Anwar's party to keep leadership post vacant in protest over conviction
The People's Justice Party (PKR) planned to keep the opposition leader seat vacant until the end of the parliamentary term if Malaysian politician Anwar Ibrahim fails to get a royal pardon for his sodomy conviction.
PKR vice president Tian Chua said the proposed move was intended to be a symbolic gesture to protest against what the opposition alliance perceived as the political persecution of Anwar.
“Until then, his speech will be read out by a representative. We continue to recognise him as the Oppostion Leader,” Chua told reporters after speaking at “The Anwar Verdict: What’s Next for Malaysia” forum held at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Bangkok.
Anwar, 67, is serving a five-year sentence after losing an appeal in a sodomy charge last month.
Under the Malaysian law, a Member of Parliament is disqualified if he is convicted of an offence and sentenced to imprisonment for a term of not less than one year or to a fine of not less than 2,000 ringgit (US$541).
Pending the result of the royal pardon, Anwar has not lost his parliamentary seat and is still the opposition leader. The parliamentary term is expected to expire by May 2017.
Chua said the opposition coalition, made up by PKR, Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party and Democratic Action Party cannot survive if either member leaves.
“In prison, Anwar can command the coalition better than he is outside. “His prison sentence brings us back to the focus of repression and struggle against autocracy,” he said.
Anwar’s daughter, Nurul Nuha Anwar, who spoke at the forum, expressed her disappointment that Asean nations have been largely silent about the conviction of her father.
Reading from a prepared script, Nurul Nuha appeared visibly nervous speaking before the international audience for the first time. She became emotional when relating the ordeal that her family went through.
“Of course I am very distraught with my father going to jail again. I was only 13 when the police banged down the door of our house to detain him.
“This political persecution that has lasted for 17 years has shattered the myth of a progressive Malaysia under the current administration,” said Nurul Nuha, the second of Anwar’s six children who leads the campaign to free him.
Forum panelist Emerlynne Gil from the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) said the Malaysian courts were under scrutiny as a result of Anwar’s sodomy trials. ICJ observed both trials when Anwar was prosecuted in 1998 and 2010 on sodomy charges.
“Section 377B of the Malaysian Penal Code is a relic of the British law that was only used twice for several decades against one person, Anwar Ibrahim.
“This actually gives an appearance of bias on the national judiciary. We (ICJ) have always maintained that sodomy charges are not recognised as criminal offences under international human rights law,” said Gil.
She added, “Criminalisation of consensual same-sex conduct is a violation of the rights of privity, dignity, equal protection of the law and a whole scope of other rights.
“Section 377B also exists in other laws, in other Asean countries. So you see the exact same law in Singapore but used in another way, and also in Brunei”. She said ICJ will release a report accounting the use of Section 377B in all Asean countries.
