Anwar on our equivalent of deposed First Ladies

Harakahdaily

IPOH, Mar 1: Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim, saying the problems plaguing Malaysia were not dissimilar to those of Tunisia and Egypt, said there were also similarities between the wives of the deposed two rulers and their counterparts in Malaysia.

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE? ... The PM's wife Rosmah Mansor and Leila Trabelsi, wife of the deposed Tunisian leader

There is no prize for guessing who Anwar was referring to when he said the Malaysian administration, like the former rule of Tunisia's Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, was also under the thumb of its leader's wife.

Anwar, describing Ben Ali's wife Leila Trabelsi as someone widely detested by Tunisians, said the people's dislike of her surpassed their dislike of her husband.

"On television, it was always Ben Ali, and then Leila, then Ben Ali, then Leila, Leila, Leila. Today, she sports a certain hair-do, the next day with a bun on the other side, and with a different dress," said Anwar to burst of laughter from the audience during a dinner talk organised by a PKR division near here.

"People called her ‘Leila Majnun’, ‘Majnun’ means crazy. Crazy for wealth, crazy for looks and crazy for hair buns,” he went on, as quoted by online portal TV Selangor.

As for Egypt's Suzanne Mubarak, she had the same habits as Leila, said Anwar, saying the former beautician turned First Lady soon amassed wealth for her children and family at the expense of the people.

Anwar (left) said at the end of their rule, both Mubarak and Ben Ali had stashed away billions of dollars worth of wealth robbed from their peoples.

He then advised prime minister Najib Razak to start carrying out reforms and not to have any illusion that events in North Africa would not take place here.

“A week after the revolt in Tunisia, Mubarak said Tunisia was not Egypt. Gaddafi in his speech two weeks ago, said Libya was not Egypt.

"Najib last week said this was Malaysia and not Egypt," said Anwar, adding however that the opposition in Malaysia still preferred to go through elections to bring about change.

"Let me warn Najib to ensure the next election is free and fair, if not the people will revolt,” reminded Anwar.

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