Sodomy II and Kajang Move (2013-2015)
Between 2013 and 2015 the opposition coalition Pakatan Rakyat was pulled in two directions at once: a criminal appeal that ended with its parliamentary leader in prison, and an internal manoeuvre in Selangor that ended with a change of Menteri Besar and a public split.
what happened
Two separate things happened to Malaysia's opposition between 2013 and 2015, and they overlapped. The first was a criminal case. Anwar Ibrahim, then Parliamentary Opposition Leader, faced a charge under section 377B of the Penal Code. The prosecution alleged that he had carnal intercourse against the order of nature with his former aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, in 2008. The Kuala Lumpur High Court acquitted him in January 2012, holding that the DNA evidence at the centre of the prosecution case could not be relied on. That was not the end of it. On 7 March 2014 the Court of Appeal reversed the acquittal, finding that the trial court had not critically evaluated the chemist's evidence, and imposed a five-year sentence. On 10 February 2015 the Federal Court dismissed the final appeal and affirmed both conviction and sentence, and Anwar went to prison. He was released on 16 May 2018 after the Yang di-Pertuan Agong granted a full pardon.
Whether that prosecution was politically driven is not something this page settles, because the parties to the argument disagree sharply. Anwar's defence said the case was politically motivated. The government said Malaysia has an independent judiciary and that the verdict came after an exhaustive legal process, and the Prime Minister's Office later said it could not reverse court rulings. Outside bodies took their own positions: the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found in Opinion No. 22/2015 that the detention was arbitrary and connected to his role as an opposition leader; Human Rights Watch called the conviction a setback for rights; the Malaysian Bar said the features of the case fuelled a perception of persecution rather than prosecution; the International Commission of Jurists called the judgment a blow to human rights. Those are attributed opinions, not judicial findings. What the courts held is set out above.
The second thing was a political manoeuvre inside the coalition, in the state of Selangor. On 27 January 2014 the Kajang assemblyman resigned his seat, forcing a by-election, and Anwar was named the coalition's candidate. The sequence became known as the Kajang Move. Its purpose was debated at the time; PKR offered its own explanations and insisted the plan remained in play even after events changed. The conviction of 7 March 2014 removed Anwar from the ballot, and Wan Azizah Wan Ismail stood in his place, winning on 23 March with a majority of 5,379 votes, smaller than the majority the same seat had produced at the 2013 general election.
What followed in Selangor did not go as PKR had set out. The party expelled the sitting Menteri Besar, Khalid Ibrahim, in August 2014 when he declined to step aside. PKR and DAP put forward Wan Azizah for the post; PAS put forward other names, and the Sultan asked each coalition party for more than one nominee. In September 2014 the post went instead to Mohamed Azmin Ali of PKR, who took office on 23 September. Anwar's conviction also cost him his federal seat of Permatang Pauh, which Wan Azizah then won in a by-election in May 2015.
Separately, in June 2015 the PAS assembly voted to sever ties with DAP, and DAP leaders declared Pakatan Rakyat at an end. In September 2015 PKR, DAP and the newly formed Parti Amanah Negara created a successor coalition, Pakatan Harapan. The cited record does not establish how much, if any, of the breakup traces to the Selangor episode rather than the separate disagreement over Islamic criminal law; the actors involved assigned blame differently.
the working
What the sources say
established
Anwar Ibrahim, then Parliamentary Opposition Leader, was charged under section 377B of the Penal Code. The prosecution alleged that he had carnal intercourse against the order of nature with his former aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, in 2008; the case became known publicly as "Sodomy II".
established
The Kuala Lumpur High Court acquitted Anwar on 9 January 2012, on the basis that DNA evidence central to the prosecution case could not be relied upon as it may have been contaminated.
adjudicated
On 7 March 2014 the Court of Appeal unanimously reversed the acquittal, held that the High Court had failed to critically evaluate the chemist's evidence, entered a conviction, and imposed a sentence of five years' imprisonment.
adjudicated
On 10 February 2015 the Federal Court, the country's highest court, dismissed Anwar's final appeal, affirming both the conviction and the five-year sentence; he began serving the sentence that day.
established
On 16 May 2018, at the 51st Federal Territories Pardons Board meeting chaired by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Muhammad V, Anwar received a full pardon and was ordered released immediately, ahead of the scheduled end of his sentence.
established
On 27 January 2014 the Kajang state assemblyman, Lee Chin Cheh of PKR, resigned his seat, triggering a by-election for that Selangor state seat.
established
Anwar was named the Pakatan Rakyat candidate for the by-election; the sequence was publicly labelled the "Kajang Move".
established
After the Court of Appeal conviction on 7 March 2014 disqualified him from standing, Anwar was replaced as the coalition's candidate by his wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.
established
Wan Azizah won the Kajang by-election on 23 March 2014 with a majority of 5,379 votes, down from the 6,824-vote majority Lee Chin Cheh had recorded at the 2013 general election.
established
PKR's disciplinary committee expelled the incumbent Selangor Menteri Besar, Khalid Ibrahim, from the party in August 2014 after he declined the party's direction to resign the post.
established
PKR and DAP submitted Wan Azizah's name for the Menteri Besar post; PAS, the third coalition party, submitted other names, and the Sultan of Selangor asked each coalition party for multiple nominees. Mohamed Azmin Ali of PKR was appointed Menteri Besar and took office on 23 September 2014.
Din Merican (blog carrying the Selangor palace announcement and reporting) · Yahoo News Singapore / Bernama
established
Anwar's conviction disqualified him from his federal parliamentary seat of Permatang Pauh, and a by-election followed in May 2015.
established
Wan Azizah contested and won the Permatang Pauh by-election in May 2015, with a majority reported at 8,841 votes.
established
Pakatan Rakyat ceased to function as a coalition in June 2015, after the PAS general assembly on 6 June 2015 adopted a motion to sever ties with DAP; DAP leaders declared the coalition at an end.
established
A successor coalition, Pakatan Harapan, was formed on 22 September 2015 by PKR, DAP and the newly registered Parti Amanah Negara.
established
A reported PKR central-leadership meeting on 21 July 2014 unanimously decided that Wan Azizah Wan Ismail would be the next Selangor Menteri Besar; this records a later formal party decision but does not establish who originated or initially authorised the Kajang Move.
established
Istana Selangor’s letter of 27 August 2014 asked PKR, DAP and PAS each to submit more than two names for Menteri Besar; the palace later said PKR and DAP’s refusal to comply required the Sultan to consider other PKR candidates who had not been nominated.
established
The Speaker said Anwar lost eligibility on 16 March 2015, and the Election Commission confirmed receiving the notice of the Permatang Pauh vacancy on 1 April 2015; a gazetted writ date was not retrieved.
established
The Foreign Ministry said that the Government transmitted its response to UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention Opinion No. 22/2015 through Malaysia’s Permanent Mission in Geneva on 16 November 2015.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs Malaysia · UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention
uncertain
Contemporaneous constituency surveys recorded differing views of the Kajang Move, including a PKR-commissioned survey and an UMCEDEL survey; no representative evidence was located measuring how voters jointly interpreted the prosecution and the Kajang Move.
where accounts differ
The parts nobody agrees on
contested
Whether the prosecution was politically motivated is disputed. Anwar's defence maintained the case was politically motivated, and his lawyer stated publicly that the complainant had met the then Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak before the report was lodged.
contested
The Malaysian government's position was that the judiciary is independent and that the verdict followed an exhaustive legal process. A government statement after the Federal Court ruling said the judges reached their verdict after considering the evidence in a balanced and objective manner and that there had been many rulings against senior government figures; the Prime Minister's Office later said Putrajaya could not reverse court rulings.
contested
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, in Opinion No. 22/2015 adopted at its 73rd session, found the detention arbitrary, said it was linked to his activities as an opposition leader, and called for his release and the restoration of his political rights; the opinion records that the Government did not reply to the communication.
established
Human Rights Watch characterised the conviction as a setback for rights in Malaysia and, with Amnesty International, described the charges as politically motivated persecution. These were the organisations' assessments, not judicial findings.
established
The Malaysian Bar, in a statement of 11 February 2015 by its president Christopher Leong, pointed to what it called anomalies in the case, including that the provision had rarely been used, and concluded that these fuel a perception of persecution rather than prosecution. This is the Bar's characterisation, not a judicial finding.
established
The International Commission of Jurists described the Federal Court judgment as a blow to human rights in Malaysia and called for the repeal of section 377B. This was the Commission's assessment, not a judicial finding.
contested
The purpose of the Kajang Move is disputed. PKR publicly maintained the move remained in play even after the candidate swap and offered its own explanations of the plan; reporting at the time described the aim as placing Anwar in the Selangor assembly with a view to the Menteri Besar post amid dissatisfaction with the incumbent.
uncertain
The cited reports document disagreement over the Menteri Besar nomination, but do not establish a developed contemporaneous record attributing Pakatan Rakyat's later breakup to the Kajang Move. This page therefore leaves that causal question open.
still being researched
- Who originated or initially authorised the Kajang Move within PKR.
- The date of the Election Commission’s gazetted writ for the Permatang Pauh by-election.
- How voters jointly interpreted the prosecution and the Kajang Move at the time.