Brothers and Sister of Malaysia,
I had wanted to open my writing on this historic day in Malaysian with what it was like to breathe the hill air in the Car Park at the Jalan Duta Court Complex this morning and what it meant to me and my friends when news of Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim's (DSAI) acquittal filtered through to the crowd of 10,000 there.
But let me digress a wee bit lest we let our serially lying Prime Minister and his Minister for MsInformation, Goebbels Tim Rice Anak Yatim Piatu and his cohorts run off at the mouth (and pink lips) and make all sorts of wild claims that this acquittal has firmly established that our Judiciary always was and truly is, independent of influence, especially by the Executive. Let me categorically state this:
Today’s decision by High Court Judge Mohamed Zabidin bin Mohamed Diah to acquit Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim (DSAI) of sodomising his ex-aide Mohamed Saiful Bukhari Azlan on 29 June 2008 DOES NOT BY ONE JOT mean the Malaysian Judiciary is truly independent of the manipulating tentacles of this UMNO/BN Government or of one that may succeed it. No way does one swallow a summer make. Nor does it, as opined by Bridget Welsh, a professor at Singapore Management University and a long-term observer of Malaysian politics who was on hand to attend the verdict, and who spoke to the Wall St. Journal, mean:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg24aq31dmx8aH4x839XoS-VRp65hgqWZt0pghwPlWRaTJqfQZPmYhk0TwMclCPUNHbuTbAj4gHG_2UPJjVJF8LTtRubSO5ZnqNGg-cdHRg5Fd2rmg12DNJdcrdf_OOBCnsWFsC57xmxfE/s640/igwt2.jpg)
No Siree! It does not mean any such thing! Not by a very long, long way!
I am also incensed (well, actually, fucking pissed off) that all these foreign "experts" on Malaysian politics and Press were allowed entry into Judge Zabidin's courtroom while we, the taxpaying Rakyat (citizens) were deliberately denied our Constitutional right to bear witness to the court proceedings by an army of our very own policemen.
THE SLATE WILL NOT BE CLEAN until Barisan Rakyat takes over the reins of Government and we have an open Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) where all the relevant judges, magistrates, Attorney Generals, Chief Secretaries to Government, Ministers, Chief Ministers, Inspector Generals of Police, Generals and even the odd Sultan or two are subpoenaed to testify on the peculiar decisions they made regarding State coups, various deaths in police custody and elsewhere as well as cases of financial misdeeds by our home grown Fraudtrepreneurs and "Corpo-rat Captains of Industry," general endemic corruption and about corruption charges levelled at judges. Some of these cases are-:
1. The Teoh Beng Hock "suicide."
2. Ahmad Sarbaini Mohamed "suicide."
3. Deaths in police custody of Francis Udayappan, Ananthan Kugan, Gunasegaran Rajasundram and scores of others.
4. A former Chief Justice (an an ex-Attorney General) who was caught candidly on camera holidaying with lawyers who paid for his travelling expenses and who appeared in front of him in more than one court case. That same CJ was also identified by witnesses testifying under oath at the same RCI as having gone hunting for a $1 million house with a local business tycoon. The lawyer involved was accused of fixing some court cases and the appointment of judges with the CJ and others such as Mahathir.
5. Perak State coup.
In particular, I would like to grill over flaming coals a couple of Federal Court judges, if they are still alive, how in Sodomy 1 they could honestly write an opinion that the accuser, Azizan Abu Bakar had blatantly lied about various relevant issues under oath, but nevertheless were "convinced" that DSAI had committed sodomy on him as testified to solely by Azizan!
This is not about revenge, but about transparency and accountability, and most of all, integrity. It is also to send a clear message to those titled personages and others holding high office in Government and Government Linked Concerns (GLC's) that with fancy salary packages, perks and privileges, not to mention inflation proof index-linked pensions and chauffeur driven Mercedes Benz cars, comes 'in loco parentis' or duty of care. They cannot just walk away from administrative and $million and $billion financial scandals which burgeon under their watch, or which involves them or their cronies/families while they foam at the lips with tag lines like 'People First, Performance, Now! (Accountability, Never!).’
Note that a Malaysian born CEO (of 9 years standing) of Singapore MRT resigned last week after two major MRT breakdowns in train service. Here in Malaysia, a certain once Minister of Agriculture and now Deputy Prime Minister refuses to take responsibility and resign in the wake of alleged massive corruption and Criminal Breach of Trust (CBT) involving a $250 million Government 25- year Loan dished out to the husband of Minister of Cows & Condos (and the odd $ million Mercedes cars, or two or maybe, three).
Here still, another former Minister shamelessly continues as Chairman of a commodities driven Public Limited Company (Plc) which since an infamous merger, for which a merchant bank led by PM Najib's brother is reputed to have earned professional fees of about $500 million, has lost some 50% of its share value, declared sapping losses of over $2 billion and after blaming it all on the Plc's CEO, has now suspiciously, despite the Plc having its own award winning property arm, forked out a whopping $750 million (60% over its quoted market price) for control of another listed property company. Wtf, you may well ask! The list is almost endless.
So, integrity is somewhat is short supply here, where it matters most.
No Siree! The moment Prime Minister Najib smirked “Who is Anwar" and mocked him in Parliament about his injuries sustained in the Bersih rally and then fought tooth and nail to successfully set aside (by Judge Zabidin) a subpoena issued by DSAI’s lawyers for Najib (and his wife Rosmah) to testify in the Sodomy 2 trial, we know Najib and his band of 40 thieves will NEVER “step away from interfering in the judiciary.” Because, for the past 30 years, undermining and destroying the ideals of the Separation of Powers, a Mahathir formulated initiative, has been the KEY strategy of UMNO/BN in clinging on to power.
And this is where Judge Zabidin comes in. How did he rule that PM Najib and Rosmah had nothing relevant to testify to when Saiful had testified under oath that he had met them in their home courtesy of Najib’s aide. Najib had even placed a telephone call about it to then IGP Musa Hassan BEFORE the alleged sodomy act took place!
Especially since Najib first lied in public that he had ever met Saiful, back-tracked on it when caught out, then lied again that he had only met him about a scholarship Saiful was lobbying for and only when finally cornered by the Opposition, did he (reluctantly) own up?
Do remember too that Zabidin and the judiciary repeatedly blocked Anwar’s request for witness list and other discover documents to facilitate to the maximum Solicitor General Mohamed Yusof Zainal Abiden's ambush tactics. At the end of the prosecution’s case, he even ruled that Saiful was a credible witness! He also first ruled DNA material gathered when DSAI was in a prison cell was inadmissible (at which point the entire SG’s case fell apart and it was game over) and then on some flimsy appeal by the SG, reversed it!
So, when everything pointed to a conviction, what gave?
My guess is that when faced with judgement and widespread condemnation by the international press like the Washington Post and Wall St. Journal which had the attention of Obama, and the leaders of half the western world as well as Turkey, Oz and NZ had pronounced misgivings over the long drawn out case which the SG should not even have filed in the first place, he exercised discretion over valour and passed the buck back to PM Najib and the politicians who conspired and conjured it up in the first place.
Were the integrity of the DNA samples compromised to such a degree that Zabidin had reasonable doubt to acquit DSAI? That much is certain. When faced with the idiocy (did the midwife drop him on his head at birth) of a Chief Inspector of Police who illegally removed the samples from the safe custody of the Chemistry Department, claimed to have them stored in a cupboard in his air-conditioned office and checked on their integrity by sticking his hand in the cupboard to verify that it was at an equable temperature, what choice did Zabidin have? I mean which police station in this country runs its air-conditioning units at zero or sub-zero temperatures? More than that, there was that utterly damaging testimony by that defence DNA expert from Oz that had our scientist from the Chemistry Department been his students, he would have failed them all!
But in another era, that of Mahathir “the benevolent dictator” and Judge Augustine Paul (passed away in 2010) and Judge Ariffin Jaka (passed away end 2011) much of the defence evidence and testimony would have been oh, so conveniently declared “irrelevant” and “expunged” from the court records forever, and even a Mother Teresa convicted of dildo-sodomising nuns and the poor.
So, High Court Judge Mohamed Zabidin bin Mohamed Diah today did what was the only course of action open to him if he did not wish to be pilloried for his remaining days by the court of public opinion, local and international.
HE SCREAMED “CATCH!” IN UTTER PANIC AND THREW THE BALL AND BUCK BACK TO PM NAJIB AND UMNO/BN!
Najib and UMNO/BN give up on meddling with the judiciary? After manipulating the appointment of their party legal adviser, Tun Zaki Tun Azmi as CJ in 2008 over the heads of so many senior judges? NEVER! After wantonly throwing way $100 million to APCO USA and $58 million to FBC Media in UK to prop up his image by PR misdirection and drivel? NEVER! Because misinformation and now and then plain lying is the credo of this leadership.
And so when the acquittal verdict was confirmed and I breathed in that cool morning air atop the Jalan Duta Court Complex hill, freshened by early morning showers, an old confidence surged in my bones. It suddenly flashed across my mind as I hugged my friend Bernard and looked across at the weeping and laughing and cheering PKR, PAS and DAP old, young and rejuvenated men and women:
THE END IS NIGH FOR NAJIB AND THIS BREED OF UMNO/BN LEADERS AND POLITICIANS. IT WILL DO THEM A WORLD OF GOOD TO BE IN OPPOSITION FOR A COUPLE OF TERMS OR UNTIL THEY LEARN THAT CONTINUALLY LYING TO THE CITIZENS AND CHEATNG THEM WILL GET THEM NOWHERE. BE WARY. DO NOT BE FOOLED BY PR MANIPULATION AND SNAKE OIL SALESMEN MASQUERADING AS CARING POLITICIANS,
BARISAN RAKYAT’S TIME HAS FINALLY ARRIVED. THE SUN HAS SET FOR NOW ON UMNO/BN. WE ARE DESTINED TO SEIZE THE UPPERHAND.
WE ARE ALL OF 1 RACE, THE HUMAN RACE!
- http://donplaypuks.blogspot.com/
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