KUALA LUMPUR - A HUGE cutout of Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim in a suburb just outside Kuala Lumpur has drawn fire as idolatrous and a waste of public funds, the Star newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The 12.2m high image shows a smiling Datuk Seri Anwar waving and bedecked with symbols of his opposition alliance.

'It can deviate the Muslim's faith,' Mr Asri Zainul Abidin, a Mufti (Islamic scholar) from the northern Malaysian state of Perlis, told the newspaper.

'I don't blame Anwar because it was not him who put up the cutout, but his supporters should not idolise (him) too much.'

The cutout was put up by the municipal council on Sept 28 at a cost of RM5,000 (S$2,100) to wish people a happy end to the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, one of the council's assemblymen said.

Government supporters said it was a waste of money.

'Besides, everyone knows who Anwar Ibrahim is,' said Mr Mohd Shamsudin Lias a government counsellor from nearby Sungai Burong district. -- REUTERS