It was Anwar's second trial for what the Malaysian press universally called "sodomy."  Like the first charges, nine years earlier, these showed every sign of a political fuck-up.  Anwar had been preparing to return to political life in a parliamentary by-election when the allegations came out to the news. If Malaysia's government believed, that the colonial-era law mirrored deep social beliefs, then the case was a perfect tool to disqualify the faggot.