Pakatan Rakyat to test its strength with no-confidence motion against PM

By Reme Ahmad, The Straits Times

MALAYSIA'S opposition leaders insist their alliance is not cracking under the strain of the sensational sodomy accusations against Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

Indeed, they want to test their strength as early as today after having filed a motion of no-confidence with the Speaker's Office against Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, said a senior official of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR).

'We have filed a notice of a no-confidence motion against Abdullah Badawi.

'It is up to the Speaker when to allow this to be debated. We hope it will be right away,' Mr Saifuddin Nasution, PKR's director of strategy and an MP, told The Straits Times yesterday.

The opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) alliance needs to reverse the negative tide generated by the allegation that its leader Anwar had sodomised a young man.

It hopes that the no-confidence motion would put Prime Minister Abdullah and his government back on the defensive.

The PR alliance consists of the multi-ethnic PKR, the Chinese-led Democratic Action Party (DAP) and conservative Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS).

The role played by Mr Anwar in the alliance has been crucial because he managed to cobble together a cohesive force from three disparate opposition parties.

This union went on to deal the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition its biggest electoral drubbing in the March 8 general election.

But it took some years to convince most PAS leaders to accept Mr Anwar as the opposition de facto leader, analysts pointed out.

This was because Mr Anwar, when he was a top Umno leader, had often attacked PAS. The former deputy prime minister's reputation had also been tarnished by the first allegation of sodomy in 1998.

'This new scandal will weaken Pakatan because there are already conservative groups in PAS who are wary of Anwar. This will make it worse,' said political analyst Sayuti Omar.

But the alliance members disagree.

'As far as PAS is concerned, people are now more than ever with us because they do not believe this old plot,' said PAS vice-president Husam Musa.

The opposition leaders are also confident that Malaysian voters are still with the alliance despite the sensational allegation.

'The Malays were apprehensive of Pakatan due to concerns over loss of Malay rights and respect for the sultan. But now, they can see the fuel price hike and this sodomy allegation which people do not believe,' said Mr Liew Chin Tong, an MP and a strategist for the DAP.

Still, it is not clear if the Speaker of the House will allow the no-confidence motion to be debated.

On June 23, the Deputy Speaker refused to allow debate on an opposition motion over the alleged links of Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak's wife in the murder of a Mongolian interpreter.

Another no-confidence motion that was to have been supported by a small government party from Sabah also did not materialise.

On that same day, a motion on the fuel price increases saw the BN getting 129 votes of support against 78 cast by the Pakatan Rakyat opposition alliance.

BN has 140 MPs in Parliament, while PR has 82.

The opposition says one early and concrete measure of its strong public support was seen at a rally in Ipoh last Sunday, where Mr Anwar was originally scheduled to speak on the fuel price increases.

Online newspaper Malaysiakini reported that the crowd was around 20,000-strong.

'I spoke to them, and I could see from the claps and the shouts that they are behind us,' said the PKR's Mr Saifuddin.

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