ANWAR UNDER FIRE FOR DITCHING FRIENDS IN THE U.S.

KUALA LUMPUR, May 4 (Bernama) -- Opposition leader Anwar
Ibrahim's recent outburst against the government for saying that it had
appointed a pro-Israel public relations firm, APCO Worldwide, and that the Royal
Malaysia Police had engaged the services of former Israeli agents for an
information and communication project has come under fire from an American
right-wing website.

Rachel Motte, writing in The New Ledger, an American web publication which
publishes right-of-centre opinions, said Anwar had now effectively trashed his
old friends in Washington and had used the APCO Worldwide contract as an excuse
to spin a dark conspiracy theory of Jewish control, Zionist plots, and
subversion in Malaysia.

She also said that his lieutenants had alleged, among other things, that
the government had engaged a company that had a close tie with the Zionist
regime in Israel in reference to the information and communication project.

In her article, "The Reversal of Anwar Ibrahim", she identified Anwar, whom
she described as a charismatic firebrand of a politician, for the resurgence of
anti-Semitism in Malaysia.

And she said this was also not the first time that "he has gone down this
road" and that he "has a history of Jew-baiting (prejudice or hostility against
Jews) when expediency calls for it".

Citing an example, she said that in 2008, with the general election
approaching, Anwar had mentioned in an interview with IslamOnline that he had
evidence to prove that the government was backing the Jewish lobby in the United
States and even some parties inside Israel.

Motte said it was to the credit of the Malaysian electorate that Anwar's
opposition coalition failed to win a majority in the election.

She said that upon Anwar's release from jail about 10 years ago, he went to
Washington D.C. and spent the past decade cultivating a genteel, enlightened
image in the West.

"Otherwise informed American observers of foreign affairs have adopted him
as an exemplar of liberal Southeast Asian and/or Muslim democratic governance.

"Just a few years ago, he was invited to teach for a year at Johns Hopkins
School of Advanced International Studies, from which he cultivated the
acquaintances of eminent Jewish Americans like Paul Wolfowitz — as a means of
showing just how far behind him was his own militant Islamist past.



"Indeed, as recently as 2008, (former vice president) Al Gore -- usually a
savvy and perceptive man -- could be found posting on his blog in defence of
Anwar's dignity in the face of criticism.

"That’s big-name Western approval one can’t buy -- but one can work hard for
it with the right enemies and media outreach inside the Beltway (a phrase that
is used to characterise parts of the real or imagined American political system
and is named after the interstate highways that encircle the American capital)."

Motte also noted that Anwar's cultivation of relations with influential
Jewish Americans gave rise to a perception that if one were to ask a
well-informed American as to who the liberal democrat was in Malaysia between
1999 and 2009, he or she might well have said, "Anwar Ibrahim."

"But does Anwar Ibrahim’s portrayal of himself outside Malaysia match Anwar
Ibrahim’s actions within his own country?" she questioned.

Unfortunately, Motte said, Anwar had decided to make his mark in domestic
Malaysian politics -- away from CNN, Al Gore, and Johns Hopkins -- as an
anti-American, anti-Semitic demagogue.

Motte wrote that "in looking for America’s friends in the Muslim world, it’s
often difficult to know the Good Guy from the Bad Guy."

"But it’s a good rule of thumb that the politician promulgating anti-Semitic
conspiracy theories is not a friend of America," she said in reference to Anwar.

Motte said the events of the past few months in Malaysia had made crystal
clear a strange role reversal: it’s opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim who is
whipping up anti-Semitic sentiment -- and it’s Prime Minister Najib
Tun Razak who is, for better or worse, standing firm with President Barack Obama
and the United States.

The writer asserted that it was often hard to figure out who were America’s
real friends and allies in the Muslim world, aside from the King and Queen of
Jordan, a handful of emirates in the Gulf, and the Saudi royals.


"Take the strange case of Malaysia, for example. The Malaysian state and its
ruling party are broadly constructive and cooperative with the United States --
but its political opposition is another story. And that’s the reverse of what
often gets portrayed in Western media," she pointed out.

Motte said the "present Malaysian leadership is pro-business, pro-American
and prepared to stand up and be counted in the Muslim world as a strategic U.S.
ally."

During the recent Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, she said, Najib
also pledged to assist the US on numerous fronts.

Motte said Malaysia’s reputation as a majority-Muslim nation known for
moderation and stability had been hard won in this decade, and a result of the
leadership of the present prime minister and his immediate predecessor, Abdullah
Ahmad Badawi.

-- BERNAMA




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