Opposiition leader Datuk Seri Anwar
Ibrahim is waiting for the decision on his appeal against his sodomy
conviction. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, November 14, 2014. Jail for Datuk
Seri Anwar Ibrahim if the Federal Court upholds his sodomy conviction would
only serve to hurt the Barisan Nasional (BN) government, perhaps more so now
than when former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad first turned him into
an arch nemesis, The Edge Review said in a report today.
Jailing Anwar could cost the BN more
votes as Malaysians grow tired of the government's treatment of the opposition
leader after 16 years, with his latest sodomy appeal taking place against the
backdrop of an on-going blitz against opposition politicians and others
critical of the establishment by using the colonial-era Sedition Act.
"In the immediate term, a
guilty verdict against Anwar will turn the opposition leader into a political
martyr on the international stage and further dent Malaysia's image abroad,
which has suffered in recent months over attacks on the government for using
draconian laws to cow opposition politicians," The Edge Review said in an
article, "Hounding of Anwar Ibrahim takes a toll on Malaysia".
Anwar is awaiting a Federal Court
decision on his appeal to overturn the conviction of sodomising his former aide
Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan in 2008.
The trial court acquitted him but
the Court of Appeal in March this year found him guilty and sentenced him to
five years' jail. In his appeal to the apex court, the prosecution had also filed
a cross-appeal to enhance the length of his jail sentence.
The weekly digital magazine said it
appeared "likely" that Anwar would be jailed, and said that this
might boost Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's support from within Umno,
the party he leads.
It would also cause new problems for
the Pakatan Rakyat which the Edge Review said had been struggling to maintain a
united front over religious and racial issues.
However, citing analysts, it said
that having Anwar in jail "would do nothing for Najib's tattered political
prestige among ordinary Malaysians and could even hurt him more than it did Dr
Mahathir".
This was because Najib was also
dealing with withering internal support from Umno, which meets for its annual
general assembly later this month.
Najib has come under attack from
party veterans, most visibly by Dr Mahathir and former finance minister Tun
Daim Zainuddin, both of whom have blamed him for Umno's decline. Dr Mahathir
has also become increasingly vocal about some of the government's policies
under Najib.
The Edge Review said that Umno was
now in a fight for its survival, having hit its lowest point in electoral
support ever in the 13th general election last year. Though it maintained a
parliamentary majority, it lost the popular vote to Pakatan.
Malays first began abandoning Umno
from 1998 onwards, when Dr Mahathir sacked Anwar as deputy prime minister and
finance minister, and slapped him with the first sodomy charge.
Since then – almost two decades
later – analysts have looked back on Anwar's persecution as a "serious and
costly misadventure" for Malaysia, the Edge Review said.
"Too much damage has been
inflicted on the system because of this campaign," it quoted commentator
and political researcher Bridget Welsh as saying.
Even as the Umno-led BN lashes out
at its critics using the Sedition Act, its focal point remains Anwar because
Umno feared him as "the biggest threat to their hold on power", it
added.
The Federal Court verdict will be watched
closely by international investors because of the current climate of concern
over governance and democracy in the Southeast Asian economies of Thailand,
Singapore and Indonesia, besides Malaysia. – November 14, 2014 
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