‘HEIR APPARENT’ ANWAR OPEN TO BLACKMAIL WITH HIS SEXUALITY, DR M ALLEGES

(Malay Mail Online) – Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad admitted today that he would have not only appointed Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as his successor as prime minister, but would have also supported him had he not found out about the latter’s alleged homosexuality.

In an interview with Sydney-based daily The Australian published yesterday, the former prime minister claimed that Anwar’s alleged homosexuality opened the former deputy prime minister to blackmail and had intimidated his subordinates.

“Different people have different cultures … In the West, what he does is normal, everybody does it, so what? In our society, that is not acceptable. It exposes him to blackmail, you see,” Dr Mahathir told The Australian, referring to Anwar.

“And for a person who is going to lead the country, to have that kind of behaviour is not acceptable. And we see that the people who are under him fear him.”

“So in the West this is not a crime. Our perception of what is criminal and what is not differ, but it is our perception in this country that matters to us. We cannot have a person like that with no moral values,” he added.

Dr Mahathir said he has always made public his support for Anwar, with his 800-page memoir “A Doctor In The House” saying Anwar is not a prime minister today only “because of his own actions”, in reference to Anwar’s sexuality.

“That he would have succeeded me is nothing that I have not said. I knew I had to go. I was prepared to go way back in 1998 after the Commonwealth Games. But because of these things happening, I had to stay back. I am not greedy for power. I wanted to stop earlier,” Dr Mahathir said in the interview.

Anwar is currently serving a five-year jail sentence after his appeal to the Federal Court against his second sodomy conviction was dismissed on February 10.

In 1998, he was sacked as deputy prime minister and finance minister before he was charged with sodomy and corruption. He was convicted and jailed for both offences but the sodomy charge was later overturned.

His sacking triggered widespread uproar, splitting the ruling party Umno and the country’s majority Malays in a leadership crisis that left the Barisan Nasional government vulnerable.

Anwar was freed in September 2004 after spending six years in jail and rose to limelight by winning back his Permatang Pauh parliamentary seat in a by-election in 2008, which he defended in 13th general elections.

Former minister Datuk Zaid Ibrahim has since suggested that Dr Mahathir and Anwar should bury the hatchet on various issues, and work with senior Kelantan Umno lawmaker Tan Sri Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah to boot Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak from government.