Top lawyer Zaid claims pornography is documentary

Zaid Ibrahim had a chance to redeem himself but he blew it.

Instead of condemning the despicable sex video which was meant to disgrace Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, Zaid had no reservations in telling us that he actually asked to view the video.

And if that was not shocking enough, Zaid then told us that the video is not pornography, but is actually a documentary.

Many parents would disagree that Zaid should lump a favourite like National Geographic in the same category as a man and a woman having sex in a seedy hotel room.

Perhaps Zaid thinks his credentials as a lawyer means he knows what he is talking about.

But people have been known to be wrong, and even top-notch lawyers like Zaid who once ran the nation’s biggest law firm, can also make mistakes.

How could a man whom Malaysians once respected and had high principles, confuse pornography with documentary?

If we were to follow Zaid’s logic, magazine vendors should be able to import publications like Score or Fiesta’s Readers Wives. DVD sellers need not sell copies of blue movies from under the makeshift table in the pasar malam. They can sell them openly - after all, these hardcore movies are only ‘documentaries’.

Zaid’s political career began with 23 years in Umno. He then spent 17 months in PKR which ended with a rampage against Anwar, in the last tumultuous months.

Last week, Zaid spoke to reporters after the launch of Kita's Kedah chapter in Sungai Petani. It was then that he admitted making a request to view the sex tape allegedly involving Anwar.

When told that Zaid had committed an offence for viewing the tape, he said that it was offence for a top leader to do such an act on tape.

We are therefore given an insight into what Zaid thinks of Anwar because in Zaid’s opinion, Anwar is already guilty. Does Zaid the lawyer, not believe in “innocent until proven guilty”?

Zaid said he needed to see the video first hand: “To me, this is not an offence, I was curious so I wanted to take a look.”

“I want to see for myself to see whether my eyesight is good or not, and I wanted to see whether my mind is working; whether my senses are all right.

Perhaps Zaid should be told that most normal people check their eyesight with an ophthalmologist.

He also said he had to view the film to see if his mind is working. Perhaps we could suggest Tanjung Rambutan. After all, he did say the pornographic clip was a documentary and that he watched the porno flick to see if his eyesight was good. Perhaps Zaid is a closet voyeur.

Zaid did not reveal who he approached to watch the film, but was firmly convinced the person depicted in the sex video, looked like PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim.

He said, “My eyesight say it looks like Anwar, my senses think it looks like Anwar, I think it is Anwar... I'm questioning its genuineness. But that is a question for investigators and forensic”.

Is Zaid unaware that the crime is in taking an illegal recording of two people engaged in a sexual act and then making it available for selected public viewing?

Does he not think that asking for sums of money from select people to view this sex video and finally to issue an ultimatum to Anwar and his wife to resign is blackmail?

Zaid should have chosen this opportunity to redeem himself but he didn’t. Instead, he encouraged blackmail and pornography and gave the sordid act by Abdul Rahim Thamby Chik, the child rapist, more publicity.

Last year, Zaid left Pakatan under a dark cloud and famously declared: “They also questioned my loyalty and contribution to Pakatan Rakyat, the allegations that I am a ‘Trojan horse’ and frontman for businessmen and Umno.”

At that time, he also said, “Is this the kind of leadership we have to offer our political partners in Pakatan? I would like to see them debate on issues, on polices and principles, not my loyalty and so-called inexperience as those are for the members to decide.”

Sadly, Zaid has failed us again. He had the chance to distance himself from smutty politics both from being a sound, educated person and also from being a good Muslim, but he did neither.

Zaid once complained that his detractors and the media were wrong to think he was uninspiring and that he was a loose cannon who alienated certain party leaders.

When Zaid gave this sex video much publicity, the people who criticised him, were proven right. - Malaysia Chronicle