HAPPY BIRTHDAY PKR! TODAY YOU ARE 17 YEARS OLD

It took almost six years to prove this in Anwar’s case. In Najib’s case it is not going to take six years. It has taken about a year so far and in another few months it will be proven that all the allegations against Najib are lies. And, just like in Anwar’s case on 2nd September 2004, in another few months I am going to be able to tell you, “Did I not tell you so?” Yes, and Raja Petra Kamarudin is going to, yet again, be proven right.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

When Haji Hamid Rashid summoned me to his office in Ampang back in early 1999, I did not know yet what he wanted to speak to me about. By then the Reformasi Movement, which had been launched in September 1998, had been active for about four or five months already. But I did not join the Reformasi Movement. I did not even participate in any of the demonstrations other than just as a curious observer, more out of kay poh than anything else.

So imagine my surprise when Haji Hamid told me he wanted to offer me a job as the media coordinator for a new party that was about to be launched. That party, called Parti Keadilan Nasional or keADILan, was launched on the 4th of April 1999 (4499) in the Renaissance Hotel in Kuala Lumpur. I actually attended the launch.

Anyway, today — the 4th of April 2016 — is the 17th Anniversary of PKR. But no one seems to have remembered that. Is there any cake and candle-blowing event being organised for PKR’s 17th birthday today?

Although I had attended keADILan’s launch, I never joined the party as a member, though. Instead, I submitted my application to join PAS — and my proposer and seconder were Mustafa Ali and Abdul Hadi Awang. Haji Hamid told me that would not be acceptable. If I were going to work for keADILan I would need to first become a party member. So I joined keADILan instead of PAS (which somehow had lost my application form anyway).

Haji Hamid told me they had submitted a list of ten names to Anwar Ibrahim to choose from as the party’s media coordinator. Anwar, however, rejected all ten and asked that I be appointed the media coordinator instead. But my name was not even on the list, Haji Hamid said. And everyone knows I am so critical of Anwar, said Haji Hamid, so why would Anwar want someone who attacks him?

Well, that was how I came to work for keADILan as its media coordinator in 1999. And then, after the 29th November general election that same year, Haji Hamid sacked me. According to Professor Jomo Kwame Sundaram, Haji Hamid hated me and could not stand me. In fact, Haji Hamid wanted to get rid of me long before that but he had no choice but to wait until after the general election. And the very next day, on the 30th of November 1999, he sacked me.

I did not make any fuss over the matter, though. I just gathered my things and moved on. I went to see Hishamuddin Yahya of Harakah (the PAS party organ) and asked him if they had a place for me. Dato’ Hisham was pleased to have me but told me that he could not pay me the RM3,000 a month that keADILan was paying me. He could only pay me around RM1,000 or so.

The RM1,000 a month salary was not as much a problem as the fact that I would have to work under Koya Kutty. And Koya hates royalty (he told me that himself), so I would have a tough time working under someone who hates me just because I am a member of the royal family. So I decided not to take that job that would have paid me RM1,000 a month.

Anyway, as I had written in an earlier article, Marina Yusoff gave my wife, Marina, and me a job on a combined salary of RM7,500 a month but just a few months into the job and Saifuddin Nasution approached me and said that Dr Rahim Ghouse wanted to speak to me about something. And that something was they wanted me to start and head a Free Anwar Campaign (FAC) with a promised salary of RM7,500 a month (which they paid the first month and never paid anything again until the end of the four-and-a-half years in September 2004).

People ask me why I do all this and take all this shit. I do not like Anwar. I am very critical of Anwar. Yet I wasted almost six years of my life working for someone I did not like and who I always criticise, even when I was working for keADILan and the FAC.

The fact that they need to ask me that means they are too shallow and do not understand me one bit. This is not about whether I love or hate Anwar, I replied. This is about whether Anwar is a victim of an injustice. I work for Anwar because I consider him a victim of injustice. Anwar should not be in jail but he is. That is the injustice.

“So you consider Anwar innocent of the allegation of sodomy?” they asked me. In fact, this is also what the Special Branch asked me when they detained me in 2001. “I did not say that,” I responded to all those who asked me that question (the Special Branch included). “What I am saying is, never mind if Anwar is or is not guilt of sodomy, the prosecution failed to prove it in court.”

The fact that the judge admitted that Anwar failed to prove his innocence and that is why the court finds him guilty is grounds enough to declare Anwar the victim of an injustice. So I work for Anwar not because I consider him innocent but because he is a victim of an injustice.

In fact, I consider sodomy an outdated crime from the dark ages when Christians were a bunch of ignorant idiots. Do you know that anal sex with your own wife is also a crime under that old English law? So I do not care whether Anwar did bugger his wife’s driver. As long it is sex between two consenting adults it is no one else’s business.

That is what I told the Special Branch when they told me they can show me the evidence that Anwar did bugger the driver. They assumed I thought that Anwar did not bugger anyone and that showing me the evidence that he did could ‘turn me around’.

I told the Special Branch I am not interested to see the evidence because the issue is not whether Anwar did or did not commit that act. The issue is did the prosecution successfully prove it or was Anwar convicted because he failed to prove his innocence?

The Special Branch officer, Akhil Bulat, who later went on to become the Director of the Special Branch, admitted that the prosecutor — Gani Patail, of course — had failed to prove Anwar’s guilt. And that is one reason I respect that man Akhil, even though he had detained me. He was honest enough to admit to me that Gani had screwed up and that Anwar was sent to jail in spite of the prosecution’s failure to prove Anwar’s guilt.

So there you have it. The man who later went on to become the number one in the Special Branch told me in May 2001 that Gani had failed to prove Anwar’s guilt. And yet Anwar was sent to jail on grounds that he had failed to prove his innocence.

And that, I tell everyone, the Special Branch included, is why I supported and worked for Anwar. Then, on 2nd September 2004, the Federal Court acquitted Anwar on grounds that the prosecution had failed to prove Anwar’s guilt (although in the same breath the judge said the court still considers Anwar guilty of the sodomy act but just that it was not successfully proven).

So, did I really waste almost six years of my life? I was convinced Anwar should not be in jail because even if he did commit sodomy (which to me is not a crime) it was not successfully proven. Hence Anwar should not be in jail. And on 2nd September 2004 the Federal Court agreed with me.

And on that same day, 2nd September 2004, I walked away from Anwar and PKR and focused on my own thing, Malaysia Today. I had already proven my point, even though it took me almost six years to do that. And my point was that Anwar should not be in jail because they had failed to prove his guilt — plus that Anwar should not be in jail just because he had failed to prove his innocence.

Do I need to love Anwar before I uphold justice? I knew that Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad just wanted to get rid of a political adversary and he was using the Royal Malaysian Police, the Special Branch, the Attorney General’s office, and the Judiciary (Chief Justice and judges) to do this.

So I supported Anwar and worked for him because of this and not because I may have liked him or loved him. And, now, they are trying to do this a second time, but this time to Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak.

The Royal Malaysian Police, the Special Branch, the Attorney General’s office, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, Bank Negara, etc., are being used to get rid of Najib just like they did back in 1998 to get rid of Anwar.

Did Najib steal RM42 billion of 1MDB’s money? Was RM2.6 billion of 1MDB’s money transferred into Najib’s personal bank account? Has Najib sold himself to Singapore by not building the Crooked Bridge? Is Najib wrong for not allowing Mukhriz Mahathir to become the Deputy Prime Minister so that he can become the Prime Minister in 2020?

Yes, these are the alleged ‘crimes’ that Najib is said to have committed. And they want Najib in jail for these crimes just like they sent Anwar to jail in 1999 for a crime they said he committed but could not prove.

It took almost six years to prove this in Anwar’s case. In Najib’s case it is not going to take six years. It has taken about a year so far and in another few months it will be proven that all the allegations against Najib are lies. And, just like in Anwar’s case on 2nd September 2004, in another few months I am going to be able to tell you, “Did I not tell you so?” Yes, and Raja Petra Kamarudin is going to, yet again, be proven right.