Malaysia's former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim is committed to returning to politics despite being banned from public office, an aide said Friday.
Anwar has been raising his international profile through an interview with the BBC in London on Thursday, and he has another planned with the Al Jazeera television network in Washington later this month.
"We just want to send a strong signal that he is serious about returning to the political scene in Malaysia, especially as he will be running for the party's presidency and with the (possibility of) elections coming up," Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, special assistant to Anwar, told AFP.
In the BBC interview, Anwar said he has no choice but to re-enter politics.
"I think we are ready for a change," he said.
"Malaysia has lost its competitiveness. Corruption is endemic, far worse than before," Anwar said, adding there was also growing racial tension.
He was the heir-apparent to former leader Mahathir Mohamad until 1998, when he was sacked after facing sodomy and corruption charges that landed him in jail for six years.
Anwar's sodomy conviction was overturned but the corruption verdict still stands, barring him from standing for public office until April 2008.
Malaysia must go to the polls by 2009 but the opposition is preparing for an early election, which some members say could come as soon as October or June -- effectively preventing Anwar from taking part.
Still, officials in his political party said Sunday he will run for president of Keadilan, the opposition People's Justice Party formally run by his wife Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.
"We don't want to be caught unprepared. We are not discounting that elections could be held from June onwards," Nazmi said, explaining that although Anwar is barred from public office, there is nothing to stop him campaigning.
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi replaced Mahathir in 2003 but Anwar said the new leader "has inherited a system and he does not seem to want to change the system."
The Barisan Nasional coalition has ruled Malaysia for almost half a century.
Anwar called Abdullah "a very decent, placid man" but said "the corrupt system is very much in place". He added the media was not free and the judicial process was compromised.
Anwar has made similar accusations in the past year since switching his focus back to the political scene after leading a nomadic existence with stints lecturing in Britain, the US and Australia after his release from prison in September 2004.
Anwar filed a libel suit early last year against Mahathir after the former prime minister said he could not allow Anwar to become prime minister because Anwar was a homosexual.
The High Court is to hear Mahathir's application to strike out the suit on April 26.
In the BBC interview, Anwar said Mahathir -- "the king, the master, the maestro" -- had felt threatened by him.
Now, Mahathir is "old, very bitter about things," Anwar said.
