INJUSTICE AND INEQUALITY IS IN THE EYES OF THE BEHOLDER?

Umar Mukhtar

I have written here before that it is not difficult for Anwar Ibrahim to indulge in politics while in prison. The facilities accorded to him in order to able to do that is unbelievable. Maybe even a smart phone with scrambling abilities. Even without that he is probably the only incarcerated person in Malaysia who can respond to current events in real time and whose mail is not censored, with carriers at his beck and call.

I am not bitching about the fact that he can do that. He can translate the whole works of Shakespeare for all I care. I am just citing this as an example of the malaise that has overcome over public service can now be detected everywhere. Do you mean to say, for example, if the minister in charge of prisons is once your ‘macai’ you can expect a bit of favour as if he owns the prison? So it pays to be connected then. No wonder the country is going to the dogs!

Imagine, nobody is going to raise this matter in parliament. Because this miscarriage of justice benefits the opposition and nobody on the government benches dares to be on the wrong side of the minister. It is these kind of little favours between friends that open the floodgates of injustice. This would be a terrible place to be in if you are born of the wrong pedigree. I guess that’s why the pariahs of the world look up to an underground godfather!

Really, I am just so curious that an incarcerated person can so free to rally his troops. Imagine if Botak Chin, the Mamak Gang and Bentong Kali could have communicated to their followers about where to stash the weapons, etc. There are two types of criminals? And it is up to the Director-General of Prisons to personally decide who deserves what? Humour me.

My apologies if in fact Anwar managed to slip his letter among his medical prescriptions.

Why doesn’t Anwar just be released. Because such a lax neither here nor there attitude is quite embarrassing. Or build different prisons for ‘victimless crimes’, then Anwar could have shared a cell with the late Ayah Pin. Pardon my ignorance, but a thick mattress and a special bed belongs to a hospital. He should be there. Otherwise the well-connected, the rich and the powerful will insist on filling up their prescriptions amidst ordinary Malaysians in prison.

If whatever I blabber about is truly against the regulations, I wonder why Rafizi Ramli and Tony Pua and Lim Kit Siang never breathe a word about these apparent breaches. They are ever vigilant about other inequities, or is their sense of justice is the ‘pilih bulu’ type. If it is, then it appears that it’s going to be the same if they get to be in charge, if not worse. Already the mushrooming reflexology parlours and cheap bungalows without pools do raise our eyebrows.