[asia-apec 726] ST: Malay Crossfire

[David Webster]

The reform pressure from Indonesia (!) is one interesting aspect of this
piece, but the really interesting bit seems to be Ghafar's vicious
homophobia. Whetehr Anwar is gay or not is beside the point, surely.....

>The Straits Times -- SEP 28 1998
>
>You can have Anwar, Ghafar tells Indonesia
>
>He takes the Jakarta press to task for backing
>the former Deputy Premier and says Anwar can be
>a leader in Indonesia because 'homosexuality
>is allowed'
>
>
>JAKARTA -- Veteran Umno leader Tun Ghafar Baba
>yesterday slammed the Indonesian press for
>championing jailed former Deputy Premier Anwar
>Ibrahim and said Indonesia could take him "as
>homosexuality is allowed here".
>
>"If you think Anwar Ibrahim is so important, you
>can take him and make him your leader," said
>Tun Ghafar, who was replaced by Datuk Anwar as
>Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister in 1993 and is
>now retired.
>
>"Maybe he is more fitting to be a leader in Indonesia,
>because I heard that it is okay to be homosexual here,
>but in Malaysia it is against the law," he told a press
>conference at the Shangri-La Hotel.
>
>"You can take them too," he said when questioned
>about the thousands of supporters who had protested
>against his arrest and called for reform.
>
>Tun Ghafar, who was accompanied by staff members
>from the Malaysian Embassy here, said he had not
>been sent to Indonesia by Malaysian Prime Minister
>Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad or "anyone in the
>administration".
>
>He said he had come to Jakarta on his own as a man
>"fighting for my country".
>
>Earlier, the Indonesian state Antara news agency
>said Tun Ghafar had been sent to Indonesia to explain
>Datuk Anwar's arrest on Sept 20 after he was ousted
>as Finance Minister and Deputy Premier earlier
>this month.
>
>The Embassy said Tun Ghafar was also due to meet
>several senior Indonesian figures on behalf of
>Dr Mahathir, Antara added.
>
>He also suggested that both Indonesia and the US,
>which had criticised Dr Mahathir's use of the Internal
>Security Act (ISA) to hold Datuk Anwar, would be safer
>places if they too adopted a law which allowed
>indefinite detention without trial.
>
>"The United States is arguing that it is a violation
>of human rights, but in the United States people get
>killed all the time. Maybe, if the United States had
>ISA it would be safe there, too," he said.
>
>Lashing out at prominent Indonesian lawyer Adnan
>Buyung Nasution who has formed an Anwar support group
>here, he said Mr Buyung would be better off donating
>the money to Indonesia's hungry.
>
>"To Buyung Nasution I say not to bother because Anwar
>has lots of money. He is going to have 70 lawyers to
>represent him. I suggest to Adnan that he donate it
>to the Indonesian people for food," he said.
>
>He also fought off parallels to the reform movement
>in Indonesia -- whose battle cry of "Reformasi" has
>been taken up by Anwar supporters and which led to
>the toppling of former Indonesian President Suharto
>on May 21, by saying Malaysia underwent reform
>"50 years ago".
>
>"How can you even draw the parallel, for one thing
>Mahathir was elected," he retorted.
>
>Defending Dr Mahathir's sacking of Datuk Anwar shortly
>after the Premier imposed capital controls to defend
>the country's economy, he said the concept of sacking
>one's deputy had been going on "since Adam and Eve".
>
>And, he said, it was as much Dr Mahathir's right
>to sack Datuk Anwar, as it was for a husband to
>divorce his wife.
>
>"A man chooses a woman as a wife, they live happily
>but at a certain time there is no more harmony. They
>could no longer live peacefully and safely. There is
>no benefit in continuing with that marriage, and so
>the husband can divorce his wife.
>
>"No one can argue that is his right," he said.
>
>"There were no differences in their economic beliefs
>... it was simply because Mahathir finds Anwar unfit
>to be a leader ... If there were a homosexual leader,
>that would be terrible."
>
>Tun Ghafar erupted in anger when an Indonesian journalist
>argued that one homosexual saying he had relations with
>another man was not proof of the other man's homosexuality.
>
>"If I said I had relations with you, would that be
>proof that you are homosexual?" the journalist asked.
>
>"Prime Minister Mahathir has solid information that
>he is homosexual," Tun Ghafar shouted, after waving
>Malaysian newspapers with the headlines containing
>the accusations.
>
>And he insisted angrily: "Boris Yeltsin fired his Prime
>Minister and his whole Cabinet but the whole world did
>not make a fuss about that."  AFP
>

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