From New York Times

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — The Malaysian ruling party flew more than a third of government lawmakers to Taiwan on Monday in a hastily arranged trip, ostensibly to study farming techniques.

But the trip was widely interpreted as a desperate government effort to try to stop lawmakers from shifting their support to Anwar Ibrahim.

Mr. Anwar, the country’s most prominent opposition figure, won re-election to Parliament last month after a 10-year absence and needs 30 more seats to oust the current government and form his own. His National Justice Party is openly wooing members of the ruling coalition.

Salehuddin Hashim, the National Justice secretary general, called the trip a “kidnapping” meant to protect the coalition, Barisan National, or National Front, which has ruled Malaysia for 51 years but is fracturing.

“This has obviously nothing to do with agriculture,” Mr. Salehuddin said. “It’s a very clear sign of the anxieties and insecurities inside Barisan.”

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Saudara-saudari dijemput hadir ke Rumah Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim hari ini di Bukit Segambut untuk bersama-sama kita menunaikan solat Maghrib dan solat Tarawikh.

Pejabat Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim

Seusai majelis berbuka puasa bersama teman-teman Indonesia di Jakarta tempoh hari, sahabat saya tokoh sastera Indonesia, Taufik Ismail menghadiahi saya empat jilid karyanya yang berjudul Mengakar Ke Bumi Menggapai Ke Langit, karya yang menandai sudah 55 tahun beliau berjuang di arena kesusasteraan Indonesia.

Saya kira sangat baik sekali usaha seumpama karya ini yang menghimpunkan koleksi puisi lengkap beliau yang ditulis sejak 1953 hingga 2008, juga berupa himpunan tulisan kolum dan artikel sejak 1960 hingga 2008 dan himpunan lirik lagu dari tahun 1972 hingga ke tahun 2008.

ANWAR IBRAHIM

Saudara-saudari dijemput hadir bagi menunjukkan sokongan kepada Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim esok.

Tempat: Kompleks Mahkamah Jalan Duta, Kuala Lumpur
Jam: 9 pagi
Tarikh: Rabu, 10hb September 2008

Pejabat Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim

Reuters | Sep 8, 2008

(Reuters) – Malaysia’s former deputy prime minister and finance minister Anwar Ibrahim is widely respected by foreign investors for his tenure around the time of the Asian financial crisis. However, the cost of insuring Malaysian bonds against default has risen sharply since Anwar’s coalition took a over a third of the seats in Malaysia’s election in March, increasing political risk. The 5-year CDS stood at 140.96 basis points on Monday, up from 91.85 on March 7, the day before the election.

That means it costs almost $141,000 to insure $10 million of Malaysian bonds against default.

Here is an outline of Anwar’s key economic policies, which he says are aimed at taming a budget deficit that will surge to 4.8 percent of gross domestic product this year due to a rise in government spending to 197.21 billion Malaysian ringgit ($56.88 billion): (more…)