But last Tuesday, Mahathir gathered UMNO state party chiefs at his residence, across the road from Anwar's own, and reportedly presented the allegations against Anwar. He also detailed some of the charges against the former tennis partner, businessman Solaimalai Nallakaruppan. He has been held in custody for five weeks and interrogated mainly on personal matters. According to an affidavit released by his lawyer, Nallakaruppan has been "continuously reminded that I would hang under the ISA [Internal Security Act] for the bullets, that my wife, too, would be arrested and that my children would be neglected and would be homeless. In exchange for my freedom I was asked to agree to such statements as the police would place before me."
Last Wednesday, according to Anwar, Mahathir gave him a choice: resign or be sacked--and, if he chose the latter, the Prime Minister said he should be prepared to face charges. "I made it clear in no uncertain terms," Anwar told the press last week, "that I'm not prepared to submit to this political conspiracy to undermine my position and defeat me through nasty deeds. I challenged him to use democratic means to unseat me." At the end of their discussion, Anwar says, he told Mahathir that he respected him as much as his own father. ("Although," he added, "not all fathers treat their children very fairly.") That night Mahathir dismissed him in a three-sentence missive, and hundreds of Anwar's supporters surrounded his official residence chanting slogans in his favor.
With Mahathir firmly in control of UMNO, Anwar's challenge may well be short-lived. The political obituaries of Anwar, a mere Deputy Prime Minister, were striking in their despairing tone. "He was a link between Western civilization and Asia's," announced Thailand's deputy Foreign Minister Sukhumbhand Paribatra. "I am sorry and regret it." News-papers in Asia took an even harder line. "The current political crisis in Malaysia," thundered The Nation, a Bangkok daily, "is about the struggle between the authoritarian rule of one man and his cronies and democracy and civil society."
While the average citizen was grabbed by the political headlines--Anwar Implicated in Sexual Misconduct trumpeted Friday's New Straits Times--Malaysia's businessmen and the neighboring countries struggled to figure out Mahathir's new economic program. The Prime Minister said earlier he was prepared to announce something "shocking"--and that's what he did. In an attempt to stop the outside world from dictating the fate of his currency, Kuala Lumpur announced that all ringgits held outside of Malaysia had to be returned: ringgit trading would be done entirely within the country's own borders, except with permission from the central bank. Foreigners would no longer be allowed to sell stocks and repatriate funds unless a year has passed since the purchase. And the ringgit was officially fixed at an exchange rate of 3.8 to the U.S. dollar--its strongest rate in several months.
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R E L A T E D S T O R I E S :
COVER STORY Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad banishes Anwar
CRANKY OLD MAN The PM has a history of lashing out
VIEWPOINT Mahathir rails against financial orthodoxy
INTERVIEW Anwar explains what went wrong
OUT OF LINE Where does the ex-heir go from here?
POLL Does former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim have a future in Malaysian politics?
POLL Will the new currency controls help or hurt the Malaysian economy?
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