It is happening. Anwar Ibrahim will receive a Royal Pardon and become Prime Minister
For the beleaguered dozens of the Asian Group who have been following the astonishing developments in Malaysia we have good news.
An injustice has been righted.
A new Prime Minister is on his way from prison.
Cross posted in GD here is the update.
I have lived in Malaysia and I have a bias for Malays and all Malaysians; Indians, Malay and Chinese. I have a deep affection for them, but that also includes all of the other places I have stayed, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Pakistan, well you get the idea.
While Malaysia is one of the easiest places to make friends and where you can have honest conversations with people about history and politics it is a country that has been shrouded in a defensiveness for 50 years.
When the British left Malaysia the ethnic Malays were a minority in their homeland and only owned 20% of the country. They lived mostly in rural villages while the descendants of Indians (who came to build and run the railroad) and Chinese who came as labor and small businessmen had grown to run the urban economy prospered and dominated education and the bureaucracies.
The Malays kicked Singapore out of the Malay Federation and became 51% of the population and controlled the politics, army and police. A pro "Bhumiputra" policy came into force by the dominant coalition UMNO which gave big incentives for the Chinese and Indians to take on Malay partners.
UMNO lost one election and terrible riots occurred and since then a consensus between the groups was to let UMNO run the government, bring Malays to the city and gradually build up equity.
In the 80's Prime Minister Mahathir was Prime Minister and is protégé, Anwar Ibrahim, a bright star in the next generation joined as a Minister. Anwar railed against corruption in UMNO and an obviously trumped up charge of sodomy was levelled against him and Anwar went to prison. After prison he goes to England to teach at Oxford. After the requisite time that he was banned from politics (5 years) he runs in the opposition against UMNO and almost wins outright.
New charges of sodomy are brought against him. In 2012 he is found INNOCENT. On appeal he is found guilty. He goes to prison. He is in prison today.
Last week long retired Prime Minister Mahathir won a huge election victory with Anwar's wife as his deputy.
Today Anwar received a Royal Pardon. He will soon be the new Prime Minister of Malaysia. UMNO eventually became what Trump is trying to build with the Republican Party, stealing huge amounts of money for the leaders. Mahathir's sons are in the UMNO leadership.
In a dark international political leadership the people of Malaysia have created a ray of hope.
Former Prime Minister Mahathir stands next to his Deputy Ms Wan Azizah. Ms. Azizah is the wife of Anwar Ibrahim who was once Mahathir's protégé but who Mahathir imprisoned for sodomy. After release from prison Anwar made a political comeback and was imprisoned again for sodomy even though he was found innocent of the charges. Anwar Ibrahim will be going from prison to Prime Minister after receiving a Royal Pardon
(CNN)Malaysia's new Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said Friday that the country's head of state had agreed to pardon jailed politician Anwar Ibrahim, whose case has dominated Malaysian politics for years.
Anwar, once a leading light in the party that ruled Malaysia for decades, was jailed on sodomy charges in 2015, after a trial he says was politically motivated. Mahathir had promised, if elected, to free Anwar and eventually hand power over to him.At a news conference Friday, Mahathir said King Muhammad V had given his consent to a pardon.
"It is going to be a full pardon, which of course means that he should not only be pardoned, he should be released immediately when he is pardoned," Mahathir told reporters, a day after being sworn in as Prime Minister. "After that he will be free to participate fully in politics." Anwar remains imprisoned since the 2015 sodomy trial -- the second time he'd been jailed for the offense. He has long said the charges were an attempt to curb his political ascent.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/malaysia-election-latest-mahathir-mohamad-anwar-ibrahim-royal-pardon-a8346741.html
The 92-year-old comeback kid of Malaysian politics, Mahathir Mohamad, had been in power for less than 24 hours when he made an announcement that effectively heralded his own downfall.
On Friday, Mr Mahathir said he had successfully secured a royal pardon for the opposition icon Anwar Ibrahim, a man who had joined him in coalition from the confines of a prison cell.
It marked the latest extraordinary twist in a heady few days for politics in the southeast Asian nation. Mr Mahathir, the former authoritarian leader who stepped down after 22 years in power in 2003, has vowed to hand over the reins once again if Mr Anwar is released from jail.
Malaysia PM admits historic election defeat as ‘verdict of the people’ Mr Anwar, a former protegee of Mr Mahathir until the pair fell out in 1998, retains huge popularity among a generation of Malaysians who see him as the wrongly imprisoned reform candidate of the turn of the millennium.
The victorious opposition coalition, Pakatan Harapan, which collectively won 122 seats of the 222-member parliament in this week’s general election, only backed Mr Mahathir as leader on the condition that he eventually make way for Mr Anwar, and that he take Mr Anwar’s wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, as his deputy. She is now the first female deputy premier in Malaysia’s history.
Analysts say Mr Anwar’s cross-ethnic support was critical to Pakatan Harapan’s success, and it is now a matter of when, not if, Mr Mahathir steps aside.
That Anwar started on the political stage as a strong proponent of ethnic Malays and goes from prison to Prime Minister on a coalition of cross ethnic support is a bright ray of hope in a dark time.
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