The 2008 Olympics opens in Beijing today but for Malaysia, we are obsessed with scaling a new Olympian height of national trauma and international infamy – the strangulation of what is left of the rule of law in Malaysia after two decades of judicial darkness in the continued political persecution of Anwar Ibrahim in the Sodomy II prosecution.

Thanks to this special Malaysian official obsession with sodomy, Malaysia was big news in seven continents when Anwar Ibrahim was charged under Section 377B of the Penal Code for sodomising his 23-year-old male aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan.

Furthermore, Anwar’s Sodomy II trial and tribulation will be kept alive in the international stage because of the disgraceful, dishonourable and ignoble circumstances and motivation of the prosecution to the extent that the Foreign Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Rais Yatim has made a most unusual and extraordinary decision to organize a series of information sessions by the Foreign Ministry overseas on Anwar’s Sodomy II “to give a true picture so there will be no misconceptions that can hurt Malaysia’s image”.

What is this “true picture” that Rais is going to tell the world in a series of information sessions overseas?

Will this be the same “true picture” that the Information Ministry will be telling Malaysians in the country, and particularly during the Permatang Pauh by-election from August 16-26?

Will this “true picture” include the following:

1. That the Cabinet had usurped the constitutional powers of the Attorney-General’s Chambers on its sole prosecution discretionary powers?

When Home Minister, Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar said yesterday that Saiful is not being charged because he is the complainant and the key witness in the sodomy case against Anwar, he has arrogated to himself the role and sole discretionary power of Attorney-General under Article 145(3) “to institute, conduct or discontinue any proceedings for an offence”.

It was also an admission that the Home Minister had been involved if not usurped the Attorney-General in the decision-making process resulting in the Sodomy II prosecution of Anwar – which is clearly an unlawful and unconstitutional usurpation of the powers of the Attorney-General!

The question is who else in the Cabinet had been involved in the decision on Anwar’s Sodomy II prosecution? The Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and the Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak?

2. That Saiful had sought “justice” (to use the word used repeatedly by the Prime Minister) as a victim of sodomy rape by Anwar but in the charge yesterday, Anwar was accused of consensual sodomy under Section 377B instead of Section 377C (sodomy rape) under the Penal Code?

Only on Wednesday, Abdullah said:

Clearly, the police have found that there is no evidence to support Saiful’s allegation that he is the “victim” who is entitled to “justice” and “police protection”.

Was the police “thinking” of Saiful to accord him “justice” when it decided to charge Anwar for consensual sodomy under Section 377B?

Would Saiful be charged with lodging a false report of sodomy rape?

Abdullah had said that he had been informed by Hamid “about the police decision to charge Anwar” (NST 7.8.08) – an involuntary and unconscious admission that the decision to charge Anwar was that of the police rather than that of the Attorney-General’s Chambers.

Another travesty of justice and the rule of law when the Constitution and the law are very clear – that the police has no business to decide on prosecutions as they merely conduct criminal investigations while the Attorney-General decides on whether to prosecute!

3. That Pusrawi Hospital doctor, Dr Mohamed Osman Abdul Hamid, who examined Saiful just hours before he lodged a police report of sodomy against Anwar on June 28 stood by his findings in a statutory declaration that there was no evidence of sodomy?

And Malaysia’s system of justice has been reduced to a flurry of statutory declarations with those making them being forced to flee abroad for the safety of themselves and their family, including the case of private investigator Bala Subramaniam over his two Statutory Declarations within 24 hours completely contradicting each other with explosive revelations involving the Deputy Prime Minister in the murder of Mongolian Altantunya Shaariibuu?

Instead of launching an international campaign to defend the indefensible, Rais should remember his trenchant, valid and legitimate criticisms of gross abuses of executive power in his book “Freedom under Executive Power”, pluck up courage at the next Cabinet meeting to demand the dropping of the Sodomy II charge and further persecution of Anwar for the sake of the good name and international reputation of the country.

If Rais dare to stand up and sound the alarm in the Cabinet, there may be other Ministers – from Umno, MCA, MIC and other BN component parties? – who might also find sufficient courage to speak up against the continued assaults of the integrity of the system of justice and national institutions in Malaysia after the March 8 “political tsunami”!