KUALA LUMPUR: Two Malaysian political heavyweights have called on opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim to “stop the drama” and leave behind his political career. Their comments come only days after Ibrahim told the Financial Times that he would leave politics and return to teaching if he does not earn a mandate in the upcoming general election, to take place before April next year. Former Penang PKR Wanita chief Aminah Abdullah said Ibrahim should resign “without setting any deadline,” adding that his support across the country is waning among the population. “PKR had a convention in Bayan Baru last Saturday to campaign for the general election but less than 200 turned up. The crowd was lukewarm, too,” she said, as reported by local media on Friday. Abdullah said the opposition leader had “easily attracted tens of thousands of people to his ceramah before, but the latest incident showed he had become unpopular, even in his home state.” Ibrahim currently finds himself under attack from political leaders and a prosecution who want to reopen his sodomy case, which he was acquitted of earlier this year. “After the ceramah ended, he left in a hurry. This showed that he did not have confidence that Pakatan Rakyat would win in the next general election,” she added. Malaysia's top prosecutor in Ibrahim's sodomy case on Wednesday filed another claim to the Appeals Court to “set aside a High Court decision acquitting and discharging Anwar of sodomizing his former aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan." The Bernama news agency referred to the ongoing controversy as the “carnal intercourse" case in a headline on Wednesday, much to the anger of Ibrahim's supporters, who have repeatedly echoed the leader's statements that the case was politically motivated. “It is simply ridiculous that the government and the prosecution take this much effort over the matter that was already decided by the court," said Penang youth leader Mohsen Zaheen via telephone to Bikyamasr.com. The prosecution has also applied to have Ibrahim convicted under Section 377B of the Penal Code on the offence of committing “carnal intercourse against the order of nature." The applications were made on the grounds that High Court Judge Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah, who heard the case, had erred in doubting the integrity of the DNA samples obtained from Mohd Saiful. The prosecution argued that the judge had ruled at the end of the prosecution's case that the “male Y" obtained from the DNA profile analyzed by a chemist, Lee Hong, was from the semen extract which matched the DNA profile obtained from samples taken from the lockup occupied by Ibrahim. In January, a Malaysian court acquitted Ibrahim of the sodomy charges. The Kuala Lumpur High Court said it did not find enough evidence to convict the opposition leader of the charge, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. If found guilty, Ibrahim would have been barred from politics for up to five years as general elections are to be had before April next year. It took only three minutes for High Court Judge Mohamad Zabidin to read his decision after court proceedings took two years to complete. The case started in 2008 when former aide Saiful Bukhari Azlan filed a case against Anwar for allegedly forcing him to have sex in a condominium in the suburbs of Kuala Lumpur. Among the evidence presented were a tube of lubricant and underwear belonging to Saiful. But the judge said there was no evidence to back Saiful's testimony. Thousands of Anwar supporters gathered in front of the court broke into cheers on hearing the verdict. “This is a good day for Malaysia," said a student who only identified herself as Nur. “We need to keep fighting for reforms. We need to win the next elections." Johann Tan, executive director of the local human rights group Pusat Komas, said the decision surprised the whole country, which was expecting a guilty verdict because many Malaysians believed the judiciary is controlled by the government, which Ibrahim wants to replace. Ibrahim himself called the charge politically motivated. “The decision is very refreshing, very encouraging," Tan said. “It is a boost to all of us, not only for those in the government or the opposition but also to the civil society and the Malaysian people as a whole," Ibrahim told reporters in January after the acquittal.
