KUALA LUMPUR: With five days left until he faces the Federal Court for his final sodomy appeal, opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim  (pic) said he was staying optimistic.

He said people must have hope in the nation’s judicial system and demand they want the rule of law, justice and constitutional guarantees upheld. “That is important, as well as rejecting racism, which is now on the rise, pitted by the ruling clique to distract us from economic issues in the country,” Anwar said in Penang yesterday.

Anwar goes to the apex court next Tuesday for the hearing of his sodomy conviction appeal. If unsuccessful, he is looking at a jail term of five years, as well as losing his Permatang Pauh parliamentary seat and his position as opposition leader.

He would not say what lay in store for Pakatan Rakyat if he was imprisoned when asked by reporters yesterday at Batu Uban assemblyman Dr T Jayabalan’s Deepavali open house.

Repeating his statement to the Malaysian media over the past few days, Anwar, who is PKR de facto leader, said there was no reason for him to be jailed. “According to the law and the facts, there is no reason I have to worry about the court’s decision. I am taking an optimistic position.

“We have consulted international experts and nobody has the slightest inclination that there is a possibility of conviction. No legal expert in and outside Malaysia has doubts that the decision will be to free me. If we go with the law and the facts, it has to be a clear acquittal.” — The Malaysian Insider

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on October 24, 2014.