By A Sam Lini - Free Malaysia Today
FULL REPORT PETALING JAYA: Singapore government, including its senior minister Lee Kuan Yew, believes that Malaysian Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim “did indeed commit the acts for which he is currently indicted”.This was revealed by WikiLeaks through a release of a US state department cable issued in November 2008. The cable was exclusively released to Australian daily The Sun-Herald and widely reported by other Australian newspapers today.
The cable, which quoted exchanges between the Singaporean intelligence services and an Australian agency, stated: ''The Australians said that Singapore's intelligences services and [Singaporean elder statesman] Lee Kuan Yew have told ONA in their exchanges that opposition leader Anwar 'did indeed commit the acts for which he is currently indicted'.''
ONA stands for Australia’s Office of National Assessments
The document further stated the Singaporeans told ONA they made this assessment on the basis of ''technical intelligence'', which is likely to relate to intercepted communications.
According to a Sydney Morning Herald report today, the ONA also recorded as saying that Anwar's political enemies engineered the circumstances from which the sodomy charges arose.
''ONA assessed, and their Singapore counterparts concurred, 'it was a set-up job and he probably knew that, but walked into it anyway','' the cable stated, according to Sydney Morning Herald.
Anwar has always denied accusations that he sodomised anyone. He also blamed the BN-led government's conspiracy to topply him by making the sodomy accusations against him.
He once again threw accusations against the Malaysian police over the cable leaks as reported by the Australian media.
Anwar blames special branch
Responding through his twitter account, Anwar said there was no proof to pin him as a person involved in sodomy and claimed that the original source of the claims was Malaysia’s Special Branch police.
“Source? Polis SB Msia. Bukti tak ada (Who is the source? Malaysian police special branch. There is no proof whatsoever)” Anwar replied.
In his earlier tweet, he merely laughed off the matter by stating: “Source? Msian SB ha ha”
Anwar is presently facing his second sodomy charge after being convinced and jailed in 1999 on charges of corruption and sodomy after a falling out with then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
The sodomy conviction was later overturned and was freed from jail in 2004.
He was however charged again in 2008 with committing sodomy on his former aid. Anwar has maintained the case against him was fabricated and trumped up by his political enemies who fear his political resurgence.
The trial in presently underway.
DAP, PAS leaders fooled?
The disclosure that the Singaporea government believes that Anwar was guilty as charged will only increase the attacks on the opposition leader by BN leaders.
“Anwar will have to respond to this fresh claims to clear his name. He can't just blame the special branch by accusing them of leaking false information to the Singaporeans,” said a political observer.
“The Singapore intellengence agency is not stupid to blindly accept every rumour. Anwar will have to come clean.
“This will also mean DAP and PAS leaders will have to ask Anwar to come clean with them. Or are they pretending not to know anything for the sake of politics? Or have they been fooled?” he asked.
So far opposition leaders like DAP's Lim Kit Siang and PAS' Abdul Hadi Awang have not commented on this new leak.
Meanwhile, PKR vice-president Tian Chua was quoted by AFP sa dismissing the revelations as "hearsay".
"There is no doubt that this is a trumped-up charge," he said. "If the claim is true... it would have been relatively easy for the government to prove it."
"We cannot depend on what the foreign intelligence officials say. The question is whether the government has evidence to convict Anwar in court."
PKR sec-gen: Just a series of tirade
Meanwhile PKR's secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said the leaked cable contained a high degree of personal opinions on not just Anwar but also on other Malaysian leaders, including Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaludin.
He added that the cable should be “viewed in the context of the broad criticism of its (Singapore's) foreign officials against Malaysia, with nobody being spared.
“PKR maintains that those views and assessments are their own personal views that do not contain any facts – otherwise Najib will have a tough time explaining similarly damaging allegations against him made by the same Singaporean officials and leaked by the same set of cables,” he added.
He also pointed out that the leaked cable was “nothing but a series of tirades against anyone or anything that is not Singapore that continues a long history of vituperation against Malaysia coming from the Singaporean establishment”.
Confused and dangerous politicians
Meanwhile, Sydney Morning Herald also said that the cable also revealed some of the inner thoughts of senior Singaporean officials, including claims that:
* Malaysia is in a ''confused and dangerous'' state due to its incompetent politicians;
* Thailand's political elite are dogged by ''corruption'' and the country's crown prince is ''very erratic and easily subject to influence'';
* Japan and India were struggling to deal with China's influence due to their ''stupid'' behaviour;
* and some Asian leaders wanted the junta to retain power in Burma to ensure the country's stability.
Just cocktail talk
In another development, Singapore said the leaked reports by WikiLeaks should not be taken out of context.
"Any communication must not be taken out of context," Foreign Affairs Minister George Yeo was quoted by local media as saying to reporters who asked him on private comments made by his senior ministry officials on foreign leaders in the region.
Yeo added that diplomatic relations could not be done "on the basis that there is a camera in the room recording everything", and that when that happened, "we lose something".
He also said that sometimes it was in the nature of "cocktail talk" where "people say things in a blunt forthright way, and we should not divorce, even if true, what is said from the context".
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