Anwar: Plan to take over govt failed after proposal for special sitting of parliament was rejected

(Bernama) – Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim told the High Court here today that plans to take over the government on Sept 16, 2008, failed after his proposal to call for a special Dewan Rakyat sitting was rejected by then prime minister, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Anwar, 69, said he had written a letter to the Dewan Rakyat Speaker as part of the process to get the Prime Minister’s consent to hold a special Dewan Rakyat sitting with a notice to get a vote of no-confidence against the PM.

“However, the letter was not replied and Abdullah rejected the proposal for a Special Parliament sitting,”, he said when questioned by counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah who represented Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin in Anwar’s suit against Khairy.

Anwar also agreed with Muhammad Shafee that he had succeeded in obtaining sufficient support from Barisan Nasional, with 30 to 40 of its Members of Parliament, willing to cross-over.

The former opposition leader however disagreed with Muhammad Shafee’s suggestion that he had concocted the story that there would be a change of government on Sept 16, 2008 and lied to many of the BN members of parliament.

“Since we were unable to hold the Special Parliament sitting, the process (of changing the government) was thwarted and 40 members of parliament were flown to Taiwan to attend an agriculture seminar.”

Anwar also denied that he had plans to topple Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad as Prime Minister in 1998.

“Mahathir was convinced that I planned to topple him after ‘some people’ informed him of it,” Anwar said.

Earlier, the court rejected the application by Muhammad Shafee to use three previous cases faced by Anwar including two cases involving sodomy, as a reference in the civil suit.

On March 7, 2008, Anwar filed a suit against Khairy for compensation of RM100 million claiming that Khairy, then Umno Youth vice head, made defamatory remarks about him in a talk given in Lembah Pantai on Feb 20, 2008.

Anwar, who was represented by counsel R. Sivarasa claimed that the defamatory remarks and video clip titled ‘Anwar and kin no threat’ were uploaded on to several websites, including Malaysiakini.

The proceedings of the case in the presence of Judge Azizul Azmi Adnan continues on Friday.