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Change Your Life! |
Anwar not gay & happy: Convicted for being Gay |
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August 9, 2000
KUALA LUMPUR (AP) - Anwar Ibrahim launched a meteoric career from jail. Now, it looks like his once-bright political future will finish there. The former deputy prime minister was found guilty and sentenced Tuesday to nine years in prison for sodomy, which he denounced as a conspiracy by his one-time patron, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, to destroy his bid to bring democratic reform to Malaysia. Tuesday's sentence was added to six years imposed in 1999 for a corruption conviction. Hundreds of riot police massed outside the courthouse and easily contained several hundred peaceful demonstrators who protested a guilty verdict that had been widely predicted, with only the number of years left in doubt. At least one dozen protesters were arrested. A gasp nonetheless went through the courtroom when Judge Ariffin Jaka read out the sentence - nine years, out of a maximum possible of 20. Even Anwar, who had predicted a six-year term, looked stunned, standing up and then quickly slumping in his chair. Then he collected himself. "Dr. Mahathir's lust for power is insatiable," Anwar declared. "He is a coward who will not seek responsibility for his own evil, so he used the court." Ariffin, who had pledged throughout the yearlong trial that he would let the facts, not politics, determine his verdict, called Anwar a "sick man." Anwar called him a "sick judge."
The case hinged on the testimony of Anwar's former family driver, Azizan Abu Bakar, who claimed that he had been sodomized by Anwar and Sukma Dermawan, the politician's adopted brother. Sukma was also found guilty and sentenced to six years in prison and four lashes from a rattan cane. Azizan revised his testimony repeatedly over the course of the case, reducing the number of alleged acts from several to one and changing the year twice, finally settling on early 1993. Anwar's lawyers produced alibis for most of the nights in question. But Ariffin determined that the discrepancies were "explained" and that the sentence reflected the "utmost condemnation" the predominantly Muslim Malaysian society feels about sodomy. Turning 53 on Thursday, Anwar will be 67 if he serves the full terms for his corruption and sodomy convictions, though prisoners usually get a third off for good behavior. Either way, he faces a five-year ban from politics once released and could be 72 before he returns to public life - just two years younger than Mahathir is now. The men Anwar denounced as Mahathir's cronies will have their turn at power by then - or some of the younger generation he inspired by his calls to reform may have gained influence. "I never dreaded this judgment," Anwar told Ariffin. "I will fight behind iron bars and prison walls." They will be familiar to Anwar, who came to prominence as a charismatic student leader and served 22 months in prison in 1974 and 1975 for leading a demonstration by impoverished farmers. He co-founded an Islamic youth movement and battled for a wider role for Islam in running this Southeast Asian nation, but later moderated his politics and rose to power on Mahathir's coattails in the dominant United Malays National Organization.
Mahathir has ruthlessly imposed his will on Malaysia in 19 years in power and pushed an agenda of rapid development and economic nationalism, making this country of 22 million people one of the richest in Southeast Asia. After rising through important Cabinet positions, Anwar engineered a groundswell of support in the ruling party in 1993 to secure the post of deputy prime minister and doubled as finance minister. Mahathir personally groomed Anwar to take over when he retired. But Malaysia slid into recession when the Asian crisis crippled regional economies in 1997 and Anwar's standing fell as he differed with Mahathir on the course of recovery. Party leaders suspected he was pushing the cause of reform - cleaning up corruption and rooting out cronyism - to edge out Mahathir. On Sept. 2, 1998, Mahathir sacked him, accusing him of corruption and sodomy and deeming him morally unfit to hold office. The ousted Anwar led rallies of up to 30,000 people who took up "Reformasi!" as their cry. Mindful of the same chants that accompanied the downfall of strongman Suharto in neighboring Indonesia months earlier, authorities arrested Anwar. When he was beaten in custody by the national police chief, Anwar became a cause for human-rights groups and foreign leaders he had gotten to know over the years. U.S. Vice President Al Gore enraged Mahathir when he expressed support for pro-reform demonstrators during a visit to Malaysia in late 1998. Anwar's wife, Azizah Ismail, established a party to carry his torch and forged an alliance with opposition parties to challenge Mahathir in elections last year. But the reform drive fizzled out as Malaysia's economy rebounded and selective pressure was brought to bear on the opposition.
Anwar was convicted of corruption in 1999 and his wife's party fared poorly in November. The opposition as a whole - especially the fundamentalist Pan-Malaysia Islamic Party - made inroads but came nowhere near ousting Mahathir. Mahathir has now targeted Islamic fundamentalism as his chief enemy. Anwar's sentencing took a back seat in local media Tuesday to the charging of 29 Muslim cultists, implicated in seizing weapons from military bases last month, with waging war on the government, a crime punishable by death. From the soapbox of the courtroom, Anwar took what may be his last public shot at Mahathir before being led back to prison: "To Dr. Mahathir and his greedy family and cronies, I say: Beware the wrath of the people." "To the champions of reform, I salute you on your courage and urge you to keep your fighting spirit." "To you, Your Honor, I wish you well in your conscience and religious beliefs." |
