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From: Amir uddin (surat pembaca)
Date: 03 May 1999
Time: 04:12:56
TODAY, Friday April 30th, 1999
Wan Azizah, 'Cory Aquino of Malaysia' By Dan Mariano
At least one Manila daily got it wrong when it headlined that Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail is in Manila "to gain support for her husband."
The husband of the Dublin-trained ophthalmologist is, of course, Anwar Ibrahim, the former deputy prime minister and finance minister of Malaysia who has been transformed - for sure, unintentionally - by his former mentor, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, into Southeast Asia's most famous "prisoner of conscience."
In Manila for a three-day visit, Wan Azizah is among million of Filipino friends and sympathizers, which include President Joseph Estrada and former President Corazon Aquino. Contrary to the daily's headline, Wan Azizah already has their support, arguably the strongest and most open among the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nation, for her persecuted husband.
Accompanying Wan Azizah, 49, is daughter Nurulizzah, at 18 the eldest of six children, who has taken leave of her engineering studies to help in the campaign for reformasi in Malaysia and, as she put it, "stand up for the family honor."
Yesterday, mother and daughter, who both look even more attractive than they already do in photographs, were guests at a media breakfast sponsored by the Foundation for Worldwide People Power led by Eugenia Apostol and organized by the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility under Melinda Quintos de Jesus.
Most everyone at the forum had at the back of their mind the Filipinos' own struggle against one-man rule and the striking similarities between the anti-Marcos movement that accelerated following the assassination of former senator Benigno Aquino Jr. and the mounting prodemocracy movement that erupted in traditionally docile Malaysia following the arrest, trial and imprisonment of Anwar on corruption charges.
Anwar, 51, has been sentenced to six years in prison, but faces even longer incarceration should he also be declared guilty of sodomy.
At the media breakfast yesterday, Wan Azizah seemed more relaxed than she apparently was when she first met reporters at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport on her arrival Wednesday. She exhibited a sense of humor, which the international media have never commented on. But she quickly turned unmistakably grave when asked how Anwar's persecution has affected her, her family and their closest associates.
"On the surface, everything seem relatively all right," Wan Azizah said. However, some of the people she had regarded as her and her husband's friends suddenly turned cold. The offices of her husband's businessmen-friends and lawyers were ransacked. The tires of supporters were punctured.
Fourteen-year-old Ihsan, the only boy in the Anwar brood, has to put up with the cruel jeering of classmates, who don't seem to understand that the scandalous charges of sodomy and adultery against Anwar are part of a clumsily contrived conspiracy to discredit him in the eyes of his conservative countrymen.
Beyond the harassment, however, Anwar's supporters - especially when they take to the streets to air their grievances - have been manhandled, mauled and thrown behind bars by Malaysian security forces that eagerly do Mahathir's bidding.
None of Anwar's supporters has been known to have been killed, but that's probably only because the entire world is paying close attention to what's unfolding in Malaysia. Not that this has stopped the Malaysian PM and his underlings to go to ridiculous lengths.
Wan Azizah recalled that at one point during the 77-day corruption trial, government prosecutors brought before the court of the blatantly biases Judge Augustine Paul a queen-size mattress that bore 13 spots, allegedly traces of Anwar's seminal fluid left from his purported tryst with another woman.
In rich irony, Wan Azizah commented at the media breakfast: "That must have been some romp."
CONDITIONS in Malaysia now are really no different from what they were before Mahathir decided to bear down on Anwar. What if her husband had not been persecuted, Wan Azizah was asked, would things have turned out differently? Would the reformasi Movement have expired before it was born?
While Anwar may been the number-two man in the Malaysian government, replied Wan Azizah, he was already entertaining doubts about where Mahathir was taking their country. Anwar was a team player, she added, but he began asking questions within the ruling coalition about the mishandling of public funds, cronyism that enriched Mahathir's relatives and business associates and nepotism.
It was when Anwar began to play the role of the quiet devil's advocate that the conspiracy to discredit and boot him out of office began to take shape.
Matters came to a head when he publicly differed with Mahathir on how Malaysia should deal with the Asian financial crisis. Anwar urged openness and transparency in economic policy even as the prime minister launched a program of foreign exchange controls.
The points of no return was reached. Soon thereafter, riot police in full battle fear swooped down on Anwar's house while he was holding a press conference and dragged to a police van the man who only days before had been Malaysia's second highest political leader.
At first, Wan Azizah said, the majority of Malaysians were willing to give Mahathir the benefit of the doubt. He has, after all, been in power for the past 17 years, guiding his country to unprecedented progress and prosperity.
The tide of public opinion began to run, however, after Anwar was seen sporting a black eye inflicted on him by no less than Malaysia's police commissioner.
The arrest and torture of Anwar proved to be the eye-opener, Wan Azizah said, for her and for other Malaysians. "If someone who had been number two could be subjected to this kind of treatment, what more of other Malaysians?"
The wife who had once been "perfectly content" to play the role of Anwar's most dedicated supporter decided it was time to pick up from where he had left off.
Just before Judge Paul declared Anwar guilty of corruption, Wan Azizah and her husband's closest colleagues organized the National Justice Party, which is offering itself as an "alternative" to the ruling coalition under Mahathir. Its launch was attended by the leaders of other opposition groups, an indication that they are ready to rally behind Wan Azizah and turn her into the "Cory Aquino of Malaysia."
By law, Mahathir is obligated to call national elections on or before March 2000. Wan Azizah said that her National Justice Party (Parti Keadilan Nasional in Bahasa - or Keadilan, for short) is committed to field candidates and give the ruling coalition a run for its money.
She added that even within Mahathir's party, she and her husband can count on many silent supporters.
Wan Azizah, however, said she has no illusions that it will be an easy campaign. She noted that Malaysia's economy seems to be recovering from its recession, which must have been a big factor in motivating Malaysians to take to the streets in unprecedented numbers several months back.
Yet, even if the economy does rebound, added Wan Azizah, the struggle for democracy, human rights, justice and the equitable distribution of national wealth would have to continue. In this campaign she doesn't see herself as someone who is merely keeping her husband's seat warm.