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Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Costs of Sodomy II far greater than imagined: Najib and Rosmah's hand must be probed


Costs of Sodomy II far greater than imagined: Najib and Rosmah's hand must be probed
The debate on whether the judiciary is indeed acting independently for acquitting Anwar Ibrahim will continue to rage on, and both sides of the political divide, especially the BN, will claim some measure of merit from it.
The case which took the nation hostage had lasted two and a half years and should never had seen the light of day. And throughout the whole two and a half years, the cost to Malaysia has been dear indeed.
In 1998, the then premier Mahathir Mohamad single-handedly destroyed investor trust in the country with a rash of misguided economic and currency controls, following it up with the double whammy of an Anwar jailing on clearly trumped-up sodomy charges. The Asian Financial Crisis and Sodomy I were Mahathir's downfall, creating deep and long-lasting scars for Malaysia, and deservedly, they resulted in his being forced to resign in 2003 or risk losing the 2004 general elections.
In 2008, despite a first-hand lesson in Mahathir's 1998 fiasco, Prime Minister Najib Razak and wife Rosmah Mansor - blinded by their craze for power - decided to reprise Mahathir's failure. To the first couple, it may have been a stopgap measure to break Anwar's rise and huge popularity, but to their horror, they could not climb down from the bandwagon they created, and which Mahathir was only too happy to help turbo-drive along.
Earlier this week, at the very brink, Najib and Rosmah suddenly veered, frightened by the political repercussions for themselves. But it is the nation that has bled and will continue to haemorrhage because of their unprincipled move.
Added to Mahathir's blunders, Najib's Perak crisis and Sodomy II will ensure that Malaysia will continue to be distrusted for a long while more, viewed as a milder form of Zimbabwe but worst than Myanmar, where the hardline milittary junta has already backed off and Aung San Suu Kyii finally permitted to stand for elections.
Unscrupulous politicians and public funds
It cannot be refuted that the whole Sodomy II case wasted public funds which could have been used for much more meaningful things. There are far heavier and more substantial cases that need the attention of our judiciary, with direct impact to our society at large.
The monetary cost spent on the case trial and investigation has made Malaysia poorer and shows how willing the government is at throwing money to eliminate a political rival. In this regard, should the Pakatan Rakyat come to power, it should immediately introduce new laws to protect the people's money from ever being abused and wasted by errant politicians in such manner again.
It must be stated, that though it was Saiful who raised the complaint, it was the Attorney General who gave the go-ahead to pursue the matter in court. It is based on the AG's, and therefore the BN government's, own evaluation of all the evidence to determine if there is a case in the first place.
The acquittal on technical terms, to which High Court Judge Mohamad Zabidin Diah, said “the court cannot be 100 percent certain that DNA was not contaminated,” points to the lack of evidence which should have been detected by the AG before deciding on whether to further pursue the case.
Article 145(3) of the Federal Constitution states - The Attorney General shall have power, exercisable at his discretion, to institute, conduct or discontinue any proceedings for an offence, other than proceedings before a Syariah court, a native court or a court-martial.
Good tax money paid for an Umno whim and fancy
The mistake to have the case pursued originated from a wrong decision by the Attorney General. For this Malaysians are paying good tax money to someone who has a problem doing his job and is clearly biased towards a certain outcome.
Gani Patail, the Attorney General of Malaysia was the prosecuting officer at the first sodomy trial against Anwar Ibrahim. How sure are we that in a flimsy case such as Sodomy II, that the Attorney General did not opted to pursue the matter base purely on personal reasons?
The waste of public funds to employ incompetent employee of the state should be a matter looked into seriously as it brings into disrepute all other decisions that the Attorney General would have made. How many other cases are a waste of public funds all because they serve a political motive?
The judiciary was also brought to its knees, embarrassing itself and the whole country. The global legal fraternity shook its head upon hearing that the charge against Anwar Ibrahim would go to trial.
From the onset the evidence and witness was questionable. So much so, that High Court Judge Mohamad Zabidin Diah issued a ruling that complainant Saiful Bukhairy Azlan was indeed a credible witness. Yet, the acquittal of Anwar Ibrahim is based on the grounds of evidence that is questionable.
High Court Judge Mohamad Zabidin Diah contradicted himself in this regards and this reflects the state of the Malaysian judiciary. The judiciary is conflicted.
Gross abuse of the system and media
The cost of this conflict is high. Sodomy II has hung the credibility of the Malaysian courts on a cross of inconsistency and compromise. While a just judiciary acts as a platform to provide justice to citizens, the Malaysian judiciary has prostituted itself to the executive. And for whoring itself, the Malaysian judiciary has lost its integrity as well as the trust of the people it swore to protect.
The mainstream media especially TV3, RTM1 and 2, Utusan Malaysia, Berita Harian, Bernama and the New Straits Times - are certainly propaganda machines of the ruling executive. And though Tun Mahathir had warned students not to believe the propaganda of the opposition, he turned a blind eye to the misdeeds of those who sit within the realm of main-stream and ‘official’ media.
The Malaysian mainstream media is never free to act on itself or by its own conscience. Instead, mainstream media is a tool for the ruling executive to misinform the public and to support its character assassination practices. This was evident during the two and a half years the Sodomy II case was on trial.
Datuk T on the backburner
The emergence of the Datuk T sex-tape was another highlight and gross abuse of of the mainstream media. At the cost of the morality of the nation, TV3 proudly screened portions of the tape during prime time news. This set the stage for the public screening of pornographic material and showcasing its continual bias as a tool of the executive to discredit its political opponents.
In short, the media, whom many call the 4th Estate, and which is supposed to represent the voice of the people in monitoring the Executive has instead become the voice of the Executive in misleading and scamming its own citizens. Dare we believe anything, broadcast as news, over main-stream media in the days after January 9th?
It is hoped that with Sodomy II out of the picture, Prime Minister Najib Razak will not rush to rehash the Datuk T scandal and wrap it around Anwar again. This would really be the limit and whatever little goodwill he and BN gained from Anwar's acquittal is guaranteed to turn into boiling anger and embedded disgust that they are unlikely to ever be able to win over.
Decades for Malaysia to rebuild its image, credibility
The cost to the people of Malaysia is greater than anyone imagines. The trumped-up charges against Anwar Ibrahim split the nation along political lines. And every other decision since June 29, 2008 has been made with the need to suppress the political opposition in Malaysia. The dignity of Anwar Ibrahim and family were used as joking points by a ruling government desperate to stay in power.
Indeed, Anwar Ibrahim faced and overcame a situation that defied sense. Anwar was continuously vilified by his political foes on sexual charges, while these same rivals got away with allowing the nation to slip into a state of economic stagnancy, even loss, with bad policies failing and corruption rising.
Is this what Najib meant when he proudly proclaimed that he would stop at nothing to halt the Pakatan Rakyat’s advance to Putrajaya - even to lying to the people of Malaysia and destroying her society and economy?
Make no mistake, Malaysians have been treated to a lie, made to believe that Anwar Ibrahim is a questionable character. At this juncture we should also question the characters seating in the highest seat of government. How ‘clean’ are they?
The cost for Sodomy II cannot be wished away by sweeping statements such as “the judiciary has acted independently” or “the government was not involved in the ruling”.
The Umno-led BN government is responsible and should assume responsibility for allowing the situation to have materialized and wasted so much of national resources including precious time.
Najib and Rosmah's hand in it must be probed
It is also impossible to think that Najib Razak and Rosmah Mansur were never involved when it is clear that they had met the complainant Saiful Bukhari Azlan prior to the charges being made. It is impossible to think that nothing transpired between Najib and Saiful when the court allowed the Prime Minister and his wife to be interviewed by the defence legal team, but the first couple stubbornly refused to talk or make a single response.
Instead, they 'got' the courts to strike off a subpoena issued by the defence compelling their attendance. The High Court 'obediently' set aside the summons in total disregard of that fateful meeting between the trio, despite open complaints from Anwar that Najib and Rosmah had conspired with Saiful to hang the sodomy charges against him. The total absence of curiosity on the part of the court in this regard casts grave concerns on the credibility of the judiciary.
Apologize to the nation
Indeed, the costs of Sodomy II are dear and go beyond mere dollars and cents. Ultimately, Sodomy II bankrupted Malaysia of any measure of integrity in its judiciary and also in the ruling executive.
Thus, for the BN to claim the acquittal "proves" the lack of political interference in the judiciary show the coalition is still in denial mode, blind as a bat and clinging stubbornly to its old, outmoded and even criminal ways.
The best measure of when BN has truly learnt its lesson is when Najib and team ask for forgiveness from the nation, apologize to Anwar and family, and offer the nation a new brand of politics away from its current oppressive, dishonest and manipulative style.
Malaysia Chronicle

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