KUALA LUMPUR - A HUGE rally attended by some 12,000 people last night capped a day of rising political temperatures in Malaysia as Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi and opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim fought to have their say on the significance of a police report accusing Mr Anwar of sexually assaulting a party worker.

Mr Anwar told his cheering supporters at a stadium in Shah Alam that he was the victim of a plot aimed at preventing him from taking power.

'I will fight. I will fight morning, noon, evening and night. This is a second round of conspiracy. I will not give in to these dirty slanders,' he said.

It was a message similar to what he had for the press earlier in the day.

And, just hours before the press conference at which he said he had evidence to prove his innocence, he filed a police report against the attorney-general and police chief, accusing them of fabricating evidence in a 1998 sodomy trial against him. His conviction on that charge was later overturned.

Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi yesterday sought to counter the image being built up of a government conspiracy against Mr Anwar when he held a separate press conference.

'The government will not make baseless accusations. It is not right to say that the government is part of a conspiracy,' Mr Abdullah said.

He pledged a full and thorough investigation even as he rejected Mr Anwar's charges of bias against his top law officials.

'I will not interfere in this case. The authorities investigating the case are professionals, and they know what to do and what not to do.'

Mr Abdullah also lashed out at Washington after the United States got into the act by saying that it hoped there was no 'pattern' in the new accusations against Mr Anwar.

'We have a government, laws, and enforcement. We ensure that the investigations are done properly, fairly and without bias,' he said.

The Prime Minister had earlier in the day met Mr Anwar's wife Wan Azizah Ismail, who sought his personal guarantee of her husband's safety. Mr Abdullah gave an assurance to both Mr Anwar and his accuser.

'You have to understand how I feel,' Wan Azizah told reporters, noting that she had been given similar assurances in 1998 when her husband was arrested over another set of sodomy charges. He was badly beaten by then police chief Rahim Noor.

The flurry of activities came on the third day of a bombshell dropped by 23-year-old Saiful Bukhari Azlan, an opposition party worker who lodged a police report on Saturday, accusing Mr Anwar of assaulting him. Mr Saiful is reportedly under police protection.

As the dramatic events unfurled by the day, it appears, however, that there will be no exact repeat of 1998, when Mr Anwar was jailed on charges which he maintains were trumped up to stop him from challenging then prime minister Mahathir Mohamad.

Malaysia was rocked by street demonstrations following his arrest.

This time, Malaysia stayed calm while the government took pains to avoid actions that could galvanise the people against it.

But Mr Abdullah's pledge of impartiality is not likely to convince Mr Anwar's supporters, especially not after his accusation that police chief Musa Hassan and attorney-general Gani Patail cannot be expected to be neutral in the present investigation.

And it has already raised problems for Mr Abdullah's government on the international front.

United States States Department spokesman Tom Casey yesterday noted that Mr Anwar had been convicted previously on similar sodomy charges that were overturned in court.

'So we would hope that there's not a pattern here.'

The former deputy premier has become a formidable force on the Malaysian political scene. He has vowed to continue his battle, saying that his plans had only been derailed for a few days by Mr Saiful's allegations.

More fireworks can be expected in the days ahead given Mr Anwar's threat to reveal more.

Specifically, Mr Anwar said he plans to soon file a statutory declaration on the close links between Mr Saiful and an aide to Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak.

'This government is under siege,' he said.

carolynh@sph.com.sg

hazlinh@sph.com.sg