Will the Chief Justice of Malaysia be leading Federal Court judges to go on a nation-wide roadshow to justify and win in the court of public opinion their decisions against Anwar which have not found support among the majority of thinking Malaysians?

This will the next sequel to the unprecedented, unhealthy and undesirable national roadshow by Tan Sri Muhamad Shafee Abdullah, the lead prosecutor of Anwar Ibrahim’s Sodomy II trial, to character-assassinate, vilify and smear Anwar’s reputation and character although Anwar is languishing in Sungei Buloh prison.

In the second stop of Shafee’s nation-wide road-show on Saturday night in Permatang Pauh, the media were told that they were banned from reporting the event – which was even more unfair to Anwar as it meant that Shafee was at liberty to say anything he liked against Anwar as he was hiding under protection of secrecy from media reports!

Mohd Azmi Abdul, the president of the Malaysian Consultative Council of Islamic Organisations, in his article in Malaysiakini “Let’s stop this ‘Sodomy Politics’, now” summed up not only the objection but the repulsion of ordinary decent Malaysians, Muslim and non-Muslim, at such depths plumbed by those in authority in the vile campaign of character-assassination against Anwar, when he asked:

“Shafee’s character assassination of Anwar at the forum, with Anwar having no opportunity to defend himself, was despicable, unethical, unIslamic and cowardly.

“How can one sink so low! The roadshow shows how disconnected Shafee and Khairy (Jamaluddin) are from the teachings of Islam, resulting in them losing their moral compass.”

The Shafee nation-wide roadshow to character-assassinate and smear the name of Anwar was the brainchild of none other than the UMNO Youth Leader and Minister for Youth, Khairy Jamaluddin who announced at the first stop of the roadshow in Kelana Jaya last Tuesday that the Barisan Nasional was launching a nationwide roadshow, featuring Shafee, to explain the Federal Court judgment on Anwar’s Sodomy II case as it had “kept silent for six years because the trial was in progress”.

Although a few UMNO leaders have expressed reservations about UMNO/Barisan Nasional sponsoring a nation-wide road show for Shafee to character-assassinate Anwar, with even the Deputy Finance Minister, Datuk Ahmad Maslan claiming that the Shafee roadshow to smear Anwar is not funded by UMNO or government, who is a Deputy Minister or unnamed UMNO leaders to rebut the announcement and admission of full Minister like Khairy Jamaluddin?

Unless the Prime Minister or the Deputy Prime Minister are prepared to come out openly to deny Khairy’s claim that the Barisan Nasional is behind the Shafee roadshow against Anwar, Malaysians can only conclude that the UMNO/BN leadership is continuing its vile and vicious vendetta against Anwar even after sending Anwar back to incarceration for the fourth time in Anwar’s life.

Shafee’s roadshow against Anwar to have a second bite of the cherry as he cannot win in the court of public opinion is also an admission that the Federal Court’s 5-0 unanimous opinion convicting Anwar in the Sodomy II case and sentencing him to five year’s jail lack credibility whatsoever.

Although the five Federal Court judges found Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan a credible witness, the court of public opinion does not find the Federal Court decision a credible one, which also means that the court of public opinion does not agree with the Federal Court and holds that Mohd Saiful is not a credible witness.

As UMNO leaders find that the Shafee roadshow against Anwar is “backfiring”, which means he is not making any headway in the court of public opinion to win back support for the Federal Court decision against Anwar, is there a possibility that the Federal Court judges headed by the Chief Justice might consider a roadshow to achieve what Shafee clearly has failed to do?

It is indeed quite unthinkable that the Federal Court judges would go on a nation-wide roadshow for a third bite of the cherry in Anwar’s Sodomy II trial, but it was equally unthinkable that the lead prosecutor of Anwar’s Sodomy II trial would go on a national roadshow for a second bite of the cherry to win support in the court of public opinion.

Malaysia has become a very strange and abnormal country, where strangest of things can happen.

How can the Malaysian public be assured that decency and basic notions of fair play and justice have returned to govern affairs of state in the public domain, and that there would not only be no possibility of the Chief Justice leading Federal Court judges on a nation-wide road show to convince Malaysians of correctness of the Federal Court decisions against Anwar in Sodomy II, but that the Shafee roadshow would be halted immediately.