Embattled opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim might not get that meeting with US president Barack Obama when he visits Kuala Lumpur this weekend, but he will be sitting down with the Obama administration’s National Security Advisor, Susan Rice.
Obama, who will be the first sitting US president to visit Malaysia since Lyndon B Johnson in 1966, will have a full schedule throughout the weekend, and is careful to not offend his regional allies in the Barisan Nasional Najibi administration. But at the same time, Washington has made clear its concerns about the revival of sodomy charges against Anwar and how these legal manoeuvres are contributing to what it calls a deteriorating political situation.
Anwar had earlier been told that Obama would not be able to see him personally. However, a meeting with Rice would still send out a considerable message, as the National Security Advisor is the highest-ranking foreign policy official on Obama’s Asian tour entourage next to the president himself.
The Malay Mail Online reported Anwar having said earlier this week that he was not upset he would not get time with Obama but added that such an encounter would have been “consistent with US democratic ideals and its foreign policy of promoting freedom and justice”.
