Anwar's wife steps in to fill gap as PR alliance regroups

The three-party Pakatan Rakyat (PR) alliance, bereft of leader Anwar Ibrahim, has swiftly reorganised itself, with his family taking the lead in trying to fill the gap.

Just hours after the former deputy prime minister was taken to prison to start a five-year term on Tuesday, the PR secretariat met and decided that Anwar's wife and Parti Keadilan Rakyat president Wan Azizah Wan Ismail would be the coalition's chair - at least for tomorrow's top leadership pow-wow.

Yesterday, the six Anwar children launched a "March to Freedom" campaign to push for his release.

The drive includes spreading awareness through the media, visits to Malaysians overseas and foreign governments, as well as sending postcards to remind people of what they claim to be persecution by a judiciary that does the Najib government's bidding.

"As his children, we will take over his mantle and continue his struggle, hopes and ambition," Ms Nurul Nuha Anwar, 30, told a press conference while choking back tears at the family home.

Ms Nurul Nuha, the second of the six children, will spearhead the campaign to bring diplomatic pressure to bear on the government, highlighting human rights and civil liberties violations, including political incarceration.

PR's Leadership Council - its highest decision-making body - is meeting tomorrow to hammer out the contentious issue of who will be opposition leader in Parliament - typically seen as a prime ministerial candidate - and who will fill the vacant seat of Permatang Pauh, which Anwar and his wife have held since 1982.

Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) and the Chinese-dominated Democratic Action Party (DAP) - the other two PR members - are at loggerheads over the implementation of Islamic criminal law and unlikely to accept an opposition leader from the other party.

If Datuk Seri Wan Azizah is returned as Permatang Pauh MP, however, it would allow her to also reclaim the leadership of the opposition, which she held in Anwar's stead for a few months in 2008.

This was after Anwar - still suspended from elections at the time due to a conviction for abuse of power - campaigned across the country, which eventually led the ruling Barisan Nasional to lose its two-thirds majority in Parliament for the first time.

Though PR has yet to delve into the issue of succession, its leaders have come out in unanimous support of Anwar.

PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang, who has feuded bitterly with his partners in the past year, called Tuesday's court decision to uphold Anwar's sodomy conviction a "black mark in our nation's history".

Said DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng: "We will wait for him to come out."

Even Anwar's accuser, Mr Saiful Bukhari Azlan, told The Star he was not happy to see Anwar jailed and that all he wanted was for "justice to take its course".

PR will begin nightly candlelit vigils in front of the Sungai Buloh prison near where Anwar is being held.

But there are already signs of a clampdown on public protests against his jailing.

Cartoonist Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque has been remanded for a post that seemingly suggests the federal court is getting "lavish" rewards in return for dismissing Anwar's appeal against conviction.

Spotlight falls on second daughter

When Anwar Ibrahim was sacked as deputy prime minister in 1998 and subsequently jailed for abuse of power, his eldest daughter Nurul Izzah Anwar - then a fresh-faced teenager who had just left school - shot to prominence as the "Puteri Reformasi" (Princess of Reformation).

Over the years, she became a key figure in the burgeoning opposition.

On Tuesday, when Anwar was locked up again, it was his second daughter Nurul Nuha Anwar's turn to step up to the plate. She was unveiled yesterday as the face of the "March to Freedom" campaign, aimed at ratcheting up pressure at home and abroad to free her father, now serving a five-year sentence for sodomy.

Just a month shy of her 31st birthday, Ms Nurul Nuha was clearly unnerved to be facing the press pack at the family home.

"The outcome has left us devastated. We are outraged. Seventeen years of relentless pressure, harassment and persecution culminated in yet another prison term," she said tearfully, flanked by her elder sister, who later fielded most of the media's questions.

These included questions on whether Ms Nurul Nuha would follow in her sister's footsteps and enter politics - especially now that Anwar's Permatang Pauh seat is vacant.

It is not the first time there has been speculation over whether the mother of two would contest an election, but the family steered clear of politics yesterday, calling the campaign "really personal".

The two sisters and their four siblings went sleepless the first night without their father, worrying about his health. Anwar was given a black eye by the then chief of police in 1998 and Ms Nurul Nuha recalled how her father had fallen ill in prison in 1999, with a urine sample showing high levels of arsenic.

"It triggers so many memories, especially the ones you don't want to endure again. How many cockroaches are there (in his cell)?" she said, when asked about losing her father again.

But the six siblings used their nervous energy last night to brainstorm ways to fight for the opposition leader's release, having exhausted all court appeals against the sodomy charge which surfaced nearly seven years ago.

While Ms Nurul Izzah, now a confident second-term MP, talked up visits to win support from Malaysians overseas and meet diplomats, other efforts included a "send Anwar a postcard" drive. The cards, which feature a stencilled image of Anwar, are designed by his youngest daughter Nurul Hana, who was six when her father was jailed in 1998.

shannont@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on February 12, 2015.
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