Anwar at funeral procession

Music

02:00

Williams: In April this year Anwar Ibrahim was freed from jail to bury his mother. But for Malaysia’s former deputy prime minister, her funeral would be but a brief respite from prison walls.

02:17

Music

Williams: Anwar’s jail term is clearly taking its toll - wheel-chair bound he is in constant pain with a back injury sustained supporter’s say from a police bashing. To see Anwar like this drives home the enormity of the injustice committed against him.

02:36

Anwar & Supporters

Only four years ago, this was Anwar Ibrahim -- the man once groomed to rule Malaysia is serving fifteen years for trumped up charges of sodomy and abuse of power when his only real crime was to challenge Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed.

03:05

The government’s repression of the opposition has widened to include not only the supporters of Anwar, but any of those opposed to the government of Dr Mahathir.

03:29

Music

Streets of Kuala Lumpur

Williams: On the morning of April tenth Malaysia’s tropical humidity was already rising as commuters headed for work. Among them though were several whose support for Anwar Ibrahim made them enemies of the state and they were about to feel the full force of police power.

03:54

Raja

Raja: And suddenly a bunch of guys jumped out and started banging on our car and asked me to open the door. They said we are arresting you under the Internal Security Act. We have reason to believe you are a threat to national security, and that's it.

04:14

Protest Rally

Williams: The ISA is meant to target those who threaten to violently overthrow of the state. Using it, can be detained without evidence for two years. The sentence can be rolled over for as long as the government deems necessary But it’s now being used as the main instrument of political repression.

Raja

Super:

Raja Petra Kamaruddin

Freeanwar.com

Raja: We shout on the streets, like all demonstration, you know, 'Mahathir step down free Anwar' things like that, but they say we plan to bring in guns, bombs, rocket launchers, grenade launchers and stuff like that that we were arrested on grounds that we were part of a conspiracy to bring in all these bombs and guns.

05:03

Williams: Was there ever any plan by you and the opposition members to use, to acquire weapons?

Raja: Of course not for the simple reason we don’t know how to use them, you know, and the other reason is if we were to topple this government through armed revolution we would not get the support of the democratic world.

05:26

Williams: Raja Petra Kamaruddin was released after two months of police interrogation. He’s fearlessly returned to publish websites and newspapers -- essential voices for the opposition against a state-run media.

05:51

Public rally

Only a year ago, this was the level of public support Anwar’s opposition party generated - public rallies that doubled as markets of information.

06:07

Williams: After her husband’s jailing Dr Wan Azizah Ismail became president of his opposition Keadilan Party, backed by youth wing leader Ezam Nor.

06:30

Ezam at rally

Ezam : Are you surprised by the turnout here today.

Nor: Quite expected really. Of course it is a very big crowd, but especially after the verdict, this is actually a normal turnout fr4om the people.

06:41

Williams: Together they travelled the country in a series of road shows, regularly drawing crowds of ten thousand people or more every night.

06:57

But Mahathir has now banned any outdoor meeting greater than three people.

Wan Azizah

Williams: Wan Azizah’s appearances are now reduced to small halls.

07:20

On a sweltering afternoon, eighty loyal supporters brave potential retribution to hear her word. But even during our interview Wan Azizah is being closely watched by police ready to arrest her at any time.

Super:

Dr. Wan Azizah

President, Parti Keadilan

Wan Azizah: I have been interrogated a few times now under the Sedition Act, and I've undergone these moments where they question me for hours. Well I have been warned that if I continue I may face repercussions.

07:43

Williams: How do you know what sort of support you've got?

Wan Azizah: By the sympathy that I get from many, many people if I walk in the street, I go to the ground. They tell me, and whisper sometimes, you know, of course furtively because we are all being watched and I think probably now too, you can sense that you are being watch.

Williams: As we speak.

Wan Azizah: As we speak.

08:06

Ezam at rally

Williams: With Anwar in prison it was his former political secretary Ezam Nor who became the opposition’s most dynamic face.

08:35

Ezam

As the road show rolled on, Ezam developed the charismatic style of his former boss, and was also forging key alliances with other opposition parties.

08:47

Just days after this speech to the influential Islamic PAS party Ezam was rounded up in Mahathir’s April crackdown and is now in jail under the ISA with 68 other charges pending.

09:02

Ezam’s letter

In a letter smuggled from his cell, Ezam outlines what he believes to be the real reason for his detention.

09:21

All ten individuals detained are active elements of reform in their own way. They are not related to any security threat in any way. They are a threat to the political domination of Mahathir’s government. The whole process is to break one’s spirit and destroy one’s resolve. I was asked to strip blindfolded and handcuffed almost all the time except when I was in my cell.

09:29

Bahirah & family

Williams: Ezam’s wife, Bahirah, is now bringing up three children alone. But solidarity comes from others whose lives have been destroyed by the ISA -- all insist their husbands, fathers and brothers are peaceful pro-democracy activists, not threats to national security.

10:04

Bahirah: That allegation is so much ridiculous, because my husband is a very peaceful loving man. What he wants to see is the country that can uphold justice and maintain its democracy as it truly means, not as what a dictator means.

10:28

Ezam Nor in prison

Williams: Ezam Nor is now jailed in a remote prison camp. He travels frequently the three hours to Kuala Lumpur to face a range of charges. When he appeared in court last month he told us it’s not him on trial, but Dr Mahathir.

10:51

And in a recent affidavit presented in court, Ezam detailed how police focused simply on his opposition to the Prime Minister.

11:21

I was asked about my political stand and the reasons for my opposing Dr Mahathir -- no problems on internal security arose, there was no interrogation concerning national security. It was an experience shared by Raja Petra.

11:35

Raja

Raja: My crimes were all about my articles, my writings, my activities, especially the free Anwar campaign, they wanted to know our networking, who we know, what we have done, who we have been in contact with. All the foreign media that we have been talking to, you know. Foreign embassies that we have been meeting and so on and so forth. So the way I see it, they were just trying to size up our networking and our strength. Trying to find out who we know, who we have met, who we have spoken to, and therefore how strong we are.

11:52

Williams: So nothing to do with national security?

Raja: Oh no

Williams: More to do with your political beliefs.

Raja: Correct.

Williams: And your opposition to Mahathir.

Raja: Correct. Why do you support Anwar, what has Anwar done for you? Answar's done nothing for you, why do you want to support him?

12:28

Prayer vigil

Singing

12:41

Williams: This was a prayer vigil for Ezam – but in Mahathir’s Malaysia even candles and flowers are now considered national security risks.

Police arrest

Arrests of political opponents are not new in Malaysia, but Dr. Mahathir has never before cracked down like this.

And it’s not just opposition veterans who are now being targeted.

13:05

Khairul Anuar was detained for 23 days.

13:33

He regularly volunteers his time to tutor slum kids – but in June was arrested for being an enemy of the state.

Khairul

Khairul: They said that I have threatened the national security, but I strongly believe that I was detained because they want to crack down on the student movement and my group, because we’re quite involved in reformasi.

13:47

University of Malaya

Williams: A fire in this University of Malaya hall was the pretext for Khairul's arrest. It was later found to be sparked by faulty wiring, but in a now familiar pattern, police questioned Khairul, not on his alleged arson, but on his politics and support for Anwar.

14:12

Khairul

Khairul: They told me that Anwar is really a person that you can’t trust. Anwar is a liar to the people. Actually they want to brainwash me, they want to turn me over. It's a process of turning over, brainwash, and they want to read my mind, the idea of the young generation what we are not happy with the state.

14:32

Anti-Mahathir rally

Williams: Anti-Mahathir feeling is now everywhere – even among his previously faithful Muslim supporters. In the last election a massive protest vote against Mahathir made the Islamic PAS Party Malaysia’s biggest opposition party.

15:09

Nik Aziz

PAS leader Nik Aziz admits gaining from the Anwar factor – but says Malays are tiring of Mahathir’s increasing repression and his ruling party’s corruption.

15:28

Nik: There is another more serious issue which relating to state security and that’s the economy of the country where huge amounts of government money, public funds have disappeared.

15:38

ISA at political rally

Williams: Dr. Mahathir has reacted to the PAS threat by again employing the ISA. This time, to arrest Muslims for alleged militancy.

15:52

Jomo

Super:

Prof. K.S. Jomo

Political Scientist

Jomo: The government hopes that by arresting and eliminating some of the more activist leaders of Keadilan and the youth wing of the Islamic party, this will frighten Muslims from being involved with the opposition.

16:02

Islamic Prayer meeting

Williams: On August second – police arrested ten Islamic party members, accusing them of running a militant cell seeking the violent overthrow of government. They included the son of party leader Nik Aziz.

16:29

Williams: Can I ask for the record, sir, can you categorically rule out the possibility that your son was running a militant Islamic cell.

16:47

Nik: I do not agree with the action taken. If the government has evidence and they want to arrest my son they can do that - but in Islam if there is no evidence we cannot arrest people and if there’s no evidence in a democracy we cannot arrest people – yet that’s what they did.

16:57

Malaysian Jail

Williams: Nik Aziz’s son and eight others have been jailed without trial or any proof of militancy for two years. And the arrests continue -- two weeks ago, six more PAS members were arrested.

17:21

Jomo

Jomo: My own suspicion is that most of these people happen to be among the more effective and active youth activists in PAS and hence they have been targeted.

17:37

ISA arrests

Music

Williams: This use of the ISA to now stifle political opposition seriously undermines Malaysia’s claim of being a modern democratic state.

17:59

Jomo

Jomo: Sooner or later there is going to be increasing frustration with these very, very severe constraints which restrict civil liberties and democratic rights in very, very fundamental ways, and when that happens the legitimacy of the entire system is going to be at stake.

18:15

ISA arrests

Williams: One year after Anwar was jailed, many of his supporters are now also in prison.

18:35

Mahathir in parliament

Public rallies are restricted, the threat of arrest has driven opposition activity underground. Getting away with the jailing of Anwar has emboldened Asia’s longest serving leader to the point where Mahathir is now willing to destroy his nation’s civil liberties in a ruthless drive to retain power.

Credits:

Malaysia

Reporter: Evan Williams

Camera: Marc Laban

Editor: Stuart Miller

Producer: Virginia Moncrieff

19:12