Heh, You're Rich!

Malaysia's former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, yesterday won £660,000 in libel damages against an author whose allegations of sexual impropriety and incompetence played a large part in his downfall in 1998.

Judge Hishamudin Yunus said there was no substance to the book - 50 Reasons Why Anwar Cannot Be PM, written by Khalid Jafri and his wife, Rozihan - and that its publication was designed to destroy the plaintiff's career.

Mr Anwar, freed this year after serving six years for corruption and having his sodomy conviction quashed, is unlikely to see much of the cash since Mr Khalid is seriously ill in hospital. But he said yesterday: "I am vindicated ... it is a matter of honour and truth."

Mr Khalid has been sentenced to a year's jail for publishing false statements but is free pending appeal.
(picked from http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/aug/19/johnaglionby by John Aglionby The Guardian, Friday August 19 2005)

Long fight back for Malaysia's invisible man

by Simon Tisdall
The Guardian,
Tuesday May 31 2005

Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysia's leading opposition figure, launched a series of rallies and speeches across the country at the weekend - but you would not know it from reading the newspapers.
An establishment politician turned pro-democracy "icon" who was beaten and jailed by the government of the former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, Anwar drew an estimated crowd of 10,000 people in Penang. Up to 40,000 were expected in northern Kedah yesterday.

But most Malaysians are unaware of Anwar's travelling reform campaign. The media blackout is total. Officially, he is Malaysia's invisible man.

Interviewed at his home in Kuala Lumpur, Anwar said Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Dr Mahathir's successor, had ordered the gag.

"Editors tell me it is the personal instruction of the prime minister that you should not report or mention Anwar at all," he said.

Various reasons had been given, all of them preposterous, he said. "I'm a threat to the nation, a threat to security, I will split the Malays ... Actually, they don't try to justify it. It's brute force."

Editors would be quietly removed, advertising withdrawn, or publishing licences withheld if newspapers disobeyed. That was typical of the roundabout way repression worked in Malaysia, he suggested.

Leaders of Umno, the main ruling party, say that Anwar, who was deputy prime minister and heir apparent before an explosive falling-out in 1998, no longer matters.

But such indifference hardly squares with tight restrictions on his political activities, media gags, continuous surveillance - and the big turnouts for the "illegal" rallies organised, by word of mouth, by his People's Justice party (PKR), led by his wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

The PKR is pushing for tougher anti-corruption measures, economic and electoral reforms, an end to detention without charge, judicial and media independence, and a reversal of institutionalised workplace and educational discrimination against Chinese and Indian minorities.

Western governments that criticised Anwar's trial view current tensions as an internal matter. A diplomat said it was misleading to see him as "some sort of white knight" and pointed to inconsistencies between his present stance and his time in office.

But such attitudes were another example of denial, Anwar said. "People in the west say Malaysia is a moderate Islamic country, there are no bombings, it's a democracy. And they are fearful of the Islamic parties. So they think it is safer to deal with Umno.

"But how do you have moderation and democracy when there are no basic rights? This is a very repressive system but repressive mostly without violence. It is civilised repression. It was learned from the British."

Corruption was endemic, unemployment was rising, police abuses went unchecked, foreign investment was declining and the country's democratic institutions, dominated by Umno since independence, were dangerously weak, he said. Without reforms, Malaysia could become all the things the west most feared.

Some Malaysians believe Anwar blew his chances in 1998. Others are waiting for him to emerge from the shadows. He is exploring a common platform with opposition and Islamic groups. He still has allies inside Umno and among Malaysia's numerous royal families.

But the road back after six years in jail and a current period of recuperation and study in the US and Britain will be tough.

"He's in a weak position right now," a western diplomatic source said. "He is well aware that if he wants to come back to power, he can only do so through Umno."

Beyond the haze of official harassment and obfuscation, two things seem clear. One is that given a level playing field, Anwar can still hope to lead his country one day. The second is that Malaysia will eventually be forced to embrace the reformasi agenda he espouses.

The question is whether he is up for a fight that could lead him back to jail, to a deal with ruling party modernisers or to a Ukraine-style popular insurgency before the 2008 election.

"He's our hero," said Amien Rais, a leader of Indonesia's 1998 democratic constitutional revolution. "I hope in three or four years we will see him in a different position."

Anwar vows to return. "I am a Malaysian. This is my home," he told supporters in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday. "I shall be back."

Strike Back

Anwar after jailed for six years on trumped-up corruption and sodomy charges, has threatened to overturn the political establishment that imprisoned him.

Two months after his release, the charismatic politician has spelt out a radical plan to replace the 'feudal and corrupt' establishment with a true democracy.

'The elections are not free and fair, the media is completely controlled, the judiciary is not independent and corruption is endemic.'

Anwar was regarded in the West as a political prisoner after he was fired by former PM Mahathir in 1998 and within days incarcerated on flimsy graft and sodomy charges. He garnered further worldwide sympathy after the police chief beat him up in custody.

When Abdullah replaced Mahathir last year, he did not block Anwar's appeal against the sodomy conviction, and he was freed in September, going straight to Germany for spinal surgery. And now he got the "Germanic" Spinal.

Now back in Malaysia, Anwar is trying to rally and unify the fragmented opposition and, in the absence of any help from the mainstream media, take his message directly to the people.
Despite Abdullah's control of the media and police, there are already signs that Anwar is making headway.

One is the estimated 20,000 people who flocked to his house last Sunday to offer him traditional greetings at the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

'That was without any publicity and with the omnipresent special branch watching me,' Anwar said. 'There are people out there who want to hear the message of reform.'

ya..ya....ya [REFORMASI] ~ [REFORMASI] ~~

Freed Out

Anwar Ibrahim was released from almost six years in jail yesterday when the highest court threw out a controversial conviction for sodomy.

Judges found two to one in Mr Anwar's favour in a final appeal. Anwar, who attended court against his doctors' advice, told the Guardian he would immediately go to Germany for emergency spinal surgery and then return to clear his name of outstanding corruption allegations and to campaign for further political reform.
huh, more to come [REFORMASI]~[REFORMASI]~~

So, Abdullah is confidence that Anwar would present no serious political threat and that Abdullah own position - bolstered by a landslide general election win in March - was now strong enough to "free" the judiciary ?!

Ya..ya ...so do come back with a strong spinal like "Germanic" and don't just runaway !!

Internet News Providers

People start to source for alternative media sources due to the unfaithful and lack of trust to the main stream news media providers.

Which paper you read mostly this year ?
(ya.. after my MBA from UKM)
[ya ..ya .... Married But Available from University of Kangaroo Monash]

1. The Star (pro-BN)
2. New Straits Times (pro-UMNO)
3. Berita Harian (pro-BN)
4. Utusan Malaysia (pro-UMNO)
5. Sin Chew Jit Poh (pro-BN)
6. Nanyang Siang Pau (pro-MCA)
7. China Press (pro-MCA)

huh, nnone of these pro-pure cowboys'. So, which one you read daily ?

Cowboy prefer internet news, no hurry, no pences, no pro-pro things !