Malaysia's Islamic party invited the nation's most charismatic opposition figure, Anwar Ibrahim, yesterday to galvanize opposition parties into an alliance to challenge the ruling party's 48-year grip on power. Malaysia's disparate opposition parties see Anwar, freed from jail last year, as their best hope yet to mount a serious challenge to Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi's multiracial coalition, which has ruled since independence in 1957. Parti Islam se-Malaysia (PAS), an opposition force until it was crushed in 2004 polls, is ready to accept Anwar into the opposition fold, party chief Hadi Awang told the PAS faithful. "He has charisma and credibility that can strengthen us," Hadi said at the PAS annual assembly in the party's stronghold, the northern state of Kelantan. "We accept him as a leader." The blunt-speaking bearded cleric also dismissed the government's anti-corruption drive as mere rhetoric and called on Badawi to immediately lift a political ban on Anwar. Unless he is pardoned by Malaysia's king, Anwar is banned from standing for office until April 2008 due to his criminal record. The government is expected to call a poll before then. Anwar, jailed in 1999 on what he called trumped-up charges of corruption and sodomy, has said PAS should soften its Islamic image to woo non-Muslim voters. Anwar, lecturing in Washington and Oxford this year, was unavailable for comment yesterday.
But Hadi, 57, told the assembly that PAS would not compromise on its struggle to turn Malaysia into a strict Islamic state. "PAS is at a critical crossroads. I would like to remind you that our struggle is based on the Qur'an," he told about 3,000 party members. PAS in theory wants Malaysia to be an Islamic state based on Shariah law.
| Guess that leaves out all the non-Islamists then, doesn't it? |
