Supporters Flock to Hear Ousted Minister : Malaysia Street Politics Are Revived by Anwar 
International Herald Tribune
September 8, 1998
Thomas Fuller

Something peculiar is happening at a large house in a posh neighborhood of the Malaysian capital and no one quite knows what to make of it.

Anwar Ibrahim, dismissed last week as Malaysia's second most powerful man in government, is drawing nightly crowds of hundreds of supporters, greeting them in his slippers and delivering eloquent sermons on political reform and the need to wipe out corruption.

Malaysia has not seen this kind of street politics in decades.

On Monday night, Mr. Anwar addressed the largest crowd since Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad removed him as the country's deputy prime minister and finance minister. Several thousand people stood in his yard and in the streets around his house, occasionally chanting "Reformasi! Reformasi!" — the rallying cry of the Indonesian student movement.

Any political comeback for Mr. Anwar, 51, is viewed as extremely difficult. He is both outside government and has been ousted from the party that brought him political power. But Mr. Anwar, whose support among the Malay majority in the country still runs deep, now poses a populist threat to the government.

He is also a personal embarrassment to Mr. Mahathir as Malaysia plans to be host to thousands of athletes and spectators later this week for the Commonwealth Games.

Mr. Anwar, who says he is afraid to leave his house for fear of arrest, had the same message Monday as previous nights: He vowed to "fight until the end" and he refuted the allegations of sedition, treason, and sexual indiscretion — all of which police say they are investigating.

"I have a family. I have a wife and children. I have friends and supporters," he said in the cadence of preacher. "And now you insult them. You deny them from knowing the truth. What kind of justice is that?"

In the crowd were engineers, accountants and marketing executives, a stock boy at a local Coca Cola bottling plant and students. Many said they came to hear Mr. Anwar's side of the story. Jamal, 31, a marketing student in a masters program, said he had come to listen to Mr. Anwar speak every day since he was ousted from the government. "We cannot rely on newspapers for news," he said, cradling his two-year-old son in his arms.

A woman in a blue floral dress who refused to give her name said she came to find out "the truth about why he was sacked."

The size of the crowd on Monday was unusual for Malaysia, where overt and vociferous political dissent has not been tolerated during the past few decades.

"Street politics died in 1974," said Syed Husin Ali, a government critic who was detained by police that year following demonstrations on campuses protesting poverty in the country.

Hauled off to prison with him was Mr. Anwar, at the time a leader of a radical Islamic student movement. Mr. Anwar spent 22 months in prison. Mr. Syed six years.

"I think there will be quite a substantial grass-roots following for him," Mr. Syed said of Mr. Anwar. "That might be able to change the face of things in Malaysia." On Monday, an Islamic student group, which claims a membership of 100,000, said it was "100 percent behind Anwar." Mr. Mahathir, meanwhile, has taken total control over the government. On Monday, he appointed himself finance minister and chose a close political ally to run the central bank. Mr. Mahathir is also in charge of the Home Ministry, which includes the national police force.

Perhaps more important for Mr. Anwar, the prime minister also keeps a close eye on the country's newspapers and television stations. In 1987, during the last period of political uncertainty and the last economic downturn, three newspapers were shut down by Mr. Mahathir's government.

Mr. Anwar says he is not deterred. "The more the newspapers attack us, the bigger the crowd," he said over the weekend. "People have opened up their eyes, no matter how strong the propaganda is. We are dealing with a new breed of Malaysians. They read but they do not believe. This is a healthy sign for Malaysia."

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