Anwar’s Spin Machine Is Contradicted By Raja Petra
THE CHOICE
Four days after Anwar Ibrahim found himself embroiled in a new scandal over claims that he succeeded in persuading Julian Assange to ban Raja Petra from a Wikileaks Forum, he has sent his chief of staff into battle with RPK.
Ibrahim Yaacob, Anwar’s chief of staff, was quoted on the website FMT as trying to explain away the flap over last weekend’s Wikileaks’ forum in Kent, England.
Anwar’s man said the initial plan decided by Wikileaks founder Julian Assange had not included Raja Petra in the line-up, and it was “only later that we were told that Raja Petra would be joining in the forum.”
Anwar, according to his chief of staff, “stressed that he had only given consent to the original request which was an interview involving him and Assange.” And it was the film production team that was making a documentary that decided to continue the show without RPK, he argued.
Raja Petra wasted no time in denying Anwar’s efforts to put the Wikileaks story to rest. He dismissed Ibrahim’s statement as a lie.
“This is not true,” counter-claimed RPK. “I was asked by Wikileaks to attend an interview with Assange, which I agreed.”
Raja Petra then said that the interview was postponed and he was told that Anwar would be participating, to which the blogger did not object.
“I replied I had no objections. Finally, Wikileaks called and told me that Anwar did not agree to appear on the same stage as me. So I agreed that Wikileaks drop my name in favour of Anwar.”
What is striking about the version offered by Anwar’s chief of staff is that Ibrahim Yaacob actually admits that Anwar “stressed that he had only given consent to the original request which was an interview involving him and Assange.”
So what?
This sounds worse than a simple denial that Anwar tried to bar RPK from the Wikileaks forum because it implies that his “consent” was only for him and Julian Assange to appear, and he would not tolerate the presence of RPK.
