He Calls Anwar a 'Sodomist' Unfit to Govern Nation : Mahathir Assails Former Deputy 
International Herald Tribune
September 23, 1998
Philip Bowring 

Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad of Malaysia on Tuesday spelled out in graphic detail the allegations of sexual misconduct that led him to dismiss Anwar Ibrahim, the country's former finance minister and deputy prime minister.

"I cannot accept a man who is a sodomist to become the leader of this country," Mr. Mahathir said at a press conference.

Mr. Anwar, who was the prime minister's anointed successor until his dismissal last month, was taken into custody Sunday and charged Monday under the country's Internal Security Act.

Mr. Mahathir also said Tuesday, in his first interview since the dismissal of Mr. Anwar, that his government would have no trouble dealing with any future unrest and that he did not expect a further crackdown on dissent. Q&A, Page 8.

Mr. Mahathir, 72, faced the largest demonstrations in his 17-year-old rule on Sunday and Monday, protests led by supporters of Mr. Anwar. Demonstrators on Monday clashed with the police in Kuala Lumpur, where more than 100 people were arrested.

The Internal Security Act allows indefinite detention without trial. But Mr. Mahathir said his former deputy would soon be brought to court and charged for sodomy.

"I actually interviewed the people he sodomized, the women that he had sex with, the driver who brought the women to the place where he met them," Mr. Mahathir said.

Mr. Anwar has vehemently denied the charges and says they are part of a conspiracy "at the highest levels of government."

Mr. Anwar is also under investigation for sedition, treason and holding unauthorized public rallies.

The ouster of Mr. Anwar has stunned many Malaysians, many of whom say they find it hard to believe that a man who was the country's anointed successor could suddenly be charged with so many crimes.

The press conference Tuesday was an effort by Mr. Mahathir to secure support for Mr. Anwar's dismissal. Sodomy is a crime in Malaysia under a colonial-era British law, but the allegations — if true — are bound to resonate within Mr. Anwar's conservative Muslim constituency. To his supporters, Mr. Anwar is a devout Muslim who has long protected Islamic causes in multiracial Malaysia.

With 10 television cameras rolling, Mr. Mahathir told the Tuesday press conference that he had been very reluctant to believe the charges of sodomy when he first heard them several years ago. He decided two months ago to hold his own investigation into the matter, bringing in witnesses and some of Mr. Anwar's alleged sexual partners.

"I told them, 'Look, if you're forced into making confessions please tell me, I will protect you,"' Mr. Mahathir said. "But they said, 'No we were not forced by the police. We are telling the truth,' and several of them said this man is not fit to become a leader," Mr. Mahathir said.

Both Mr. Anwar's adopted brother and a former speechwriter pleaded guilty Saturday to being sodomized by Mr. Anwar. The prime minister said Tuesday that he felt awkward airing the allegations to the public.

"We are a very conservative society," he said. "We don't talk about these things."

"You know the effect of Clinton's admission of having Lewinsky having oral sex and it is published all over," he said. "Children are reading about it."

In an hourlong interview with the International Herald Tribune, Mr. Mahathir also touched on Malaysia's relations with Singapore as well as his search for a new deputy.

And, two weeks before the annual meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington, he offered his case for a global system of controls on international capital flows.

Malaysia became the first Southeast Asian nation to clamp down on currency trading earlier this year, rejecting the free market and insulating itself from East Asia's economic crisis.

The move has been closely followed by economists around the world as well as the leaders of other countries also beset by economic turmoil.

"Currency trading is unnecessary," Mr. Mahathir said. "You should exchange currency for the purpose of financing trade."

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