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Tuesday, 27-Jul-2004 9:49 AM Four years old and still kicking – FAC News Jul 27 Today is the Free Anwar Campaign’s fourth anniversary. The Free Anwar Campaign or FAC was officially launched exactly four years ago on 27 July 2000. The ‘launch’ was not done through a traditional ribbon-cutting ceremony or by inviting VIPs to deliver speeches; it was a cyber-launch. The FAC is, after all, an Internet campaign, so a cyber-launch was certainly the most appropriate method to adopt. Further to that, FAC does not have a ‘home’ so inviting guests over would have been a slight problem. FAC ‘lives’ in cyberspace. It is constantly on the move. FAC operates from a computer linked to a phone line. Therefore, its home is wherever there is a reduced risk of a police crackdown and detention without trial. FAC was actually mooted soon after Malaysia’s November 1999 10th General Election. A proposal to set up some sort of Free Anwar Campaign was tabled at the National Justice Party (Parti Keadilan Nasional or keADILan) supreme council meeting. The Deputy President then, Dr Chandra Muzaffar, shot the idea down though. He felt keADILan should not appear to be about Anwar Ibrahim. The party must be seen as expounding broader issues such as fighting for justice, fair play, an end to corruption and mismanagement of the economy, the restoration of the peoples’ rights such freedom of speech, association, and assembly, etc. A keADILan that sponsors a Free Anwar Campaign would be perceived as a very narrow minded party. Surprisingly, no one else in the supreme council disagreed with Dr Chandra or engaged him in debate, Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, the party president and Anwar’s wife, included. I suppose Dr Wan Azizah was placed in a dilemma. She is, after all, Anwar’s wife, so she had a vested interest in the whole thing. How could she insist the party sponsor the setting up of a campaign to free her husband without being viewed as using the party for her personal gain? I had, by then, left the party’s employment. I joined the party as its ‘media coordinator’ soon after it was formed on 4 April 1999. Media coordinator was merely a glorified title for my job as an Internet campaigner. My function was to disseminate opposition news through the Internet, what some would call propaganda -- ‘media engineering’ a more glamorous phrase to use. Two days after the 1999 general election, my immediate boss summoned me and informed me I was now unemployed. The ‘sponsors’ were no longer prepared to carry the cost of a propaganda unit seeing that the next election would be about four or five years away. They somehow felt that information dissemination is only an election thing, and since the election was now over there was no longer any purpose in continuing. I suspected, though, the backers felt that the opposition would be forming the next government in 1999, and since we failed to do so they lost interest in the whole thing. There would certainly be no profit in financing an opposition party unless that party was going to be the next government. As it was apparent this was not going to be so, they might as well save their money. Opposition parties pay no dividends, only ruling parties do. I ‘floated’ around for three months after which I went to work for Marina Yusoff who soon after that also left the party. Her bone of contention was Dr Chandra. She just could not stand the sight of that man. Once, Malaysian Airlines made the mistake of seating her beside Dr Chandra. She was furious. She threatened to walk off the plane unless they changed her seat and the MAS staff had to plead with another passenger to change seats with her. Hardly a month into my new job and I received a phone call from Dr Abdul Rahim Ghouse who was in political exile in Australia. He and a group of Anwar supporters were going ahead with the Free Anwar Campaign proposal but were going to do it outside the party and they wanted someone to manage it, especially the setting up and running of the website. I pondered on the offer, especially since I was going to give up a paying job for one that offered me no income whatsoever. My wife was not too happy with the idea though. She plus a group of friends felt it was too risky. If I wanted to do something like this it must be done outside the country, not in Malaysia, for there was every possibility I would face arrest. Further to that, how does one feed the family when there is no remuneration involved? On 1 June 2000, I moved out from Marina Yusoff’s office to start my new job as the Director of the Free Anwar Campaign. Marina Yusoff was upset and she refused to talk to me the whole month of March pending my departure from her employment. She felt betrayed. After almost two months of working behind the scenes getting the website ready, FAC was officially launched on 27 July. 27 July 2000 was supposed to be ‘sentencing day’ for Anwar Ibrahim. He was then serving a six-year sentence on his corruption conviction. His sodomy trial had already ended and the court was supposed to deliver its verdict on 27 July. But we all knew what the outcome was going to be. He would be convicted and would be sent to jail notwithstanding they had absolutely no case against him. FAC would then be required to inform the world about the terrible miscarriage of justice he has been subjected to. The case was postponed to 8 August 2000 though, and he was found guilty and sentenced to nine years in jail. My wife and friends proved correct. Seven months later I was detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA). Amongst what the government wanted to know was who else was involved in FAC. They wanted names. They knew about Dr Abdul Rahim’s role. They wanted to know who else was in the ‘committee’. They never got these names though and until today the pioneers of FAC still remain free. PRESS RELEASE ON THE CYBER-LAUNCH OF FAC The Free Anwar Campaign is launched On 27 July 2000, the Free Anwar Campaign Secretariat launched the International Free Anwar Campaign (FAC). The principal objective of the FAC is to seek justice and freedom for Anwar Ibrahim. Anwar Ibrahim's struggle and sacrifice is to build a civil society and a Malaysian nation based on justice, tolerance, and noble humanitarian values. The FAC sees the freeing of Anwar Ibrahim as an important milestone in seeking democratic reforms in Malaysia. Anwar Ibrahim's jailing epitomises the extreme to which the abuse of power and the undermining of democratic institutions in Malaysia have reached. The FAC is amongst one of the many efforts organised by various organisations and individuals to free Anwar Ibrahim. The FAC's initiative is signified by the launching of the FAC Website, http://www.freeanwar.com/. This Website features news items, important material, and a comprehensive archive of the Anwar Ibrahim arrest and trial. Full transcripts of the proceedings of Anwar Ibrahim's trials will also soon be made available on this Website. Important reports from Amnesty International, the Malaysian Bar Council, the Heritage Foundation, the Human Rights Watch, The Malaysian Citizens' Election Watch, media reports, and many more bits of information are also available for your reference. The FAC Website is tailored towards sympathisers and supporters of the Free Anwar Campaign, whom we hope, will assist by initiating pressure on the Malaysian government to release Anwar Ibrahim from jail. A specific section to guide you on what you can do to help the Free Anwar Campaign is available on the Website. The Free Anwar Campaign is offering a free e-mail service at http://mail.freeanwar.com, which you can subscribe through our Website. We invite you to subscribe to this e-mail service and have your own e-mail address - your_name@freeanwar.com - as a mark of support to the Free Anwar Campaign. We call upon all supporters and sympathisers of Anwar Ibrahim to join our campaign. You can contribute to this campaign by persuading your government, as well as political, corporate and community leaders in your country, to use their influence to seek the release of Anwar Ibrahim and to get the Malaysian government to restore and respect democratic rights as enshrined in the country's constitution. We also encourage all supporters of this campaign to write to the Malaysian rulers and the Malaysian government and raise your concern on the unfair trial of Anwar Ibrahim. These letters can be sent to the Malaysian High Commissions or Embassies in your country. A database of their addresses is also on our Website. We hope to regularly conduct public relations exercises with the media, governments, individuals and other International Non-Governmental Organisations in explaining the progress of the campaign and the efforts of other organisations and individuals to free Anwar Ibrahim. Please keep us posted on any activities or news within your community on these efforts. The FAC is committed to change through a peaceful and democratic process. It considers the process of disseminating information and shaping of public opinion as part of universal democratic rights. We consider this process important in creating an informed public, be they from within or outside Malaysia. This process serves as the foundation upon which more specific actions will be undertaken from time to time. We invite you to offer your services to produce material for publication, and organise and host activities for the FAC within your own community. The FAC vows to continue Anwar Ibrahim's struggle for change through peaceful means and within the norms of democratic behaviour. They may imprison Anwar's physical self, but his soul and ideals will remain free through this effort. Amnesty International has declared Anwar Ibrahim a prisoner of conscience. Various international bodies that have examined the Malaysian Judicial system have concluded that it is not independent, and Anwar's trial to be unfair. We need the support of all Malaysians and the International community to ensure that Anwar Ibrahim is liberated.
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