April 14th 2008

Mark this date on your calendar. Yeah, i know, it is 2 months Valentine's Day, but i am actually not commenting on that. Haha. Today, 14th April is the date that Anwar Ibrahim, the de facto leader of PKR Malaysia will be officially back in politics. As told PKR will staged a big rally in KL today.


About 20,000 people attended a rally in central Kuala Lumpur tonight to mark the expiry of Anwar Ibrahim ban from public office, a decade after he was sacked as deputy prime minister. The crowd defied a ban on the event which was held in Kampung Baru despite scores of riot police were deployed in the futile attempt to stop the illegal gathering.
"We have not issued any permits for the gathering. I advise all the supporters not to attend it. The gathering is banned," city police chief Muhammad Sabtu Osman told AFP earlier today.
At about 9.15pm, Anwar took the stage to tell his supporters to wait two weeks on whether he would be running for parliamentary seat and return to active politics.
PKR bagged 31 seats in last month's general elections and Anwar had said that one of the parliamentarians would resign so that the party de facto leader could contest in a subsequent by-election.In his speech, Anwar also attacked his nemesis, former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad, and accused him of abuse of power.
"He has made the judiciary worse. He is worried that I'll be the next PM," he said.Anwar also lambasted Najib Abdul Razak, saying that the prime minister-in-waiting was "not fit" to assume the post.After speaking for one hour, Anwar was told by the police to stop the gathering.
He subsequently told the crowd that he would "lead by example" and requested the crowd to disperse.
Once seen as the heir apparent to long-time leader Mahathir, Anwar was subsequently convicted on sex and corruption charges and spent six years in jail, before storming back to prominence in March elections.
With Anwar at the helm, a reinvigorated opposition seized a third of parliamentary seats and five states in the worst ever showing for the Barisan Nasional coalition that has ruled for half a century.
Now the 60-year-old maverick is once again being touted as a future prime minister, but this time for his Pakatan Rakyat opposition alliance which he has described as a "government-in-waiting".
The sodomy charges were later dropped but the corruption count prevented him from standing for public office until tomorrow.

Taken from Malaysiakini.