Damned if I do, damned if I don't, says Anwar

Anwar addressing crowds in Bentong. — Picture by Shannon Teoh

(UPDATED) BENTONG, Aug 6 — In a dramatic retelling of recent events, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim last night shared with his supporters the difficulties he was facing with his detractors and the authorities.

With fresh accusations of sodomy blighting him, he told the audience in Benus near here that prior to his journey, he had heard rumours of his arrest earlier in the afternoon.

And painting the picture of a man who appeared to already have his hands tied, the former deputy prime minister admitted that he has had to face criticisms for every move he makes.

"If I were to run in Kulim Bandar Baharu, they would say I wanted my wife and daughter with me in Parliament," Anwar said, referring to his wife Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Ismail, who quit her Permatang Pauh seat last week to make way for him in a by-election, and daughter Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah.

"Now that I am running in Permatang Pauh, they say Wan Azizah has cheated and wronged the people. Why don't they let the voters decide what is right or wrong?" he thundered to the cheering crowd of a few thousand people.

The Election Commission meets later this morning to decide on the nomination and polling dates for the by-election in Permatang Pauh, which Anwar held between 1982 and his arrest in 1998.

The Parti Keadilan Rakyat de facto leader also told the story of his arrest, in terms of the orders he was asked to obey.

"They asked me go to the hospital. Why? I'm not sick. But if I don't go, they say I am not cooperating. They asked me to strip. If I refuse, I am wrong. They asked me to fill in a rape victim's form as well.

"Finally when I refused to have a picture of me taken naked, they say Anwar is not cooperative," he said in his hour-long speech.

Forty minutes into his speech, the electricity supply was interrupted and his security team immediately leapt on stage to cover their leader in the midst of the darkness.

Although no cause could be discerned, talk of sabotage has been prevalent since the audio cable was cut at a ceramah in Bagan Datoh last Friday night.

The 10-minute power outage occurred minutes after he was telling his audience about the large presence of police personnel at his regular political rallies.

"Why did they have to bring such a big team? Just one corporal would've sufficed."

He also pointed out that the government's recent announcement of a likely drop in fuel prices as a ploy to sway the by-election in Barisan Nasional's favour.

"I'm not surprised. But if they want to do it, bring it down to RM2," he said, referring to his own promise that if Pakatan Rakyat were to form the federal government, it would set the petrol price at that figure.

He also told the largely Malay crowd here that he was never worried over the Umno-Pas talks as he had a direct line of communication to Pas president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang.

Instead, he described the entire episode a plan by Pas to unveil Umno's desperation.

"Hadi assured me that Pas were committed to Pakatan Rakyat. In fact, it was all just a clever ploy.

"They flirted with Umno until it had made all these promises and announcements about giving Pas menteri besar positions and then after a meeting, Hadi announced that there was no way it would form government with Umno."

-TMI