COMMENT As Anwar Ibrahim began to haemorrhage credibility as a reformist leader – this in the eyes of factions in PKR frustrated at his seeming obscurantism – perverse theories began to gather around episodes in which he was involved or had caused to happen.

With a second edition of sodomy accusations hanging over his head by late June 2008, three episodes – and one story about a purchase of a house in Washington DC – combined to erode his position as putative victim of a government-inspired conspiracy.

The first episode concerned an encounter with then premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi over lunch at a well-regarded Islamic preacher’s house in Hulu Langat in February of 2009.

The preacher had invited Abdullah, who was under intense pressure from Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Umno to quit in favour of his deputy, Najib Razak.

It was not clear whether Anwar, who knew the preacher, was also invited to the lunch or was simply gate-crashing.

In the event, he came and was seated at the main table with Abdullah. There were pictures of them at table in the press, with Anwar smiling slyly and Abdullah looking dour. Later Abdullah would tell inquirers he had no idea Anwar would be at the same lunch.

Tongues began wagging about the purpose of that chance or planned encounter.

When in August of 2009 word leaked out that Anwar had secretly met in the previous month with newly installed premier Najib Razak at the latter’s residence in Putrajaya, rumour mills began to churn overtime.

It did not help matters that Anwar was quoted as giving an evasive reply on the purpose of the meeting. He was later seen to have tea with Najib in Parliament. Press photos of the tea encounter had Anwar sporting a conspiratorial glint to his smile.

Speculation of a ‘deal’

Meanwhile, Zaid began letting on he had heard a story, attributed to former finance minister Daim Zainuddin, that Anwar had purchased a house in Washington DC.

Zaid had run into Nasharuddin Mat Isa, the PAS deputy president, in Dubai while on transit to London. The Backok MP asked if Zaid he had heard Anwar had bought a house in Washington. Zaid said he heard the story from Daim.

Nasharuddin, leader of the faction in his party, said to be interested in talking to Umno and a rival of Husam Musa, reputedly a proxy of Anwar’s in PAS, was transiting in Dubai to or from Tanzania for a parliamentary conference.

Into the hothouse of speculation and puzzlement over Anwar’s surreptitious meetings with Abdullah and then Najib, the rumoured purchase of a house in Washington DC only served to stoke speculation that a ‘deal’ was being cut in which reprieve for Najib from the drip-drip of corrosive revelations by swashbuckling blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin over the Altantuya Shaariibuu murder case would be exchanged for dropping of the sodomy charge, accompanied by exile for Anwar.

Within PKR, the faction maddened with frustration over Anwar’s cat-and-mouse game over internal party reform, gave their own twist to this stream of fevered speculation.

They said Anwar was kaput, finito, that he was angling for a way out of the sodomy charge, and that the faster he repaired to his Washington residence the better for PKR.

Paranoid imaginations

Zaid Ibrahim added more spice to this script by telling people that he had spoken to Abdullah Badawi before he resigned from cabinet about the latest accusations of sodomy against Anwar.

Zaid said he reminded Abdullah the first round of accusations (1998-99) brought untold grief to Umno. An encore would only compound Umno’s present woes.

Zaid said Abdullah had similar reservations but when the PM asked the police and the Attorney General’s Chambers if they wanted to go round this bush again, both said this time they were one hundred percent sure.

It is a measure of the condition in which the sodomy case was situated that few paused to consider both the former inspector general of police and AG Gani Patail had track records vis-à-vis Anwar Ibrahim that rendered their objectivity suspect.

Furthermore, Anwar and wife Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail are owners of a 6-child household in which a masters qualification would be the minimum academic requirement for esteemed residency.

A house in Washington DC just makes it easier for the children to get a masters programme at the prestigious Jesuit-run Georgetown University where Anwar is regarded as God’s gift to the dialogue of civilisations between the Muslim world and Christians.

B ut in the paranoid imaginations of the acutely fearful and the frustrated, little space is allowed for prosaic details like these to take hold.

Zaid Ibrahim, in surveying the horizon of circumstances he found himself in when he reached an apotheosis of sorts at the historic Pakatan Rakyat convention on Dec 19, 2009, could not find adequate satisfaction in the Common Policy Framework that was endorsed on that joyous day for the combined opposition in Shah Alam.

Hubris – the pride that goes before a fall – began to take hold. He told some friends: “Anwar is going to jail and I could be president of PKR.”

THE UNMAKING OF ZAID - Part 1 l Part 2 l Part 3

TERENCE NETTO has been a journalist for close on four decades. He likes the occupation because it puts him in contact with the eminent without being under the necessity to admire them. It is the ideal occupation for a temperament that finds power fascinating and its exercise abhorrent.