KUALA LUMPUR, April 28 — Snubbed by US president Barack Obama during his inaugural visit to Malaysia, de facto opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has taken the world power to task for its lack of action on alleged wrongs committed by the Malaysia’s dominant party Umno.
In an interview with the Thai daily The Nation, Anwar urged the US not to remain quiet about the criminal charges that he faces in the Malaysia’s court system.
“They (US) have sent battalion after battalion of troops to Afghanistan and Iraq and also drones in the war on terrorism, and here they can’t be muted when the UMNO regime is using the court to deny my basic rights and those of other political leaders,” he told the paper.
He had been asked what he would have told the US leader if the two had met.
Anwar said the ongoing international attention on Malaysia after the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight 370 would be helpful to him as he fights to stay out of jail after being convicted for sodomy.
“I think it would be immensely helpful because now people are looking at the court proceedings,” he said.
Malaysia’s Court of Appeal last month sentenced him to five years in jail, overturning a lower court’s decision to free Anwar who has always maintained that the charges were aimed at crippling his political career.
Anwar is appealing the court ruling.
“I recently had lunch with the EU ambassadors and I had no need to brief them because they all followed the case quite well, not from our media, of course, but from court proceedings. That is very much welcome because it creates awareness and it helps us,” he added.
