Azmin defends Anwar's 'Jewish links '

By Syed Jaymal Zahiid

KUALA LUMPUR, March 24 — PKR vice president, Azmin Ali, came out in defence of Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in Parliament today, over the latter’s close links with former World Bank president, Paul Wolfowitz.

Azmin told Parliament that Anwar’s  close relations with the former United States deputy defence secretary did not “compromise” his “Malayness” and his religion, contrary to the “Jewish agent” depiction made by his political rivals in Umno.

“In fact, Permatang Pauh (Anwar’s constituency) had used his close relations with Wolfowitz to make clear his stand against Washington,” he told Parliament.

Azmin claimed Anwar had made a firm stand against the US invasion of Iraq and demanded its withdrawal from the oil-rich gulf state.

“This Malay child (Anwar) argued eloquently in defence of millions of the world’s Muslims and demanded that Washington respect the sovereignty of the Iraqi people,” said the Gombak MP.

This, he said, was different from the tone of the meeting between then-premier Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and former US president George W Bush on Sept 18, 2006, implying that Abdullah failed to carry the aspirations of Muslims worldwide by being passive amid the Iraqi invasion.

Azmin, who claimed he was present at the meeting between Anwar and Wolfowitz, said that the PKR de facto leader had asked for Dr Shaikh Yusuf Qardhawi’s name to be removed from a Washington blacklist.

Shaikh Yusuf, a renowned Islamic scholar, was labelled as a terrorist by the Bush administration. He is also a close friend of Anwar’s.

“Not only that, Anwar had also asked that the (2004) tsunami fund worth US$2 billion (RM6.8 billion) be distributed to not only to the secular school in Acheh, but also the Islamic schools,” said Azmin.

He then drew the attention of the Dewan Rakyat to the ties between the Umno-led federal government and what he claimed were international Zionist elements like APCO Worldwide and Bush.

“We did not hire a Zionist agency to woo the hearts of our own people. In fact, our communication mediators are locals,” said Azmin.

Anwar had alleged that APCO, hired by the Najib administration to promote its 1 Malaysia concept, was previously linked to Israel.

He had claimed in Parliament that the public relations company was behind the 1 Israel movement of former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak’s administration.

Both APCO and the government have denied the allegation.