FOR months the entire country had been nervously awaiting Malaysia Day, September 16th. And not just to celebrate the 45th anniversary of Sabah and Sarawak, Britain’s colonies on Borneo, joining with the Malayan peninsula to form Malaysia. The opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim, had been promising, since his alliance’s strong showing in a general election in March, that by Malaysia Day he would convince more than 30 parliamentarians from the governing coalition to switch sides, thereby giving him a majority and allowing him to take power. Mr Anwar’s sweeping victory in a by-election last month heightened the speculation that he was on track to keep his promise.
The big day arrived. The prime minister, Abdullah Badawi, and his deputy, Najib Razak, ostentatiously went about their business, ridiculing Mr Anwar’s threat as a “mirage” and a “deception” respectively. Mr Anwar called a press conference to claim that he had “firm commitments” from enough government MPs to win power. He demanded a meeting with Mr Badawi to discuss a smooth handover. But still he did not name the supposed defectors. He has since called for parliament to be recalled from recess to hold a vote of no confidence in the government. Mr Badawi seems unlikely to agree to this or to meet Mr Anwar. The ruling coalition, led by the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), has run the country uninterruptedly since the peninsula’s independence from Britain 51 years ago. So is Mr Anwar’s boast the bluff of the half-century?
Malaysians might have concluded thus had it not been for the signs of panic from the government over the threat from Mr Anwar, and its deep and widening splits over Mr Badawi’s leadership. The “sodomy” charge brought in June against Mr Anwar by a male ex-assistant looked suspici ...