With Anwar Ibrahim, the de facto opposition leader of Malaysia, holed up in the Turkish embassy, the country’s reputation as a stable, modern and democratic country is, once again, under international scrutiny. And, this goes beyond the internationalization of the dispute between Anwar and the ruling establishment purely.

Rather, coming at the heels of Myanmar’s junta to extend the house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi—coupled with Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s attempt to seek refuge in the Dutch embassy—the Malaysian drama can only weather on with these parallels in mind. Neither of which are complimentary to Malaysia, to say the least.

Thus, Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi should hasten to provide the security guarantee and assurance that Anwar Ibrahim seeks, without which the proverbial taint of Myanmar and Mugabe would prove difficult to remove if prolonged.

This would be tragic to the standing of Abdullah Badawi in particular, as he is perhaps the singlemost important factor, why the country has not had any incidence of violence after the 12th General Election, where the ruling party lost more than five states and the Federal Territory on March 8th.

Should the stand-off persist, the gains in heroic stature and reputation, contrary to what the ruling establishment might think (that Anwar is hiding), can only accrue to Anwar further, however.

This is because Anwar has already been exonerated by the Federal Court of any sexual misconduct before. In the court of public opinion, Anwar has won.

Anwar has also been imprisoned before on trumped up charges of corruption where the evidence was razor thin. Again, he has been triumphant here.

In fact, now that Anwar is eligible to contest in a by-election, the ruling establishment would be accused of resorting to unfair judicial measures, for the second time running, to pre-empt him from seeking public office.

Thus, a swift end is desirous for the image of Malaysia. The duty to protect the opposition, after all, redounds on the incumbent first; notwithstanding the constant talks of an impending cross-over which may or may not occur by September 16th anyway.

As things stand, analysts and pundits have pointed to the return of 1998 when Anwar’s political career was literally cut short.Yet, the past, even given a short interregnum of ten years, is but a pale contrast of what is truly at stake with the latest saga.

A decade ago, it was Dr Mahathir who tried to destroy the political career of Anwar. This time around there is no indication that Abdullah Badawi, who has grown indifferent to Dr Mahathir’s constant attacks of his administration anyway, would deign to use the same methods.

Indeed, granted the extent to which Abdullah Badawi has progressively lost the reins of power since March 8th, the hidden hand that is engineering the current fiasco could be more complex. But if the plot thickens, the swirl of conspiracy is not necessarily advantageous to the ruling government especially if it is intent on winning the next general election.

Not surprisingly, the picture of the accused that has appeared in the Internet, has had him photographed with the special officer of the Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, who too is a nemesis of Anwar.

Anwar, on the other hand, has pointed to the likes of Inspector General Police Musa and Tan Sri Ghani Patail, as two of the culprits, who want to prevent him from exposing the fabrications that led to his downfall a decade earlier.

Regardless of the personalities involved, or the conspiracies at play, the disarray in UMNOmust not result in a spillover that can undermine the country’s good repute as an emerging democracy in Asia writ large.

At a time when Australia, Indonesia, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand are already promoting what is equivalent to a League of Democracy in the guise of ASEAN Plus 6, Malaysia cannot be left out, even as Kuala Lumpur seeks to defend the practicality of ASEAN Plus 3 first.

Nor should Malaysia’s integrity and standing suddenly become the lightning rod in the foreign policy debates of the United States and European Union; just as as the credentials of Myanmar and Zimbabwe have for years been looked upon with much odium.

Malaysia does not have to be a Banana Republic. When South Africa was laboring under the onerous conditions of Apartheid, it was Malaysia that spearheaded the efforts at the Commonwealth to isolate the Pretoria regime.

Having led such democratic efforts before, Malaysia does not have to fall back on the same old argument of demanding its sovereignty; this at the expense of allowing the safe passage of Anwar Ibrahim to proceed with his political career.

by Jin Ming Pan