In an ideal world, Putrajaya’s word would be law.
It could, if it wished, feel that all is well. It decided that today by deciding to throw out allegations of evidence fabrication in Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s 1998 “black-eye incident”.
In its highly-anticipated explanation to Parliament today, the government clearly side-stepped the damning accusations made by former investigating officer Datuk Mat Zain Ibrahim that Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail had falsified documents in the case, brushing aside the former’s two recent open letters.
Instead, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz told the House today that there was no need for Mat Zain to complain that the independent panel formed to investigate the evidence fabrication had failed to clear his name in the incident.
This, said Nazri, was because Mat Zain had never been the subject of the panel’s probe and had merely been called forth as a witness to testify. The minister also said that the panel had been constitutional, despite Mat Zain’s claim that the Solicitor-General had no right to appoint the members as that prerogative only lay with the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, based on the prime minister’s advice.
The Barisan Nasional (BN) government is obviously playing with the letter of the law, not the spirit of the law.
At one time, it could have gotten away with it. But not anymore.
These are the days of whistleblowers and WikiLeaks. Where documents and evidence presented by the likes of Mat Zain will surface. And vehement denials and assertions on points of law will not matter.
Simply because the people won’t believe it.
The perception is that there is a cover-up. That there are dishonest officials prowling in Putrajaya.
For them, the government must come clean on this. Questions have been raised by none other than the police officer investigating the ‘black-eye’.
He is asking tough questions and making some serious allegations. Among other allegations, Mat Zain has accused the A-G of being guilty of falsifying the medical reports in the incident through “careful planning, preparation and a deliberate intention to fulfil clear motives”.
Mat Zain also said that the royal commission of inquiry’s investigation report on the issue in 1999 had not included all three medical report, which totalled 65 pages.
Do we need WikiLeaks to find us these documents?
Does the country actually need another ‘black-eye’, just like what happened when Anwar was assaulted in September 1998? The former deputy prime minister might have lost the bruise of that horrid assault but Malaysia has yet to recover from it, by the looks of today’s decision.
And it won’t. Not until BN puts to rest all allegations, speculations and questions about the ‘black-eye’ incident.