BLAST FROM THE PAST

FROM THE REFORMASI ARCHIVES

Politics of the poison-pen

Malaysian politics is the politics of innuendoes, rumours, slanders, and poison-pen letters. Anwar Ibrahim was brought down through non other than a new edition to all this, the poison-pen book. And this book is ’50 Reasons Why Anwar Cannot Become Prime Minister’.

Anwar cried foul and alleges that there is a high-level conspiracy to get him. The book had been banned through a High Court injunction. The book’s author had been arrested and charged for libel. The Prime Minister himself declared the book was nothing but a pack of lies. Yet it found its way into the folders of the Umno delegates to the General Assembly in June 1998. And the judge who allowed the injunction was immediately transferred to a ‘lower’ court – no less a demotion of sorts.

The police then ‘investigated’ the book, not to build up a case against the author now facing criminal charges, but to find out how true the allegations were. Those named in the book were also arrested, not to strengthen the case against the author, but to implicate Anwar further. The police testified during the trial that the case against Anwar were based on the allegations in the book, not a police report or complaint made against Anwar – yet the police admitted that no action can be taken unless there is first of all a police report, and no such report was made against Anwar.

In fact, the police said, they could not take action against the author of the book because no report was ever made against him and they advised Anwar to lodge a police report so that they could start investigations immediately. But, when Anwar did make a police report, it was Anwar and not the author who was investigated.

We republish excerpts of Ahmad Irfan’s piece from the September 1998 issue of Impact International that traces the events leading to Anwar’s eventual sacking and incarceration:

In the neo-feudal Malaysian political culture, if you cannot deal with someone politically, you circulate a poison-pen letter. In the last decade-and-a-half, quite a few poison-pen letters have been circulating the political scene at one time or another, but none as obscene as the one which went into circulation mid-1997. The target: Anwar Ibrahim, Deputy Prime Minister, Deputy President of Umno (United Malays National Organisation) and the named successor of Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamed; named by Dr. Mahathir himself.

Clearly, the poison-pen letter writer had someone else in view as the next prime minister, and, therefore, the first step was to throw mud at and discredit Anwar Ibrahim before putting forward the name of the rival candidate. For a moral politician like Anwar, more appropriately, the charge had to be immorality; adultery.

The police tried to investigate, but gave up when it thought it could go no further. The Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamed, who is also the home minister, counselled his Deputy to ignore the matter and not to worry unduly about the slander. Those who knew Anwar did not believe the accusations. Neither did the average Malay buy the defamation story. And the gossip died its natural death but the poison pen pushers had no reason to feel discouraged.

The days before the Umno General Assembly in June 1998, a book-length poison-pen letter entitled '50 Dahlil Mengapa Anwar Tidak Boleh Jadi PM’, made its debut on the Malaysian political scene. But, unlike most previous poison-pen letters, the ‘50 Dahlil’ had an author as well as a publisher. It carried a by-line Khalid Jafri, ex-sports editor of Utusan Malaysia, editor-in-chief of the now defunct Harian National tabloid newspaper, an un-discharged bankrupt.

Delegates arriving at the Umno General Assembly had a copy of the poison book included in the party documentation handed over to them in the complimentary bag. This happened despite the passing of an interlocutory injunction by a high court judge only a day earlier against the distribution and dissemination of the defamatory book. It was something quite odd and many at the assembly were trying to put two and two together.

The Umno Youth leader from Negri Sembilan, Ruslan Kassim, had done a little checking with the Registrar of Companies and managed to link the book's publishers to the disgraced former Chief Minister of Malacca, Abdul Rahim Tamby Chik and his wife, Zabedah Abdullah. Ruslan Kassim had also heard from the Federal Territory Umno that the party secretariat had been used to distribute the book. This pointed at the party Secretary-General, Sabaruddin Chik.

“Who is actually behind this drama?” asked the Negeri Sembilan Umno Youth leader. But none of the two Chiks were willing to admit to anything.

Rahim Tamby Chik said he was aware of the allegations, but rather than deny them, he promised to make a statement. Sabaruddin Chik promised to investigate "maybe one or two persons (from the Umno secretariat) were involved" but he was not sure.

But how did the Umno officials happen to violate a high court injunction against the distribution of the book? The Deputy Home Minister Tajol Rosli thought one needed to find out whether the book was distributed before or after the court order. He seemed to suggest that if officials at the Umno secretariat had already put the book in the conference bag before the 17 June injunction, then probably the ban had not been violated!

For the Negeri Sembilan youth leader, however, the matter was serious enough to warrant action under the Internal Security Act (ISA). He saw the drama as a clever plot to drive a wedge between Mahathir and Anwar and to destabilise the country, especially at a time when Malaysia was facing a serious economic crisis. But we don't use the ISA that way, we use it against drug and forgery offences, explained Dr. Mahathir.

He was correct. Only two months after he had rejected the demand to use ISA against those who had published and were spreading slander against his deputy, the home ministry did take recourse to the very ISA and allowed the police to detain three young Malaysians for allegedly spreading rumours of a kind that seemed comparably much lighter than the message of Khalid Jafri's book.

Presumably what these young Malaysians had done was that they had simply downloaded an e-mail message someone had sent them. The e-mail happened to be about reports of commotion in the downtown Chow Kit area and they thought they should warn their friends to avoid the locality. The rumours themselves were not entirely baseless. These were probably triggered by a visible police presence in the area. Moreover, people learnt that the local hospital had received a prior police warning to be ready for a possible emergency.

But the ‘50 Dahlil’ book seemed to be a different affair. At the General Assembly, the Umno youth rank and file was demanding stern action against any party member involved in whatever way in the publication of the book, but the party president replied it was up to the party's Management or Disciplinary Committee to take action against any Umno member involved in the printing and distribution of the book. However, Dr. Mahathir also said, “We want to know who did it why he did it and whether what he stated has any basis and whether the owner of the publishing house premises (Abdul Rahim Tamby Chik and Zabedah Abdullah) are involved.”

In a written reply in Dewan Negara (Senate) in August 1998, Dr. Mahathir pleaded helplessness. It is difficult for the government to prevent completely the printing and publication of publications like ‘50 Dalil Mengapa Anwar Tidak Boleh Jadi PM’, said Dr. Mahathir in a reply to Senator Datuk Zainuddin Maidin who wanted to know what the government planned to do to ensure that such books were not written, published or distributed in the future. We could ban a book only if its contents were found to ‘disturb the peace, safety or moral of the public’, he went on to add. He apparently did not think, the book 'disturbed' any of these.

The High Court judge, Datuk Wira Haji Mohamed Noor bin Hj Ahmad, who issued the earlier injunction, found ‘50 Dahlil’ to be a 'long poison pen letter put together in the form of a book'. Nevertheless Dr. Mahathir's approach towards a book that tried to assassinate the character of his Deputy and his named successor, Anwar Ibrahim, seemed extraordinary ambiguous at best, protective, otherwise. So, was the prime minister behind the book plot?

"No I don't think so", says Anwar. "In fact I am sure he is not," he adds emphatically. "It's some other people and other interests who are trying to sow doubts and misgivings in Dr. Mahathir's mind and to drive a wedge between us.”

With what end in view? "Their ends may be narrow and personal but they really hurt the progress and development of the country. Although it has long been agreed and publicly announced that there is going to be no contest for the first two positions in the party and government, they keep telling Dr. Mahathir that I was going to challenge and oust him from the leadership. Given my clear and categorical position, I did not think I had to say it over-loudly, yet some people keep stoking the fitnah and I am, therefore, going to make it clear, yet again, that I have no intention of challenging Dr. Mahathir's leadership."

"I have said this many times, but it has all been for nought - right here in front of my Penang friends, I want to announce my full support and loyalty to Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamed for him to remain as party president." Anwar Ibrahim said this at the ceremony to open the new Umno headquarters by Dr. Mahathir in his home state of Penang. He said he wanted to "kill all rumours of a rift [between me and the prime minister] and to declare that any rumours that I am vying for the presidency [of Umno] are all lies."

"Dr. Mahathir is not a new leader. He has vast experience in all matters. If you compare me to him, I am just a student. I can never go against my mentor, much less my father. We may have some differences, but it is impossible to believe that these petty differences will split us up. When it comes to important matters, including economic issues, we stand united."

Therefore, said Anwar, "I have spoken about this to all Penang Umno leaders and at the state liaison committee meetings. The state Umno will nominate Dr. Mahathir as party president." And added jocularly, "don't forget to put me as his deputy."

There was spontaneous applause from all those gathered at the meeting and both the state leadership and Umno grassroots who were constantly bombarded with all kinds of rumours felt very much relieved by Anwar's speech that, despite all rumours, the party leadership remained united.

Anwar made his speech in Penang on Tuesday, 11 August 1998. The next day, the Kuala Lumpur police charged the author of ‘50 Dahlil’ for ‘publishing false and malicious news that Anwar Ibrahim had fathered an illegitimate child with a named woman’. Probably interesting, but it was just coincidental, because the police had earlier said that they were going to make an announcement on that day.

However, on the other slanderous accusations, the Inspector General of Police said they were still looking into the rest of the contents the book. But, in the meantime, the police did take an early interest in one Nallakaruppan, because they found him named in the book as Anwar's tennis partner and as some kind of pimp linked to Anwar’s allegedly immoral doings.

Looking into Nalla, as it were, the police stumbled onto 125 rounds of Fiocchi 6.35mm live bullets which he had at his house without any lawful authority. Nalla too was charged on 12 August, but under the Internal Security Act. The offence carries a mandatory death sentence.

It is significant to note that while the bullets were found in Nalla's house on 31 July 1998, the police spent almost two weeks interrogating him before formally charging him. Although the court had remanded the accused at Sungai Buloh Prison, the very next day the prison Director General ordered his transfer to the police headquarters lockup at Bukit Aman. It was done to facilitate investigation of matters involving the security of the country.

The police said that Nalla’s case had no connection with Khalid Jafri's, but that is why the whole police approach to the ‘50 Dahlil’ affair becomes questionable. The Malaysian Home Ministry's decision not to ban the ‘50 Dahlil’ and to let the question of libel be dealt with by the High Court was quite correct even though it is doubtful that the ministry would have dealt with the matter in the same manner had the subject of the slander been the home minister himself, Dr. Mahathir. Presumably, if Dr. Mahathir had been the target, before long, the author, printer, publisher, distributor and the lot would have found themselves locked up in Bukit Aman, ‘helping the police to unravel the conspiracy against the security of Malaysia’.

But in the case of the ‘50 Dahlil’, instead of letting the court decide on the alleged libel, the line of police inquiry appeared to be directed at helping the author of the slander by trying to dig 'dirt' and to find 'witnesses' who would incriminate Anwar Ibrahim. That would seem to add yet another theory to the couple of conspiracy theories already going round in the Malaysian capital.

According to this theory, as the accusations of immorality were not likely to stick, the police were trying to extract an appropriate confession from Nalla that would implicate Anwar in some kind of a political conspiracy to overthrow Dr. Mahathir. This ties up with another conspiracy theory, held by Dr. Mahathir himself, that the Malaysian and, for that matter, the whole Asian economic crisis was in fact an international conspiracy against Malaysia and the rising tiger economies of Southeast Asia.

There was indeed an international dimension to the sudden crash of the tiger currencies, but it was a moot point if the crash was orchestrated, because the fault lines lay within the very capitalist structure of Malaysian economy: interest and speculation, greed and grab, false money and unearned income. There is little point in blaming Soros or his alleged Shylockian behaviour when Malaysia itself had its own fair share of Muslim Shylocks.

Nevertheless, that's how the conspiracy theory went along and, since Anwar was not showing any solidarity with the Malaysian Shylocks and was resisting attempts to bail them out at the cost of an already short-changed taxpayer, some clever guys threw up another conspiracy theory: that Anwar himself was part of this international conspiracy.

Of course, it is always possible to take away the finance portfolio from Anwar Ibrahim and relegate him as a perfunctory Deputy Prime Minister by appointing a Second Deputy Prime Minister, but it may prove to be costly, politically. Moreover, removing Anwar from the Finance Ministry could also create a problem of confidence in the market. He does have a reputation as a finance manager who is known to reason even with the Prime Minister if he believes that a certain action or policy is not in the best interest of the country. Therefore, if Anwar has to be got rid of, it has to be through some non-political method.

The ‘50 Dahlil’ accused Anwar of being a CIA agent and even goes on to remind one of his earlier detention under the ISA because he was working against the security of the country.

Khalid Jafri also says that the Home Ministry guys are against Anwar. All this would then lend credence to the theory that the 'guys' who dislike him are also plotting to cook up a holding charge against Anwar which would force him to resign. While he may eventually be exonerated, though not as far as it would lie in the hands of the Malaysian Shylocks, the stratagem would at least disable him politically for a long time to come.

To make things simple, the Jafri book says that, before he passed away, Anwar's uncle, Haji Sulaiman Palestine, had advised Dr. Mahathir to appoint either Abdullah Badawi or Sanusi Junid as the next Prime Minister, not Anwar Ibrahim. In fact, rumours were circulating in Kuala Lumpur two weeks before that that Anwar was about to be arrested and that the Foreign Minister, Abdullah Badawi, would be appointed Deputy Prime Minister in his place.

Where does Mahathir stand amidst all this? He does believe that there is an international conspiracy against him. Does he further believe that his Deputy too was an accomplice in that conspiracy? Most probably he is caught in a dilemma and he does not hide it. He said he does not want to believe it, but people do kept telling him that Anwar was going to challenge his leadership. Although Anwar denied, over and over again, any intention to contest against him, even if some members of the party happened to nominate him, but the same people tell him "who knows?"

There could have been no worse time for the economic crisis to hit Malaysia. It hit suddenly and at a time when Dr. Mahathir was at the height of his political career and when he could possibly look forward to retiring gloriously into history. Now the crisis has brought him face to face with his own human vulnerabilities. The need to protect the interests of his children makes him depend more than before on the so-called cronies who were useful and obliging in the past, and who too have their own interests to serve and to protect, more than their master's.

However, the economic crisis had exposed a sharp variance of approach between the Prime Minister and his Deputy, on not only how to, but also how not to deal with the crisis. Dr. Mahathir resented Anwar arguing against policies which, he believes, benefit only a few but hurt the long term interests of the country. And, for the same reason, the Prime Minister was also unhappy with the governor of the central bank, Bank Negara, Ahmad Mohammed Don whom he accused of playing into the hands of the IMF and compounding Malaysia's financial problem by resisting the lowering of interest rates in order to rescue the ailing companies.

But Ahmad Don objected to what was obviously giving public money, and cheaply, to those companies that have not performed well and were, in fact, an accomplices in the crisis with foreign money traders..

Anwar, too, advised against bailing out the non-performers with public and trust funds like the Tabung Haji and the Employees Provident Fund. And the cronies used this as ‘evidence’ that Dr. Mahathir’s Deputy was conspiring with the IMF to thwart Malaysia’s plans for economic recovery. And this, they go on to add, shows that both the IMF and CIA are sabotaging Dr. Mahathir’s efforts in order to put Anwar in his place. That is why, according to the conspiracy theorists, the international agencies downgraded Malaysia’s rating and the international publications like Time, Asian Wall Street Journal, Asiaweek, the CNN et al have been so supportive of Anwar Ibrahim's policy prescription as against Dr. Mahathir’s desire to bail out the troubled corporate sector.

Whether or not Dr Mahathir believed this version of the conspiracy theory, he does have a weakness for his children. He is more beholden to his cronies for offering helpful advice than to Anwar who was advising against doing anything that might bail out only a few at the cost of a multitude of small entrepreneurs. It would appear that Dr. Mahathir was building defences around himself and had to move fast to freeze the influence of his named successor.

The plan, then, would be to ‘get’ Anwar Ibrahim first, and the rest would follow.