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Undilah PAS : MENENTANG KEZALIMAN & MENEGAKKAN KEADILAN
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Mahathir acknowledges Anwar is threat to ruling party
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 5 (AFP) - Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir
Mohamad acknowledged Friday
for the first time that the jailing of his sacked deputy Anwar
Ibrahim could significantly damage
the ruling party.
Launching "Operation Destroy Slander," Mahathir spent one hour of
a speech to ruling party
delegates denouncing what he called Anwar's lies.
"Today we are facing a problem. Whatever we have done, the people
have put it aside. The
people's focus is on the allegation that UMNO is a cruel party,"
he told some 1,000 leaders of the
United Malays National Organisation from all over the country.
"Many of us are unable to counter it," he added. "I don't have a
formula. Our problem is to find
out how to counter the slander and lies that has reached dangerous
proportions, where people
are confused and unable to differentiate between the truth and a
lie."
One diplomatic source said the comments indicated that Anwar,
despite being jailed for six years
in April for abusing his official position to cover up allegations
of sexual misconduct, was still very
much an election issue.
Polls must be held by next June but are widely expected earlier.
Mahathir is expected to face his
toughest test of recent years after Anwar's case split the ethnic
Malay constituency.
The ruling National Front coalition is virtually guaranteed
victory. But Mahathir is committed to
retaining its two-thirds parliamentary majority against an
opposition alliance whose candidate for
premier is Anwar.
The premier told UMNO officials: "While we have not decided the
election date, campaigning has
already begun."
Attacking a "dangerous level of slanders" from the opposition, he
added: "People are confused
and when election comes they may choose the bad party."
Mahathir said he and his party were being labelled as cruel and he
was being called a dictator,
while Anwar's image was that of a religious person.
But in a swinging attack on his former heir apparent, Mahathir
accused Anwar of being an
opportunist who had used his religious image. Anwar was leader of
an influential Islamic youth
movement in the 1970s.
He said Anwar had also cheated the ruling party by using it just
as a vehicle to the premiership
but acknowledged: "Until now there are many UMNO members who are
still loyal to him."
Mahathir said Anwar had lied about an arsenic poisoning attempt.
"Now his new approach is to
complain of headache. Remember, this a tactic of an expert liar."
Anwar's sodomy trial was adjourned Friday for more hospital tests
after he complained of
splitting headaches.
Mahathir, predicting more opposition demonstrations, added: "All
that is a show that he is
seriously sick and the government is cruel. People who do not know
me would think I'm a cruel
person.
"We'll find it difficult to counter Anwar's lies."
Elsewhere in the capital, some 200 Anwar supporters chanting
"Reformasi" (reform) gathered
outside the Election Commission as members of various groups
presented a memorandum calling
for safeguards against poll fraud.
The memo from the human rights organisation Suaram and other
groups demands that some
650,000 new voters registered in April should be qualified to vote
this year rather than next.
It also demanded an end to postal voting for soldiers and police
and for voters' fingers to be
marked with indelible ink to prevent double voting.
The opposition believes Mahathir will call an election before the
young voters, presumed to be
more radical than their elders, come on electoral rolls --
possibly by next January or February.
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©AFP 1999
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