Malaysia: Parliament suspends opposition leader Anwar
World
Malaysia: Parliament suspends opposition leader Anwar
Malaysia's ruling coalition has won a parliamentary vote to ban its archrival Anwar Ibrahim from the legislature for six months. Anwar was accused of making false statements in Parliament's lower house by linking the Muslim-majority government's policies to Israel. Anwar had said a government campaign to promote multiracial unity was inspired by a 1999 Israeli election campaign. Lawmakers are expected to endorse another proposal later Thursday to suspend three of Anwar's top allies for six months because of protocol infractions. The move would erode the opposition's representation to less than one-third of the 222-member Parliament for the first time since March 2008 general elections. That could allow the ruling coalition to make changes to election constituency boundaries before the next national polls.
