CONFIDENT....Anwar
is however confident that Pakatan Rakyat will win in the next polls.
KUALA LUMPUR: Opposition
Leader Anwar Ibrahim plans to end his 30-year political career if he fails to
unseat Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak at the next election, he said.
Anwar was once deputy prime
minister in the Barisan Nasional government that has ruled Malaysia since
independence 55 years ago, but has campaigned against it since his shock ouster
in 1998.
Najib must call national
elections by June next year and many observers expect a tight contest after the
ruling coalition suffered its worst showing ever at the last polls in 2008.
“I will try my best. I am
confident we will win. But if not, I will step down,” Anwar said Friday night
when taking part in a Google Hangout that was streamed live on YouTube.
Anwar, who has taught at
Oxford and Washington’s Georgetown University, said he would return to academic
life if he lost.
“If we don’t get the
mandate, then we should give space for the second-liners in leadership,” he
said during the one-hour question-and-answer event which has previously
featured US President Barack Obama.
Anwar has been in and out of
court on various charges he says are political ploys to tarnish his image and
stifle his opposition coalition.
He was charged in May with
participating in an illegal rally which saw tens of thousands take to the
streets to call for reforms to the electoral system, which they say is biased
towards the Barisan Nasional.
In January he was acquitted
of having sex with a male former aide at the end of a lengthy trial.
Previously, Anwar was
imprisoned for corruption and sodomy after he fell out with the then prime
minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad in 1998.
He was released from jail in
2004 after the sodomy conviction was overturned. (AFP)
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