Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said yesterday he could understand why people had sympathy for Anwar Ibrahim, the jailed figurehead of Malaysia's opposition, but urged voters to back his ruling coalition in upcoming elections.
Launching his campaign for March 21 polls at his home district in northern Penang state, Abdullah added he didn't expect Anwar to be a major issue in the contest.
Public outrage at Anwar's jailing shortly before the last elections in 1999 helped the opposition make its strongest gains in years. It's trying to once again make Anwar into a campaign issue, maintaining that it will free the former deputy premier if it wins power and make him prime minister.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The opposition accuses Abdullah of ignoring the plight of Anwar because he is a political threat. Anwar was former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's anointed successor, before he fell out of favor.
Mahathir retired in October after 22 years in power, handing it over to Abdullah.
"I don't think it will be a factor," Abdullah said when asked about possible voter sympathy for Anwar.
"There may be some who have sympathy for him, but despite [this] they will want to vote for the National Front" governing coalition, he told a news conference after addressing about 2,000 people in his hometown.
Voters understood that the government could do more for them than the opposition, he said.
"It's not about one personality, it's about forming a government," he said. "I am not telling people not to be sympathetic, but they must try to decide what kind of government they want."
Anwar was arrested, tried and convicted of sodomy and corruption after falling out with Mahathir during the Asian financial crisis. He says the charges were a political conspiracy to prevent him from challenging Mahathir, which the government denies.
Abdul Hadi Awang, the leader of a fundamentalist Islamic party that is Malaysia's largest opposition group, said Friday it would campaign for Anwar's release.
"To us, Anwar remains a symbol of oppression," Hadi said. "It is our responsibility to defend him. ... Even Saddam Hussein received better treatment as a war prisoner."
Later yesterday, Abdullah held a smaller rally in the rural district of Kepala Batas -- his birthplace and parliamentary constituency since 1978 -- where he boasted to about 500 supporters about the government's record of delivering services to the people.
Malaysia's northern states, with their large ethnic Malay Muslim populations, are the fiercest battlegrounds between Abdullah's United Malays National Organization and the fundamentalist Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party.
Signs of campaigning are increasingly clear. In Penang, Abdullah drove past roadside stalls and streetlights draped with flags -- some with UMNO's scales of justice logo and slogans such as "UMNO: Then, now and forever," and other's with the Islamic party's crescent moon logo.
Abdullah's government is almost certain to be returned to power when voters select 219 members of a new federal Parliament and 505 representatives of legislatures in 12 of Malaysia's 13 states.
Abdullah has made fighting corruption and achieving more efficient, open government his campaign themes.
The opposition is targeting him over Anwar, and his handling of an investigation into a company controlled by his son played in supplying parts to a nuclear black market.
On Friday, the opposition claimed Washington is going easy on the prime minister on the nuclear issue because it wants him returned to power.
Police cleared the company, Scomi Precision Engineering, of any wrongdoing, finding it was deceived into making the parts by Buhary Syed Abu Tahir, a middleman working for the trafficking network in Pakistani nuclear secrets.
But the opposition alleges the investigation didn't delve deep enough into Tahir's links to the prime minister's son, Kamaluddin Abdullah, and says US officials didn't press hard enough. At the time of the deal, the two were co-directors an investment company that controls Scomi.
"Bush is not serious in handling the issue of nuclear proliferation," Islamic party leader Hadi said. "He has to protect governments which sympathize with the US."
Abdullah has dismissed the attacks against him on the nuclear issue as "character assassination."
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS