Malaysia's Anwar Botches Sex Accusations Case
As usual, the cover-up looks worse than the alleged offense
For the third time in his long political career, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is finding himself ensnared in allegations of sexual misconduct that are likely to damage his reputation if not his status as premier, this time as much because of his and his government’s attempts to evade trouble as because of the charges against him.
Embarrassing as it is, it’s probably unlikely that, given the current political situation, the affair would bring him down. Political mavens believe the country’s moderate voters are more alarmed by the potential menace of a government headed by the rural Islamist Parti Islam se-Malaysia, or PAS, if Anwar’s government were to fall and an election were held.
The case, which has roiled Malaysian politics for weeks, providing titillating gossip among the governing classes, involves a then-young research assistant to Anwar named Mohammed Yusoff Rawther, who charged that Anwar, who had been pardoned by the king only a few months earlier on charges of sexual assault and had taken a seat in parliament, had lured Yusoff to his home on October 10, 2018 in the Segambut section of Kuala Lumpur by asking for the delivery of a speech text.
Then, according to the suit filed in Kuala Lumpur’s High Court, Anwar allegedly tried to kiss him, opened his pants and instructed Yusoff to take his penis in his hand, squeezed his buttocks and asked, “Please lah, Yusoff, just a blowjob.” A variety of hugs, attempted kisses and blandishments followed before Yusoff escaped, but not before Anwar allegedly told him, “Eventually you will come around, I am going to be the prime minister one day, you know.”
Anwar Ibrahim was 72 at the time. Yusoff, on the other hand, was 26. The aide, allegedly vowing never to be alone with Anwar again, nonetheless continued working in his office until May 5, 2019 when, according to the complaint, he was jumped by Anwar’s political secretary, Farhash Wafa Salvador Rizal Mubarak, who beat the tar out of him, injuring him seriously enough to send him to the hospital, which Yusoff interpreted “as a way of sending Plaintiff a strong message and to teach the Plaintiff a lesson for rejecting the Defendant’s sexual advances on the day of the sexual assault incident.”
That was enough for Yusoff, who resigned and, on July 12, 2019, filed a police report against Anwar, gave a recorded statement and voluntarily took and passed a lie detector test, which Anwar, according to the statement, refused to do, saying the case was baseless and was an attempt by his political enemies to get him. Later, Tommy Thomas, the attorney general at the time, declined to prosecute, issuing a statement that there was insufficient evidence to file a case. Yusoff refused to be deterred, on November 11, filing a sworn declaration describing his ordeal. Then he sued, alleging psychological and sociological disturbance, serious traumatic disturbance, loss of respect and damage to or loss of reputation and seeking damages.
Twice before, Anwar has faced sexual perversion charges and triumphed both time despite conviction, branding the charges – with good reason – as trumped-up to sabotage his political career. This time it may not be as easy, not because Yusoff’s charges are any more provable in court, since they only depend on his version of events, but because of what happened to Yusoff after he filed charges. Unlike the two previous cases, Anwar’s accuser can’t credibly be accused of being a political plant by government officials, since Yusoff was recommended by a longtime Anwar ally, the late S. Mohamad Idris, one of the seminal reform figures of Malaysian politics and an Anwar friend, although Yusoff “had disciplinary issues,” according to court documents.
Not only was Yusoff allegedly beaten up by Farhash – which Farhash has denied along with filing libel charges – while continuing to pursue the case against Anwar, Yusoff last September 6 found himself surrounded by police from Malaysia’s elite Special Branch as he emerged from his condo, who demanded to search his car – a week after he submitted a list of witnesses for the suit against Anwar. When he unlocked the car for them, they searched it and found two fake pistols and 305 grams of cannabis. Prior to the 2023 abolition of the death penalty, 200 grams of cannabis or more brought a possible sentence of either death or life imprisonment in addition to at least 12 strokes of the cane.
Yusoff was charged with trafficking and possessing two imitation firearms under the Arms Act, which provides for a maximum penalty of one year in prison, a fine of up to RM5,000 or both, and put in solitary confinement, where he moldered for nine months – on Malaysia’s Death Row in Sungai Buloh Prison, while maintaining he’d been framed.
Anwar, in the meantime, sought to invoke legal immunity from Yusoff’s civil suit, insisting as prime minister he deserved to be protected from claims he argued were politically motivated and designed to interfere with his official duties. The High Court denied Anwar’s application, stating that the prime minister was “seeking to create new immunity where none exists constitutionally.” The appellate court subsequently intervened, postponing the trial pending the resolution of the constitutional challenge. Now, say Anwar’s critics, he has appealed the immunity case to a court of his own appointees, raising wider concerns that he is attempting to use formerly independent courts the way his predecessors Mahathir Mohamad and Najib Razak were notorious for.
When Yusoff was finally able to appear in court two weeks ago, the prosecution was humiliated when High Court Judge Jamil Hussin ruled it had failed to establish a case, a clear indication the ganja and fake pistols had been planted in his car. Yusoff’s legal team wasn’t even required to enter a defense. Yusoff’s case has been delayed until July because of Anwar’s immunity appeal. After recovering from the embarrassment, the attorney general appealed the acquittal to the Appeals Court, where the matter sits.
The affair adds up to a monumental embarrassment to Anwar, Special Branch, and anyone else connected with it. It’s uncertain how far Yusoff’s case would have gone beyond a momentary embarrassment. Much of the alleged assault was in the form of gestures and entreaties, with no physical evidence, meaning Yusoff may not have a provable case beyond his own word. But Anwar is universally believed to have engineered the entrapment and the nine-month stint on death row. His attempt to claim legal immunity on a thin reed rather than facing his accuser makes it more problematic.
“Anwar can’t say this is a state conspiracy against him this time as the last two charges were, this time he is the state,” said a Kuala Lumpur-based lawyer who asked not to be quoted by name. “Why should a private citizen make this allegation and dare solitary confinement? This is an ordinary Joe who was fondled. It looks like the might of the state trying to shut him up, and for what reason? There was no evidence, no witnesses, so it’s badly done. It’s very bad for him, it’s clear he doesn’t want it to go any further.”
Yusoff appeared triumphantly after his acquittal on the drug and weapons charges, telling supporters his release was a victory for all Malaysians and that he was pressing ahead with the civil suit, according to local media. A relatively shaky case looks certain to cause more trouble for the premier at a time when his stock is falling for other reasons.
1. On the latest: It says a hell of a lot when ethnic-authoritarian countries like Singapore and Malaysia, the former for Chinese and the latter for Malay-Muslims, scandalise themselves and think they can get away with lies, cover-ups and associated shenanigans. For Singapore t have suggested for years that that regime and country is incorruptible was always laughable. And then it was found out with its own ministers and its bureaucracy -- both over matters related to wealth hoarding and money laundering, not to mention the regime's links to wealthy crony businesspeople. And it's good that Singapore was exposed for all that it isn't. It isn't clean. But to block or ban Asia Sentinel says how cowardly the PAP regime has always been and remains so. The solution is simple: Can't stand the heat, get the hell out of the kitchen. But stop the malingering, the lies and the subterfuge.
2. Malaysia: Poor, pitiful, disastrously racist, chronically corrupt Malays run by yet another Malay-ist, basically racist so-called Madani regime that can't seem to decide on key policies, whose regime is littered with apple polishers, especially the Chinese DAP who've become strangely meek and cowardly, who never has mentioned its cry for a so-called Malaysian Malaysia. Just as the incompetent Anwar Ibrahim has swiftly junked his long-promised reforms (it's not surprising from one who, like his predecessors, speaks with two tongues and wears two faces, a pretentious, self-professed intellect) that the all-hot-air Loke's DAP has sold out Malaysians from under their big noses and clamped up for the sake of its minuscule power in a Malay-racist, un-rebendably corrupt Malay regime. Most caught for corruption, albeit small-fry, are Malay-Muslims. So much for their Islamic principles. What a bleeding joke.
3. And now Anwar thinks he can do a Trump and a Lee Kuan Yew and keep the judiciary pliant, to keep the courts in his pockets, that he is suddenly above the law, that he does not have to answer to deadly serious questions about the case before him, or indeed about his alleged sexuality. Even his idiotic stunt to pal up with Hamas terrorists, the killers and suppressors of their own Palestinian people, was so harebrained that one wonders about his ability to think carefully before shooting his mouth off. I can't wait for the Israelis to wipe Hamas and Hezbollah killer scum from the face of the Earth. Vermin like them and their sponsors in Iran and Qatar should be rightly condemned. But here's Anwar who pretends he's already an international statesman, like his former boss and mentor Mahathir Mohamad. Only their sycophantic morons in Malaysia would vouch for Anwar's statesmanship in the way they did Mahathir's, when most others can see right through these third-rate clowns.
4. Of course Anwar does not like to be criticised. And sho he unleashed his attack dog, information and communications hotshot, Fahmi Goebbels Fadzil to "block" Asia Sentinel. because like Anwar, he's a coward. Too lily-livered to face criticisms and answer his critics. Just look at the numbers of Indians, Chinese and Malay supporters who have been railing against the corrupt, racist, incompetent, cowardly Madani regime. calling on Anwar to resign for his constant flip-flopping (like the imbecile Trump). He's a beauty from Anwar, the self-appointed finance minister, saying that everybody pays the GST. So moronic. Shows how much he knows his own country's economy and taxation system. Kepala bapak kamu! Fact is, not everybody in Malaysia pays their taxes. This is a fact going back decades. How bloody ignorant is Anwar. There are businesses up and down the production and supply chains that either minimise taxes or hide their incomes or lie about them and frankly avoid paying the right tax amounts. The sam for GST and the same for his looney SST caper. The guy's a twit!