Word: anwar
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Accusations of sodomy, potential DNA tests of semen, a pre-dawn run to the Turkish embassy. Hollywood, even in its most fanciful moments, couldn't have done it better. On June 28, a police report was filed against Malaysian politician Anwar Ibrahim by a 23-year-old male political volunteer, who accused the opposition leader of sodomizing him. Sodomy is a crime in Muslim-majority Malaysia punishable by up to 20 years in jail. Anwar, a married father of six, denies the charges, and sought sanctuary for more than 36 hours at the Turkish embassy. He released a statement calling...
...this sounds familiar to those following Malaysian politics, consider what happened a decade ago. Then the country's Deputy Prime Minister and a star in the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), Malaysia's largest political party, Anwar launched a challenge against the long rule of former Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad. Anwar was quickly sacked and charged with sodomy and abuse of power. Although the sex charge was overturned in 2004, the man once presumed to become Malaysia's next Prime Minister languished in prison for six years...
...jail time didn't diminish Anwar's political fervor. In March, he helped orchestrate an electoral embarrassment of the ruling National Front coalition by an unwieldy, multiracial opposition consisting of, among others, Muslim Malays who believe Shari'a law could wipe out social ills and Chinese who advocate a secular Malaysia. In typically bold fashion, Anwar has vowed that the opposition will topple the National Front government by mid-September. If he succeeds, the 60-year-old former Muslim youth leader could become the first opposition Prime Minister in Malaysia's history...
...outcome was so devastating for the National Front that Abdullah's future as Prime Minister is now in doubt. "This is a new dawn for Malaysia," said Anwar Ibrahim, a former Deputy Prime Minister, who is the spiritual head of the People's Justice Party and the opposition's most charismatic figure. "The people have voted decisively...
...Abdullah maintains that he has "forgotten" all about Anwar, preferring instead to outline a vision of several "economic-growth corridors" that he says will transform the manufacturing and service sectors. (One corridor happens to run through Abdullah's hometown, Kepala Batas.) The PM points to rising rural incomes as proof that his economic policies are working. Placating farmers is particularly important given that rural Malaysia is the National Front's core constituency. And even in the urban areas, Abdullah's renowned blandness could actually help him. "The thing about him is that no one hates him," says Liew Chin Tong...