Dramatic Week

History is repeating itself in Malaysia after former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim was accused of sodomy for the second time in 10 years. If all this sounds familiar to those following Malaysian politics, consider what happened a decade ago. Then the country's Deputy Prime Minister and a star in the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), Malaysia's largest political party, Anwar launched a challenge against the long rule of former Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad. Anwar was quickly sacked and charged with sodomy and abuse of power. Although the sex charge was overturned in 2004, the man once presumed to become Malaysia's next Prime Minister languished in prison for six years. The country was rocked by the sensational news when Mr Anwar’s young aide claimed that he was sexually assaulted. The question of whether Anwar Ibrahim is gay is again the talk of the town. The man in the spotlight this time is Saiful Bukhari Azlan, a 23-year old volunteer with the opposition Parti Keadilan Rakyat. He lodged a police report last Saturday claiming that he was sodomised by his boss. Mr Anwar, a father of six children, immediately dismissed the allegations. At the same time, he filed a defamation suit against Mr Saiful. The 60-year old politician accused the government of fabricating a conspiracy to derail his ambitions to take over the government. Addressing a big rally of more than 7000 people on Tuesday, he vowed to fight every inch of the way to prove his innocence. Anwar, who is the de facto leader of the opposition Pakatan Rakyat coalition, has made it clear that the opposition will take over the government before September 16. Malaysia's Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on Sunday denied any link between the sodomy charge and Anwar's political comeback. But there's no question Abdullah's government is increasingly under fire. In recent weeks, cuts in fuel subsidies have sent usually quiescent Malaysians to the streets in protest and more citizens are criticizing the government's race-based affirmative-action system, which gives Malays privileges in everything from university places to government contracts. The ruling coalition has lost its usual cohesion. The Sabah Progressive Party, a tiny member of the coalition, called in mid-June for a parliamentary motion of no confidence against the Prime Minister. Abdullah, who is being blamed for the governing alliance's drubbing in the March elections, is under so much pressure to resign that he recently promised to eventually hand over the reins to Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak.
But Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak is also under a cloud from another Malaysian sex scandal involving members of the political élite. In 2006, Abdul Razak Baginda, a political think-tank head and former adviser to Najib, was charged with abetting the murder of his Mongolian ex-lover. The aide is now standing trial, along with two government security agents who are accused of having killed the woman and blowing up her body with military-grade explosives in a jungle clearing near Kuala Lumpur. Najib has denied any knowledge of or involvement in the murder.