T

wo intriguing reports came out of Malaysia on Tuesday. One was a complaint by the wife of Prime Minister Najib Razak about how much she must spend on her hair and other needs, and the second was the desperate appeal by the daughter of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim to rescue her father from five years of imprisonment.

Many Malaysians deplored Rosmah Mansor'€™s insensitive remark that she now had to pay about US$330 for her stylist to dye her hair.

'€œWe have to wear beautiful clothes to attend functions, but the prices are way too high. [...] what about housewives like us, with no income?'€ Malaysian Insider quoted Rosmah as saying, oblivious to fellow citizens facing difficulties in trying to make ends meet.

It was poignant to see Anwar'€™s family desperately trying all possible means to prevent Anwar, a former colleague of Najib in the ruling UMNO party, from returning to a brutal life in jail.

The legal proceedings against Anwar for sodomizing a former aide have engendered suspicions in the international community that the charges against him are politically motivated in response to the threat Anwar posed to the elite of UMNO, which Najib leads.

Anwar, who was once regarded as a '€œgolden boy'€ of former strongman Mahathir Mohamad, has many friends in Indonesia.

The Anwar-led opposition polled surprisingly well in the 2008 elections, and repeated this five years later, while the ruling National Front Coalition lost its absolute majority, a huge embarrasement for PM Najib.

Anwar'€™s second daughter, Nurul Nuha Anwar revealed on Tuesday her family'€™s intention to seek a royal pardon for her father after Malaysia'€™s top court rejected the 67-year old politician'€™s latest appeal. '€œThe court may have pronounced a guilty verdict but our father is innocent,'€ Nurul said as quoted by the Associated Press.

Although no doubt resentful about the treatment her father has received, Nurul still expressed '€œconfidence in the constitutional process'€, and the belief '€œthat justice will prevail when all the facts are scrutinized without political intervention'€.

While Rosmah'€™s insenstivity was certainly offensive, it was not as upsetting as the prospect that Anwar should be locked up again by his own former party comrades under the guise of the law.