Someone please tell me this is not political persecution

Anwar Ibrahim was jailed in February this year for allegedly having committed a ‘crime’ that is in the magnitude far more than (let’s say) the scandal involving the Port Klang Free trade Zone (PKFZ).

In the PKFZ scandal, it had not gone beyond the High Court, but the former opposition leader’s case was brought all the way before the apex court, despite him being acquitted at the High Court level. This, in my opinion, is the waste of the courts’ time and taxpayers’ money.

Even if Anwar did what they alleged him of (which I strongly doubt), I truly find it hard to believe that such a case of personal sexual preference has caught the attention of even the Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak. This has turned Malaysia into a laughing stock to the rest of the world.

Mind-boggling

This is exactly what I said in my article yesterday that it appears that our judges’ precious time is being bogged down with too many trivial cases.

This is simply mind boggling when we ask why our government is interested in defending an alleged illegal kingpin like Paul Pua all the way to the US when Pua was being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and why it did not dwell into the true motives behind Mongolian model Altantunya Shariibuu’s murder by two operatives who had nothing to do with her in the first place, yet so adamant about Anwar’s Sodomy II case.

Why are they so interested in the trivial cases, especially when it involves a member of the opposition or the civil society? Relying on the testimony of a young man whom, in my opinion, has no conscience of his own, Anwar faces a jail sentence for five years. Even now, inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar said that the police will be probing Anwar’s daughter, Nurul Izzah for having met the ‘princess of Sulu’.

If this is not perceived as political persecution, along with the other cases involving the Opposition, tell me what is it? You cannot blame ordinary citizens like me for asking such questions, because in the first place, we do not acknowledge the ‘sultan of Sulu’, so what is so serious about Nurul meeting another lady at a function where both were invited?

Probing Nurul over such trivia and even dragging her to court makes it appear as though we are acknowledging there was indeed a sultan of Sulu. Najib even shook hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu despite Malaysia not officially recognising the nation of Israel. That is even more serious!

Persecution all the way

In short, when Mark Trowell picked the title of his book, ‘The Prosecution of Anwar Ibrahim’, the book could have easily qualified and probably sell better, if he had picked the word, ‘Persecution.’ But being a no-nonsense person, the Queen’s Counsel chose to be objective in his evaluations of Anwar’s Sodomy II case.

He, too, has come to the same conclusion made by US President Barack Obama, which is consistent with the US government position on Anwar’s case.

John Mallot’s article has been most enlightening and I trust the former US ambassador’s sources, that President Barack Obama had indeed urged Najib to release Anwar. But based onMallot’s article, Najib in his response had chosen to hide behind the Malaysian judiciary system.

This is interesting because in 1998, Anwar was sentenced to six years in prison for corruption, and during the trial, it was alleged that Anwar had tried to obstruct the course of investigation, but today would Najib allow the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to carry out its investigation without any ‘perceived’ obstruction into the RM2.6 billion and another RM40 million that were funneled into his personal accounts?

Would he grant time to meet the MACC officers who are investigating the cases urgently despite his hectic schedule, especially since the Conference of Malay Rulers had issued their decree?

After all, even if there had been the slightest attempt to hamper the investigation undertaken by the MACC, whether directly or indirectly, this could be easily construed by the ordinary citizens as having obstructed the cause of justice.

Would Najib therefore agree to be subject to the Malaysian legal system? If he told us that Anwar’s Sodomy II were not due to political persecution, while the rest of the world take that position, do you think we would agree with him and the people who form the present government with him?

---

STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008. -Mkini