been persistently linked to the slain Mongolian woman, despite his insistence that he never even met her. She was shot and her body obliterated with explosives in the jungle outside Kuala Lumpur.

The defendants in that case are a former political adviser to Mr. Najib and two commandos who were bodyguards for Malaysia’s top leaders.

Tampering is suspected in both cases. Testimony revealed that immigration records of the slain woman had been deleted. Witnesses have dropped from sight, including a private investigator, Balasubramaniam Perumal, who said in a sworn statement in early July that the Mongolian woman was Mr. Najib’s mistress. He retracted his allegations the next day in a hastily convened news conference, and then disappeared, along with his wife and three children. The family’s two Rottweilers were left behind in their cages.

“It’s obvious what has happened here,” said Americk Sidhu, the investigator’s lawyer. “You don’t need to be a rocket scientist. Somebody needed him to shut up.”

Mr. Balasubramaniam, who worked for the Najib adviser now on trial, Abdul Razak Baginda, spent two months writing and revising a 16-page declaration about the case, based on conversations he had with Mr. Abdul Razak and, before her death, with the woman, Altantuya Shaariibuu.

Many of the most salacious facts and rumors about both cases have been funneled into the public realm by one prolific blogger, Raja Petra Kamarudin, formerly a political associate of Mr. Anwar’s wife.

Bazuki Muhammad/Reuters

Anwar Ibrahim, a former deputy prime minister who is running for Parliament, is facing new accusations of sodomy.

Citing sources in military intelligence, he issued a sworn declaration in June alleging that Mr. Najib’s wife was present at Ms. Altantuya’s killing. Mr. Najib called it “total lies, fabrication and total garbage” and a “desperate and pathetic attempt to discredit and taint my political image.”

Mr. Raja Petra was also responsible for leaking a medical report relating to the sodomy case against Mr. Anwar. The accuser, a 23-year-old former campaign volunteer, went to a private hospital in Kuala Lumpur hours before lodging a police report charging that Mr. Anwar had sodomized him. The medical report said he complained of a piece of plastic being inserted into his anus. The doctor who wrote the report, Mohamed Osman, said he found no active bleeding, no pus, tear or scar.

Since then, Dr. Osman also has disappeared. The hospital says he will be back on Monday.

The government has charged Mr. Raja Petra with criminal libel, invoking a law that lawyers say has not been used in recent memory in Malaysia and that, unlike civil defamation, can carry a two-year prison term. He has also been charged with sedition, and his house has been raided several times.

Mr. Anwar, who announced Thursday that he would run for Parliament in his quest to become prime minister, said in an interview that he expected to be arrested soon.

He said he had refused to give a DNA sample because he believed that it would be used against him. “There’s nothing stopping them from fabricating evidence again,” Mr. Anwar said.

Although Malaysians enthusiastically share the latest developments in both cases, some have grown tired of the graphic details.

“A good word is disgust — whether it’s sodomy or blowing up the Mongolian lady,” said the Rev. Wong Kim Kong, executive adviser of the National Evangelical Christian Fellowship, a group of Protestant churches. A narrow majority of Malaysians are Muslim, but the country has sizable Christian, Hindu, Buddhist and Sikh minorities.

Mr. Wong said the constant barrage of accusations made by bloggers, paired with the government’s steady denials, had left Malaysians pining for clarity.

“People just cannot trust the word of any of these people,” Mr. Wong said. “They cannot distinguish who is telling the truth.”

The scandals come at a time of great political uncertainty in Malaysia. The governing coalition, and the ethnic-based system of politics that it represents, is in disarray. There is simmering resentment among the majority Malays and the minority Chinese and Indians, and corruption within the government is rampant, despite promises by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to clean up the system.

Mr. Anwar has vowed to remake the country’s politics and revoke the authoritarian laws that, among other things, ban students from protesting, keep the media controlled and allow the government to lock up dissidents without trial. But he remains a polarizing figure who is not trusted by many in the elite.

“I think there will at some point be a crisis of legitimacy,” said Ibrahim Suffian, the director of the Merdeka Center, a polling agency. “The leaders seem to feel that they can get away with a lot of things so long as the masses are satisfied with the economic opportunities given to them.

“But the economy is so bad that people are losing faith. There is a feeling that maybe it’s time for major changes.”

Sex and politics in Malaysia – By Anil Netto

Asia Times Online, Hong Kong | PENANG, 04-Aug-2008 – Opposition icon Anwar Ibrahim upped the ante of his campaign to topple the United Malays Nasional Organization (UMNO)-led government through plans to run in a by-election expected to be held later this month and formally re-enter politics. But with new criminal sodomy charges hanging over his head, it is unclear that Anwar, previously jailed on similar charges, will remain a free man long enough to contest in person the bellwether poll.

Some 15,000 people on Sunday welcomed Anwar back to the Permatang Pauh constituency where his wife Wan Azizah Wan Ismail recently resigned her parliamentary seat to pave the way for his democratic comeback. The constituency lies on mainland Penang, which was one of five in the 13 state federations to fall into opposition hands during a watershed election in March, which saw the ruling coalition lose significant electoral ground.

By throwing down the electoral gauntlet, Anwar clearly hopes that his bid to re-enter parliament will act as a catalyst to encourage defections from the ruling coalition. He has recently claimed the opposition Pakatan Rakyat (People’s Alliance) is still on track to secure the parliamentary numbers it needs to seize power by September 16, coinciding with Malaysia’s national day.

The ruling Barisan Nasional (National Front) coalition currently holds a 140-81 seat majority over the People’s Alliance in parliament, with the remaining member being an independent. Wan Azizah is president of the People’s Justice Party (PKR), the cornerstone of the Pakatan Rakyat, which also comprises the Democratic Action Party (DAP) and the Islamic Party (PAS), and is currently parliament’s opposition leader, the first woman ever to hold that high post.

However, there are heavier sexual overtones in Malaysian politics. Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar revealed last week that police had completed their investigations into a complaint lodged by a former PKR aide, 23-year-old Mohamad Saiful Bukhari Azlan, that Anwar sodomized him.

The relevant papers are now with the attorney-general awaiting further action and many fear the opposition leader’s arrest could be imminent. The aide had gone to see a general practitioner at a private hospital soon after that, but the doctor found that there was no trace of sodomy, according to a hospital medical report leaked on the Internet and posted on several blogs.

Hospital authorities later told the media that a “sodomy check-up has to be done by a specialist, not a medical officer”. They said such an examination had to be done by a “gut specialist”, which the hospital did not have. The aide subsequently claimed he underwent a second examination at a government-run hospital hours after the first check-up. The second alleged report has not been made public.

In any case, Malaysians are being thoroughly enlightened in the media and on the Internet about the intricacies of a sodomy detection medical examination. It is also proving to be the butt of many jokes, with not a few asking if there are any sodomy medical specialists in the country. More gravely, PKR aides fear that Anwar could be arrested before the by-election is held.

If the attorney-general decides to press charges, as many suspect, then Anwar may be arrested and brought to court to be charged, said human-rights lawyer Charles Hector in his blog. “Note that Anwar can also be informed that he should attend court to be charged – that is, without there being any necessity to arrest him with masked police personnel”, as authorities have done in the past.

Either way, after he is charged, Anwar is expected to plead “not guilty” and file a bail application. “Even if Anwar is denied bail – and has to be in remand prison – he can still contest,” wrote Hector . “Even if they use the Internal Security Act and detain him [without trial], he can still contest.”

Statistical edge

Anwar has made clear, most recently to a huge crowd on Sunday night, his intention to contest the poll even if while in lock-up. He has already forewarned of “massive” vote-rigging by the government to keep him from winning the seat.

Yet he apparently has public opinion on his side. Only 11% of Malaysians believe the sodomy allegation against Anwar, with 55% saying they disbelieve the allegation, according to a recent opinion poll conducted by the Merdeka Center. In contrast, Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi’s approval rating has plunged to 42%, his worst rating since taking power in 2003.

A majority of poll respondents – 59% – said that economic problems, including spiraling inflation, were the most pressing issue facing the country now. With those numbers in his favor and his back against the wall, Anwar is clearly going for broke, hoping to convince disillusioned ruling coalition parliamentarians that the time is right for them to defect.

Anwar, a former finance minister, had earlier gone up and down the west coast of the peninsula, hammering at the government’s 41% petrol price hike on June 5, which he claimed was hurting the economy and causing unnecessary hardship among many Malaysians. Consumer spending has dampened and manufacturers are worried as they struggle to cope with higher input prices.

Anwar has said he would reduce the domestic petrol price to just slightly over the pre-June 5 level “the very next day” after the Pakatan Rakyat comes to power. For its part, Abdullah’s government has just announced a new move to “streamline” domestic oil prices to reflect global prices every month, beginning on September 1.

Given the high stakes, the by-election in Permatang Pauh, which is just next door to Abdullah’s constituent seat at Penang’s Kepala Batas, will assume national importance. The DAP, which now rules Penang, has promised to campaign hard for Anwar while the entire weight of the ruling coalition’s election campaign machinery, money and media resources is expected to be concentrated against his bid in the run-up to the by-election.

Political observers are already viewing the poll as a head-to-head battle between two potential prime ministers in waiting: deputy Premier Najib Razak, who is expected to lead UMNO’s local campaign, and the man many already view as prime minister in waiting, Anwar. Abdullah and Najib recently agreed to a political succession plan, in which Najib is scheduled to take over power in 2010.

Anwar’s wife, Wan Azizah, won the seat handily at the March polls, winning 30,338 votes and outpacing her UMNO opponent by 13,388. In view of that result, a senior UMNO politician has already called for a party boycott of the by-election, claiming the poll so soon after general elections was irresponsible and a waste of public funds.

For their part, PKR strategists hope that Anwar will reach a 20,000-vote majority and that a stronger democratic mandate will convince ruling coalition parliamentarians to jump ship to the opposition. Given that most Malaysians believe the new sodomy charges against Anwar are trumped up, and in an opposition heartland, the ruling coalition faces an uphill battle. Analysts say it would be content to reduce PKR’s winning majority and try to spin that as evidence that the tide is turning against Anwar and the PKR.

Attention will also be focused on the opposition PAS party’s role in the campaign, particularly in light of the Islamic party’s recent flirtation with UMNO in “Muslim unity” talks. A recent report in Harakah Daily, the PAS news website, indicated that the party’s growing discontent with the opposition coalition stems from the power-sharing arrangements in the richest and most industrialized state of Selangor, which is now led by the PKR.

The report also expressed concern over what it viewed as unreasonable demands from non-Muslims for renovations and expansions of their places of worship in areas where they were only a small proportion of the population. PAS’ talks with UMNO have gone down poorly among many DAP and PKR supporters, and PAS leaders have since pivoted, vowing not to leave the opposition alliance and to go all-out in campaigning for Anwar.

Depending on what sort of deal UMNO may be offering PAS, that may or may not happen. With all eyes now on the Permatang Pauh campaign, signs of defections from UMNO to the opposition, and the sodomy allegations against Anwar, Malaysia’s political future depends on who will and who may have already jumped into bed with whom.

Anil Netto is a Penang-based writer.

BN’s Crisis

Sin Chew Jit Poh, Malaysia | 04-Aug-2008 – Isn’t the situation favourable to BN? How could it be a crisis?

Perhaps, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim will be charged, convicted and imprisoned. All the problems will be resolved and the situation will be stabilised, bringing BN a peaceful regime.

We may think that way but the outcome may be the other way round.

Intelligent BN leaders should have noted that the situation has changed over the past few days and a big storm is heading towards BN. And far-sighted leaders should be well prepared for the disaster.

What are the changes in the past few days anyway? I have noted three:

Firstly, the by-election in Permatang Pauh may bring a snowball effect. No one will naively think that someone can actually beat Anwar in the by-election. I believe the majority votes will be more than 10 000.

It can’t help no matter how much resources BN put in the by-election. The only question would be how to lose not so badly. Yes, BN will say that Anwar’s influence is strong in Permatang Pauh and it is only one of the 222 parliamentary seats. It will not affect the overall situation even if they lose it. However, this is not true in politics.

This has reminded me of the Tambunan by-election in 1984. At that time, Datuk Joseph Pairin Kitingan broke up with the Berjaya government and he returned to his hometown Tambunan to once again seek for the people’s commission.

Pairin was smart to define Tambunan as the resistance base and the by-election as the start of the people’s realisation. Pairin won the fierce battle and seen as a Sabahan hero. Later, he founded Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) and won the elections, ousting the Berjaya government.

Anwar is as intelligent as Pairin. Indeed, he is more charismatic and influential than Pairin (even the then Pairin).

Anwar wants to leave his fate, particularly the sodomy accusation to the people in Permatang Pauh. He is destined to be a tragic hero as he may be charged at any time. This will not only help him to gain victory but as well expand the by-election effect.

The by-election may trigger dissatisfaction over the government and some politicians. This may bring a snowball effect to the country.

Secondly, Pas has put an end to the talk with Umno. The emergency brake made by Pas has failed the Malay unity. Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang’s three-point declaration has rejected Umno, as well as consolidated the unity of PKR.

Umno’s stratery to cozy up to Pas ended here. At the same time, BN’s internal relationship of mutual trust has been hurt. Meanwhile, it brought BN’s non-Malay supporters a negative impression. It will be a major test for Umno to repair the internal relationship and the perception of non-Malays.

Thirdly, the independent Merdeka Center research firm found that public confidence in Malaysia’s political and economic future has dwindled dramatically in recent months. Respondents generally did not believe the sodomy accusation against Anwar was true.

Meanwhile, the survey showed that the Prime Minister’s popularity hitting an all-time low. His popularity dropped from 99% when he first took the office to 68% before the general elections and less than 50% recently. Also, only 11% of the respondents believed the sodomy accusation.

This will be a confidence crisis to the BN government. BN is now facing three major tests and it has to change its behaviour before the situation turns worse. (By TAY TIAN YAN/ Translated by SOONG PHUI JEE/ Sin Chew Daily)

( The opinions expressed by the writer do not necessarily reflect those of MySinchew )

 

Malaysia Anwar fears govt plan to sabotage election – By Niluksi Koswanage

Reuters India, India | KLANG, Malaysia (Reuters), 03- Aug-2008 – Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said on Sunday that he feared the government may resort to “massive funding and bribery” to sabotage his chances of winning a parliamentary election.

Anwar, who is battling allegations that he raped a former male aide, plans to stand for election from a constituency in northern Penang state which his wife has vacated.

“If… Barisan Nasional decide(s) to give rough with massive funding and bribery then we will have to be really prepared,” Anwar told reporters referring to the ruling coalition.

“We will have to see how many 100 million (ringgit) will be brought there (to the constituency). We are not taking it for granted,” he said.

Anwar’s wife Wan Azizah resigned last week to make way for him to contest and regulations state that a by-election must be held within the next 60 days.

The Election Commission will meet on Wednesday to decide on the election date.

Anwar, a former deputy premier, was barred from running for public office until this April because of a conviction for corruption.

He has separately dismissed the sodomy allegation as a political ploy to derail the opposition’s rise after it deprived the government of a two-thirds majority in elections in March.

“Its not a question of facts and law. The arrest (will be) a political decision,” Anwar said in the central port city of Klang referring to rumours that he could be arrested.

All homosexual acts are illegal in Malaysia under the country’s sodomy laws and are punishable by up to 20 years in prison in the mainly Muslim country.

Police have completed investigations into the sodomy case, a security official told Reuters earlier in the week, but there has been no word yet on whether charges will be brought against Anwar.

The Malay language Utusan Malaysia newspaper quoted Attorney-General Ghani Patail as saying no decision has been made on whether to press charges.

A poll by the Merdeka Center for Opinion Research, an independent pollster, showed that just only 11 percent believed the allegations against Anwar while 66 percent thought it was a politically motivated action to disrupt Anwar political career. The poll released on Friday covered 1,000 adults.

Anwar was sacked by then Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in 1998 and jailed on what he says were fabricated charges of corruption and sodomy.

A court quashed the sodomy charges and freed him from jail in September 2004, soon after he finished serving the corruption sentence.

Poll: Najib won’t be good as PM

The Malaysian Insider | KUALA LUMPUR, 01-Aug-2008 – With confidence in Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi at a new low, how do Malaysians feel about Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak as prime minister?

A survey conducted by independent research firm Merdeka Center in the first half of July showed that there is definitely some negative rub-off from the Barisan Nasional and some of the unpopular moves by the government e.g. the recent fuel price hike, as only 34 per cent of those polled thought Najib would make a good prime minister.

As expected, 58 per cent of the people said they were dissatisfied with Umno as a political party and felt it did not reflect the “aspirations and needs of the people in Malaysia”. However, a high level of satisfaction in the Pakatan Rakyat state governments – 57 per cent — was recorded.

The survey which polled only registered voters aged 21+ found that only 40 per cent of the voters polled in Peninsular Malaysia said they were satisfied with Barisan Nasional while 57 per cent expressed satisfaction with Pakatan Rakyat. And only 42 per cent said they were happy with the Prime Minister’s performance.

Not surprisingly, only 28 per cent of respondents were satisfied with the way things were going in the country. The biggest concern is the economy with 59 per cent saying they were “worried over economic-related issues”, followed by 10per cent citing concern over political matters.

When asked if they felt Barisan Nasional would be able to fulfill its election promises, 55 per cent said no. Some post-election moves like the disbursement of development funds to a federal body instead of directly channeling it to the Pakatan Rakyat state governments proved widely unpopular. Only 30 per cent of the people agreed with the move.

A majority of those polled – 66 per cent , believe that the allegations against Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim are politically motivated to disrupt his political career. In fact, 55 per cent of them did not believe in the allegations. Of this, the strongest support for Anwar comes from the Chinese and Indians polled.

Keeping in mind that the poll was carried out before Anwar’s arrest and the surfacing of the Pas-Umno talks, confidence in the institutions that would handle the sodomy allegations against him is low with just 33 per cent polled saying they were confident the police, judiciary and Attorney-General would carry out their roles in a fair and independent manner.

Survey: Only 11% believe in sodomy claims

Malaysiakini.com | 01-Aug-2008 – Fifty-five percent of 1,030 Malaysians interviewed in Peninsular Malaysia early this month do not believe the sodomy allegations leveled against PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim.

Only 11 percent believed in the allegations, while 26 percent said they did not know if the claims were true. Eight percent gave no response.

These were among the highlights of an opinion poll conducted over 10 days – from July 4 to 14 – by the independent Merdeka Center for Opinion Research to gauge voters’ perception of current issues, the state of the economy and leadership.

The survey, done by telephone, targeted Malaysians throughout the peninsula who were randomly selected and structured along the national electorate profile to achieve proportional balance in terms of gender, ethnicity and state.

Merdeka Centre estimated the survey’s margin of error at plus or minus 3.1 percent.

The survey was concluded prior to the July 16 arrest of Anwar as well as the announcement of the PAS-Umno talks, Merdeka Center noted in its press release yesterday.

The center also found that two-thirds, or 66 percent, of the respondents believed that the accusations against Anwar Ibrahim were politically motivated.

Only 13 percent of respondents disagreed with the view that the accusations against Anwar were politically motivated, while 16 percent said they didn’t know. Five percent gave no response to the question.

A breakdown of the answers according to the ethnicity of the survey respondents found that non-Malays are more inclined not to believe in the sodomy allegations.

It found that 50 percent of Malays did not believe in the sodomy allegations against Anwar as opposed to the 11 percent who believed them. Thirty-one percent of the Malays did not know, while eight percent gave no response.

Public confidence low

However, 59 percent of the Chinese respondents in the survey said they disbelieved the sodomy claims as opposed to the 11 percent who did believe the claims. Twenty-four percent did not know what to believe, while six percent gave no response.

A relatively high proportion of the Indians surveyed, 75 percent, said they disbelieved the sodomy allegations.

On the other hand, a slightly higher proportion (13 percent) of Indians also said they believed in the allegations, eight percent did not know while four percent gave no response.

Compared to the overall majority of respondents who agreed that the sodomy allegations against Anwar were politically motivated, a slightly lower percentage (57 percent) of Malays agreed with the view while a slightly higher percentage (17 percent) disagreed.

A much higher percentage, 77 percent of Chinese respondents, meanwhile, agreed that the allegations were politically motivated while only six percent disagreed.

Of the Indians surveyed, 81 percent agreed that the allegations were politically motivated, while only 11 disagreed.

The survey also found that public confidence towards the judiciary, the Attorney-General’s Chambers and the police as institutions likely to be involved in handling the sodomy charges was relatively low.

Not more than 33 percent of all the respondents in the survey expressed confidence or were “somewhat confident” that these institutions would carry out their roles in handling Anwar’s case in a fair and independent manner.

The poll is a part of Merdeka Center’s series of quarterly surveys on issues topping voters’ concerns, perceptions of the economy and views on Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat. The first poll in the series was released in April 2008.

Pak Lah’s popularity hits new low

Malaysiakini.com | 01-Aug-2008, – More than half of the 1,030 Malaysians throughout Peninsular Malaysia surveyed in a poll said they were unhappy with Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s performance.

About 54 percent of those surveyed expressed dissatisfaction with the prime minister, while 42 percent said they felt otherwise – resulting in more Malaysians disapproved of him than approved.

This is the first time that Abdullah’s popularity has plunged to below 50 percent from a record high of 91 percent in late 2004 – months after he won his first term as prime minister.

His approval rating was at 61 percent just before the March 8 general elections. In April, it went down to 53 percent and currently it is at 42 percent.

The opinion poll was conducted between July 4-16 by the independent Merdeka Center for Opinion Research and aimed at gauging voters’ perceptions of current issues, the state of the economy and leadership.

Conducted by telephone, it targeted Malaysians throughout the peninsula who were randomly selected and structured along the national electorate profile to achieve proportional balance in terms of gender, ethnicity and state.

The survey’s margin of error is estimated at plus or minus 3.1 percent.

Merdeka Center executive director Ibrahim Suffian said the decline in Abdullah’s approval ratings over the past few months is not only restricted to the widespread anger over rising food and fuel prices.

The continuing ‘bickering’ and political uncertainty – both within and outside Abdullah’s Umno – has also been a source of concern, he said.

“The public wants to see him find ways to bring the country back to an even keel,” he told Malaysiakini.

Similar trends were found when the respondents were asked regarding their level of satisfaction with Barisan Nasional.

It found that 54 percent were either “somewhat dissatisfied” or “very dissatisfied” with the BN government, while 44 percent said they were either “very satisfied” or “somewhat satisfied”.

A clearer divide was discernable when respondents were asked regarding Umno and whether they thought it reflects the “aspirations and needs” of Malaysians.

Only one out of three, or 36 percent, responded positively while the majority (58 percent) expressed their dissatisfaction with the party.

Pakatan did slightly better

Among other highlights of the survey was the question on whether Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak would make a good prime minister, with almost half saying no.

While 34 percent of the respondents said yes, 47 percent answered no.

The opposition Pakatan Rakyat state governments, in comparison, fared slightly better in terms of the respondents’ level of satisfaction.

Two out of three, or 57 percent, said they were either somewhat satisfied or very satisfied, while 32 percent said they were “somewhat dissatisfied” or “very dissatisfied”.

On the related issue of whether they agreed with the action taken by the BN federal government to disburse development funds to a federal body rather than directly to the Pakatan state governments, only 30 percent gave their approval.

Over half, or 54 percent, on the other hand, said they were either “somewhat” or “very” dissatisfied with the action.

To a question comparing Barisan with Pakatan in terms of the likelihood of either fulfilling their election promises, respondents were almost equally divided.

However, more expressed lack of faith in Barisan in delivering in its promises.

While 55 percent said they were not confident that Barisan would fulfill its promises, 42 percent of the respondents said they were not confident that Pakatan parties would fulfill their promises.

In the section on ‘general directions and the economy’, respondents projected a clear concern towards the state and direction of the economy and worried about their own financial situation.

Economic problems important

A large majority indicated that they perceived the country was going in the wrong direction. Only 28 percent felt satisfied with the way things are going in the country.

Almost two-thirds, or 59 percent, perceive economic problems to be the most important facing Malaysia today, with only 24 percent viewed the economy “favourably”.

Only one in five, or 19 percent, viewed the economy favourably when asked to compare the present situation to 2005.

About one-third, or 34 percent, of the respondents answered positively when asked to relate the economic outlook to their personal income, prices of consumer items and services, and job and business opportunities.

Only 10 percent of respondents said political issues were the most important challenges facing the country.

Reflective of the level of cynicism towards the government’s reduction of subsidies, a large majority (62 percent) said they believed the savings where channeled to benefit “people with political connections”.

Only 23 percent said the savings went to make the lives of ‘ordinary Malaysians” better. Fourteen percent did not know while one percent gave no response.

Poll: Malaysia PM’s popularity falls to new low

International Herald Tribune | KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, 01-Aug-2008, : Public confidence in Malaysia’s political and economic future has dwindled dramatically in recent months, with the prime minister’s popularity hitting an all-time low, a survey showed Friday.

The independent Merdeka Center research firm found that only 28 percent of registered voters polled in July felt encouraged by the country’s direction, a severe fall from 68 percent in late February.

The center said its nationwide survey of 1,030 adults was conducted by telephone July 4-14 and had a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.

Fifty-four percent were displeased with Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s performance, compared to 42 percent who were satisfied — Abdullah’s worst approval rating since he took office in 2003, said the center’s director Ibrahim Suffian.

The results follow a public backlash over the government’s decision to hike gasoline prices by 41 percent in June and persistent uncertainties after Abdullah’s ruling coalition lost its longtime political dominance in March general elections.

“People feel bad about economic issues. They are concerned that the political bickering in this country is not helping to generate solutions,” Ibrahim told The Associated Press.

Only 8 percent of respondents said current consumer prices were acceptable and 20 percent expect the economy to improve next year, highlighting the impact of inflation that spiraled to 7.7 percent in June. It was the steepest climb in more than 27 years.

Abdullah announced Friday the government will set a new retail price for gasoline once every month starting Sept. 1, with a subsidy to keep the price lower than the global market rate.

In another blow to the government, 66 percent of respondents thought that a recent sodomy accusation against opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim was politically motivated to disrupt his career, the Merdeka Center said.

Anwar insists the accusation by his 23-year-old former aide was part of a government plot, but Abdullah and other leaders deny any conspiracy. Police completed their investigation into the allegation Thursday, but government prosecutors have not announced if Anwar would be charged.

Only 11 percent of the Merdeka Center’s respondents believed the sodomy accusation, compared with 55 percent who thought it was false. The others were unsure or did not respond. Only 31 percent were confident that police would handle the case in a fair and transparent manner.

UPDATE 1-Malaysia links petrol prices to market, with subsidy

Reuters UK | KUALA LUMPUR, 01-Aug-2008 – Malaysia will implement a new petrol price formula from Sept. 1 that links retail prices to market levels, although it will maintain the current level of subsidies, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said on Friday.

“After studying the issue carefully, the government would like to announce effective September 1, 2008, retail petrol prices will be aligned based on monthly market rates and subsidies will be maintained at 30 sen per litre,” Abdullah said in a statement.

Abdullah’s government has come under pressure since it cut petrol subsidies earlier this year and support for him has dropped to just 42 percent, according to a poll by the Merdeka Center for Opinion Research published on Friday.

The cut in subsidies won plaudits from economists as it reduced the strain on government finances. Before the cut subsidies accounted for a third of government spending.

Malaysia raised petrol prices by 41 percent and diesel by 63 percent on June 4 as part of a broad overhaul of the country’s energy pricing system aimed at cutting expensive subsidies.

Malaysia’s annual inflation rate hit a 27-year high of 7.7 percent in June and was likely to stay above 7 percent in July due to the impact of the fuel price hike, the government said this month.

Abdullah said that from next month, petrol prices would be determined on the first day of every month. At a time of falling crude oil prices, that would lead to reductions in the pump price. (Reporting by Niluksi Koswanage and Soo Ai Peng; Editing by David Chance and Alan Raybould)

2 notorious cases challenge Malaysia’s modesty – By Thomas Fuller

International Herald Tribune | KUALA LUMPUR, 01-Aug-2008,: Government censors in this majority Muslim nation uphold an ethos of modesty by snipping sex scenes from films and ordering entertainers to avoid outfits that reveal too much on Malaysian stages – bare belly buttons and figure-hugging outfits are off limits.

But these days Malaysians looking to avoid R-rated content might be advised to read past news reports about their own leaders. Top politicians are embroiled in two scandals involving accusations of sodomy and the gruesome murder of a Mongolian mistress.

Reports on the finer points of a rectal examination and revelations about the sexual preferences of the dead mistress make other sex scandals that once shocked people here – such as Monica Lewinsky and her blue dress – seem almost Victorian.

This is not the first time that sex and politics have publicly collided in Malaysia. The trial of Anwar Ibrahim, a former deputy prime minister, for sodomy in the 1990s featured, among other highlights, a blood-stained mattress being hauled into the courtroom.

This time, wider use of the Internet has helped disseminate documents, facts and rumors that would otherwise have been filtered out of mainstream news media tightly controlled by the government.

The two scandals encompass much more than just sex. They are part of a broader clash between two men vying for power: Anwar is facing new allegations of sodomy at a time when he is vowing to unseat the governing party, while the other scandal involves Anwar’s principal political rival, Najib Razak, the deputy prime minister and anointed heir to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

What is worrying for many Malaysians is that the gloves appear to have come off in the high-stakes fight between Anwar and Najib.

Testimony in the murder trial revealed that immigration records of the Mongolian woman and her friend had been deleted.

Malaysia’s political opposition says the case highlights the impunity of the police and high officials in government as well as a lack of independence in the judiciary. A police officer took the stand and said she was tortured by police investigators – her own colleagues.

Witnesses in both cases have dropped from sight, including a private investigator, Balasubramaniam Perumal, who alleged in a sworn statement issued shortly before disappearing that the dead Mongolian woman was Najib’s mistress.

The statement by Balasubramaniam, which has been widely circulated online, contradicted Najib’s repeated assertions that he never met the Mongolian woman, Altantuya Shaariibuu.

Balasubramaniam spent two months writing and revising a 16-page declaration about the case, based on conversations he had with the murdered woman and Abdul Razak Baginda, an aide to Najib. Balasubramaniam retracted the allegations in a hastily convened press conference and then disappeared.

“It’s obvious what has happened here. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist,” said Americk Sidhu, the private investigator’s lawyer. “Somebody needed him to shut up.”

Balasubramaniam’s wife and three children are also missing. The family’s two Rottweilers were left behind in their cages.

“A lot of very dark things are happening now,” said Raja Petra Kamarudin, one of the most influential and prolific Malaysian bloggers. Raja Petra was formerly a political associate of Anwar’s wife, Azizah Ismail, in her National Justice Party.

Although a number of gruesome facts in the Mongolian case have emerged in court over the past year – Altantuya, for example, was shot and her body obliterated with explosives in the jungle outside Kuala Lumpur – Raja Petra asserts that only a fraction of what happened is being admitted into court.

Citing sources in military intelligence, he issued a sworn declaration in June alleging that Najib’s wife, Rosmah Mansor, was present at Altantuya’s killing. Government prosecutors say Altantuya was killed by two commandos who also served as bodyguards to Malaysia’s top leaders.

“I don’t think Malaysia can afford to have a prime minister who has a huge question mark hanging over his head: Is he, or not, involved in the murder of this girl?” Raja Petra said in an interview.

Najib has called the allegation in the declaration “total lies, fabrication and total garbage” and a “desperate and pathetic attempt to discredit and taint my political image.”

The government charged Raja Petra with criminal libel, a law that lawyers say has not been used in recent memory in Malaysia and which, unlike civil defamation, can carry a two-year prison term. Separately, Raja Petra has been charged with sedition and his house raided several times.

Raja Petra was also responsible for leaking a medical report last week relating to the sodomy case. Anwar’s accuser, Mohamed Saiful Bukhari Azlan, a 23-year-old former campaign volunteer, went to a hospital in Kuala Lumpur hours before lodging a police report charging that Anwar had sodomized him. But the medical report, which also circulated widely on the Internet, says he complained of a piece of plastic being inserted into his anus. The doctor who wrote the report, Mohamed Osman, said he found “no active bleeding, no pus, tear or scar.”

Since then, Osman also has disappeared, although the hospital says he will be back Monday.

Anwar, who on Thursday announced that he would run for Parliament in his quest to unseat the government and become prime minister, said in an interview that he expected to be arrested soon. He has refused to give a DNA sample because he believes it will be used against him. “There’s nothing stopping them from fabricating evidence again,” Anwar said.

Although Malaysians enthusiastically share the latest developments in both cases, some have grown tired of the graphic details.

“A good word is disgust – whether it’s sodomy or blowing up the Mongolian lady,” said the Reverend Wong Kim Kong, executive adviser of the National Evangelical Christian Fellowship, an umbrella organization of protestant churches. A narrow majority of Malaysians are Muslim but the country has sizeable Christian, Hindu, Buddhist and Sikh minorities.

Wong said the constant barrage of allegations made by bloggers, paired with the government’s steady denials, have left Malaysians pining for clarity.

“People just cannot trust the word of any of these people,” Wong said. “They cannot distinguish who is telling the truth.”

The scandals come at a time of great political uncertainty in Malaysia. The governing party of Abdullah and Najib and the ethnic-based system of politics that it represents is in disarray. There is simmering resentment between the majority Malays and the minority Chinese and Indians, and corruption within government is rampant, despite promises by Abdullah to clean up the system.

Anwar has vowed to remake the country’s politics and revoke the authoritarian laws that, among other things, ban students from protesting, keep the media controlled and allow the government to lock up dissidents without trial. But Anwar remains a polarizing figure who is not trusted by many in the elite.

“I think there will at some point be a crisis of legitimacy,” said Ibrahim Suffian, the head of the Merdeka Center, a polling agency. “‘The leaders seem to feel that they can get away with a lot of things so long as the masses are satisfied with the economic opportunities given to them.

“But the economy is so bad that people are losing faith. There is a feeling that maybe it’s time for major changes.”

 

Merdeka Center