Malaysia would have been spared the religious troubles of the past month if inter-religious dialogues had been institutionalized as an important aspect of nation-building in the past five decades
Posted by Kit in nation building, Pakatan Rakyat, Religion on Thursday, 11 February 2010, 10:34 am
The Pakatan Rakyat Leadership Council decided on 31st January 2010 to convene tonight’s inter-religious dialogue because we believe that the overwhelming majority of Malaysians from all religions are men and women of good will and good sense who want religion to unite and not divide, to build and not to destroy, the nation.
During the course of the historic dialogue tonight, bringing together representatives from all the great religions in Malaysia to freely and frankly exchange views and share their common concerns for the best welfare of the country, I was struck by the thought that Malaysia would have been spared the religious troubles of the past month if inter-religious dialogues had been institutionalized as an important aspect of nation-building in the past five decades.
Bapa Malaysia and the first Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, established the Inter-Religious Organisation to provide a common platform to bring representatives of all religions together to work for the common good and it is most unfortunate that Tunku’s initiative was discarded in the past few decades.
Tonight’s inter-religious dialogue is a historic one. As Dr. Herman Shastri has said, the mechanism of trust has broken down and in our challenge and task to rebuild this mechanism of trust, regular inter-religious dialogues among the different faiths in the country plays an important part.
Read the rest of this entry »
What is Najib’s response to the PERC’s “blistering” report and the prospect of Malaysia becoming even more uncompetitive internationally because of his failing strategy to be “all things to all people”
Posted by Kit in Economics, Najib Razak on Wednesday, 10 February 2010, 3:40 pm
Yesterday, I criticised the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak for coming up with a wishy-washy “1Malaysia” concept, which has come to mean “a thousand and one” different things even to Umno and Barisan Ministers and leaders – resulting in his lament that “I am greatly saddened that such an idea, which is not terribly complicated, is so often not understood.”
This criticism has found support in the latest report of the Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC) on Malaysia which is quite pessimistic about the Najib strategy of “trying to be all things to all people, but in the end he might satisfy no one”.
In what Malaysian Insider has described as a “blistering report” on Malaysia at the end of January, PERC raised Malaysia’s risk index from 5.24 in December to 5.4 in January – out of a possible maximum score 10 for highest level of risk.
PERC maintained in its report that foreign investments into Malaysia have not been forthcoming, either in direct form or in the equity markets.
It said: “Foreign companies and investors are remaining cautious until they see how Malaysia gets its own house in order.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Justice is done in by the Federal Court
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Court, Judiciary, Martin Jalleh, Perak on Wednesday, 10 February 2010, 12:17 pm
By Martin Jalleh
Once again justice is shamelessly sacrificed on the altar of political expediency by judicial shenanigans of the highest court in Bolehland. It is a sad day indeed to see how five “blind” men of supposed legal stature strove so hard not to see and sense what was staring at them in the Federal and Perak constitutions.
The judiciary – the very portal of justice continues to be reduced to a convenient playground for the ruling elite to legitimize their power grab, persecute their opponents and promote their political agenda, through the perversion of the rule of law by certain court jesters.
The Federal and Perak Constitutions are dead, done in by those who decided to disregard, desecrate and discard constitutional provisions to treat the doctrine of separation of powers with deference. They are rigorously and rightly interpreted only when it best suits Umno.
In stark comparison to the courageous, cogent and convincing judgment of High Court judge Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahim, the cowed five-member bench caved in and conveniently decided to take the cue from the powers that be.
It comes as no surprise that their “collective written judgement is apparently riddled with contradictions”.The five judges surely qualify for retired Justice N H Chan’s classic category of “recalcitrant” and “Humpty Dumpty” judges in the Perak conundrum.
Read the rest of this entry »
Najib’s 1Malaysia concept means “a thousand and one” different things even to Umno and BN Ministers and leaders
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak, nation building on Tuesday, 9 February 2010, 3:22 pm
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is unhappy about the various misconceptions over the 1Malaysia concept which he introduced upon taking office in April last year, causing him to lament yesterday in his keynote speech at the 1Malaysia Economic Conference: “I am greatly saddened that such an idea, which is not terribly complicated, is so often not understood.”
Najib has only himself to blame as the 1Malaysia concept has come to mean “a thousand and one” different things even to Umno and Barisan Ministers and leaders – let alone to the people at large.
This is why even his senior aide of some two decades, Datuk Nasir Safar, could interpret Najib’s 1Malaysia as inclusive of offensive and insensitive sentiments such as:
-
Labelling Indians and Chinese in Malaysia as “pendatang”;
-
“Indians came to Malaysia as beggars and Chinese especially the women came to sell their bodies (jual tubuh)”;
-
Claimed that Umno was solely responsible in drafting the constitution sidelining the contribution of MCA and MIC;
-
Threat to revoke the citizenship of those vocal about the subject cap for SPM examination.
Mandela-isation of Anwar?
Posted by Kit in Anwar Ibrahim, Azly Rahman on Tuesday, 9 February 2010, 8:38 am
by Azly Rahman
“Man proposes, god disposes”
Thomas a Kempis, ‘Of The Imitation of Christ’
While America awaits The Super Bowl, Malaysia awaits The Super Trial II this week to listen to the arguments concerning the predicament of Anwar Ibrahim.
Philosophically, what ought to be the shape of things to come? Where do we go from here, as a nation? Where do we wish to bring this nation that is in need of deep reflection on the meaning of nationhood and democracy?
Maturity after Mahathirism
If we take 1998 as a framework in looking at the changes this country is seeing politically, Anwar can be seen as an embodiment of Nelson Mandela.
His spirit did not die for the six years he was jailed and upon his release a momentum was created that grew in strength to first, become institutionalised in the form of a strong Parti Keadilan Rakyat and next, of Pakatan Rakyat.
Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysia has forgotten Tunku, and Tunku would not recognise Malaysia
Posted by Kit in History, nation building on Monday, 8 February 2010, 6:23 pm
By Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah
Tunku Abdul Rahman was the founder of Malaysia. That has been obscured by an intervening period in which his memory has been brushed out of our national consciousness.
He brought together a Malaysia that had come together “through our own free will and desire in the true spirit of brotherhood and love of freedom”, in a union arrived at “by mutual consent by debate and discussion…through friendly argument and compromise,” and “in the spirit of co-operation and concord.”
This was the basis for Malaysia he worked for and established, and that his life embodied. That basis has been replaced by something alien to it, his memory has been suppressed, and our history revised.
Part of the reason our collective memory of Tunku has faded, and that Tunku would not recognise today’s Malaysia, is that Tunku and his generation built institutions that empowered the people rather than cults of personality to concentrate power and wealth in themselves. They reached instinctively for democratic decision-making. The concepts and precepts of constitutional democracy were part of their natural vocabulary and instinctive reactions. They knew who the country belonged to, and that they lived to serve.
The day of Tunku’s funeral was not even declared a public holiday. It is no accident that the erasure of his memory has gone hand in hand with the erosion of our institutions. Tunku built up a system of good civil service in which ordinary citizens did not need to see so-and-so to get things done. This has been replaced by a domineering style of leadership in which what you get done depends on who you know. Of course the rich and powerful have better connections.
Read the rest of this entry »
UMNO leaders in Federal Government should not play with fire and mortgage credibility and success of 1Malaysia GTP Roadmap and Malaysia 2.0 new economic model
Posted by Kit in Media, Najib Razak, nation building, UMNO on Monday, 8 February 2010, 2:39 pm
UMNO leaders in the Federal Government, from the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to Cabinet and sub-Cabinet levels should not play with fire and mortgage the credibility and success of the 1Malaysia Government Transformation Programme (GTP) Roadmap and Malaysia 2.0 new economic model yet to be announced by Najib.
They should be mindful that Malaysians and the world are watching whether they could separate their responsibilities as Federal Government officials from those of Umno leaders, which would have a great bearing on the credibility, trustworthiness and success of of Najib’s 1Malaysia GTP Roadmap and Malaysia 2.0 new economic model which is to be the basis for the Tenth Malaysia Plan to be presented to Parliament in June.
For instance, national and international credibility in the system of governance which plays a very important role in a country’s international competitiveness, would suffer grievously if Malaysians and the international community believe that the Najib premiership is unable to rise above narrow political party considerations to give top priority to national interests as to continue to compromise the independence, professionalism and integrity of national law enforcement agencies.
Read the rest of this entry »
Why the prosecution of Anwar Ibrahim matters to the West
Posted by Kit in Anwar Ibrahim, Court on Monday, 8 February 2010, 1:06 pm
The Washington Post
FEB 7 – In the past two years, Malaysia, which has been a one-party state since it gained independence in 1957, has made remarkable strides toward becoming a democracy. That it has done so is mostly due to the efforts and political talent of one man – Anwar Ibrahim.
So the fact that Anwar went on criminal trial last week should deeply concern the democratic world. The outcome could determine whether one of Asia’s most economically successful countries preserves its stability and embraces long-overdue reforms.
A former deputy prime minister in the ruling party, Anwar was deposed and jailed in 1998 by former Malaysian strongman Mahathir Mohamad.
A manifestly unfair trial followed in which Anwar was convicted of homosexual sodomy, which shamefully remains a crime in Malaysia.
Six years later, the conviction was overturned by a court, and Anwar resumed his political career – this time as an open champion of democracy in Malaysia and other Muslim countries.
Read the rest of this entry »
Towards A Developed Malaysia – Part 1
Posted by Kit in Bakri Musa, Law & Order, nation building on Monday, 8 February 2010, 5:01 am
By M. Bakri Musa
[Presented at the Third Annual Alif Ba Ta Forum, “1Malaysia Towards Vision 2020,” Rochester Institute of Technology, NY, December 5, 2009, organized by Kelab UMNO NY-NJ. The presentation can be viewed at www.youtube.com (search under “Bakri Musa RIT”) or through this link]
Part One of Six: Definition of A Developed State
Thank you, President Shahrir Tamrin of Kelab UMNO-NY/NJ for inviting me again. I still savor the many pleasant memories of last year’s event. To President Arif Aiman of the Malaysian Students Association, RIT, your warm welcome and generous introduction more than made up for the chill of a New York autumn! To Nur Fauzana and her committee, I congratulate you for your grit in holding this forum in December when American campuses are typically gripped with term paper deadlines and final examinations.
To fellow panelist Dr. Azly Rahman, it is good to see you again! I was in Greece recently and imagined you conducting a Socratic-like seminar on the meaning of truth, wisdom, and knowledge, under those imposing columns! To Ambassador Jarjis, it is a pleasure meeting you and your wife again. That was an impressive picture of you with President Obama, a portrait of a Malay hulubalang (knight), fearsome yet elegant, with his tanjak (keris) discreetly tucked underneath the samping. You effectively demonstrated that a genuine hulubalang need not brandish his keris to convey his message!
Read the rest of this entry »
How can Najib inspire confidence in Malaysia 2.0 new economic model when he has done nothing in past ten months to stop brain drain or achieve brain gain
Posted by Kit in Economics, Najib Razak on Sunday, 7 February 2010, 12:14 pm
When he became Prime Minister in early April last year, one of the first things Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced was a new economic model for the country to ensure Malaysia make a quantum leap to escape the middle-income trap to become a high-income country.
At first, this new economic model of Malaysia 2.0 was to be announced by the second half of last year, then delayed to January of the new year and now to the first quarter of the year.
In actual fact, the World Bank had recommended that Malaysia adopt a new economic model three years ago, stressing that industrial countries are already aiming for economic model 3.0, and with competition at economic model 1.0 intensifying, striving to achieve economic model 2.0 is not an option for Malaysia but a necessity.
The question is why the World Bank’s advice that Malaysia migrate to a new economic model 2.0 was ignored for three years, losing more precious time for Malaysia to catch up in the international competitiveness race when the country had become a straggler as compared to other countries.
When the country achieved nationhood in 1957, Malaysia was the second most economically-advanced country in Asia after Japan.
Read the rest of this entry »
Open Letter to ALL Pakatan MPs
Posted by Kit in Letters, Pakatan Rakyat on Sunday, 7 February 2010, 5:02 am
Open letter by Emmanuel Joseph
Dear Few Pakatan Rakyat Elected Representative (You Know Who You Are)
Yang Berhormats,
I am writing this to vent my frustration, irritation, disgust, disbelief and anger on how many of you are acting recently. Its with sincerest and most honest intention that I am writing this, as a Pakatan grassroots ‘small fry’ member, who like the millions of Malaysians came out in full force to support you all when you were practically nobodies and put you where you are today, sitting in the highest decision making bodies in your own states and country respectively. Some of you were luckier than others, and been appointed to important government posts, some even head entire state governments. Congratulations, your long wait and tireless effort paid off. But please do kindly remember, it was not only your effort alone, but the effort and will of more than half the Malaysian electorate that put you where you are. You did not win entirely on your own charm, your education level, your profile in your respective fields of expertise or struggle. Frankly, most Malaysians who supported you did not even care who you were or what you did, as long as you were not donning a dark blue cap with a BN logo on it. That is the reason we had aircraft mechanics voted into power in the last General Election.
The next time any of you decide to foam in the mouth about lack of funding, lack of resources and other similar grumbles, please bear in mind these few facts. Firstly, you stood for the election on your own free will. Nobody put a gun on your foreheads asking you to run for elections, nobody begged you to contest. Out of your own reasons, rightly or wrongly you stood, representing the people, and because of that, the people rallied behind you and riding on this, you were catapulted into where you now are. Secondly, others have had far less than you, suffered much more than you and been doing it for far longer. Take a look at the likes of YB Dr Tan Seng Giaw, YB Fong Kui Loon, YB Dr Wan Azizah, YB Mustafa Ali, YB Nasharuddin Mat Isa and many more. Read the rest of this entry »
Twitter exchange – Anwar’s Sodomy 2 and NEM
Posted by Kit in Anwar Ibrahim, Economics, Najib Razak, Twitter on Saturday, 6 February 2010, 7:01 pm
02/06/2010 06:54 PM
limkitsiang: @saiwanstar Journos owned by politicians shld not talk high and mighty about “NEM is 2 impt to leave 2 politics n politicians”.
02/06/2010 06:49 PM
limkitsiang: @saiwanstar “NEM is 2impt to leave 2 politics n politicians” – Najib n MCA Ministers not “politicians”? Star owned by MCA – so? Warped logic
02/06/2010 06:46 PM
limkitsiang: @saiwanstar “I agree with u tht sodomy 2 ws a fixed up but …” who said this? Backing off so quickly? Deny when cornered?
02/06/2010 06:38 PM
saiwanstar: @limkitsiang Don’t recall ever saying who fixed sodomy 2 did I? :) no bullseye uncle lim. NEM is 2 impt to leave 2 politics n politicians.
02/06/2010 06:21 PM
limkitsiang: @saiwanstar Y classic mca kneejerk allegation dap will sabo d country’s economy? U have sole claim 2patriotism? U owe public apology
Read the rest of this entry »
Stop Anwar Sodomy2 trial if Najib is serious about Malaysia 2.0 new economic model …
Posted by Kit in Anwar Ibrahim, Economics, Najib Razak on Saturday, 6 February 2010, 2:13 pm
In his 2010 New Year Message issued on 31st December 2009, the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak forecast that Malaysia will emerge stronger in 2010 with the long-term as well as short and medium-term initiatives taken by the Government.
However, Malaysia has becoming weaker instead of stronger whether in terms of national unity or in international competitiveness since the first day of the new year.
The first month of the new year was marred by irresponsible mischief to create inter-religious discord over the Dec. 31 judgment of the Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Datuk Lau Bee Lan lifting the 2007 Home Ministry ban on the Catholic Church weekly Herald and allowing the use of the word “Allah” in its Bahasa Malaysia version – with a spate of desecration of churches, mosques, surau and Sikh Gurdwara.
As a result, Malaysia’s international image and standing suffered unprecedented battering in the first month of the year, aggravating Malaysia’s crisis of confidence, undermining Malaysia’s international competitiveness and tarnishing Malaysia as a safe and secure haven for FDIs and as an ideal location for tourists and students.
Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysia on trial along with Anwar
Posted by Kit in Anwar Ibrahim on Friday, 5 February 2010, 5:15 pm
By Barry Wain | The Age, Australia
The last time Malaysia’s former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim was charged with sodomy, the country’s judicial system was on trial. This time around, the stakes are even higher.
If Anwar is convicted, in a case that opened in Kuala Lumpur’s High Court on Tuesday, Malaysians can wave goodbye to the best chance of developing a two-party political system in more than half a century.
It will also end any real prospect of Malaysia extricating itself from corrosive race-based politics, and signal the former British territory’s continued descent into self-destructive extremism.
Over the past two years, the charismatic Anwar, 62, has achieved what many analysts thought was impossible. He has tacked together three disparate political parties and formed a credible – if still fragile – opposition, representing hope for a multiracial future.
Read the rest of this entry »
No McCarthyism but disband BTN which had produced a generation of Nasir Safars with racist brain-washing making it the biggest enemy of Najib’s 1Malaysia campaign
Posted by Kit in Muhyiddin Yassin, Najib Razak, nation building on Friday, 5 February 2010, 11:46 am
Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin yesterday tried to mitigate the Nasir Safar outrage claiming that it could have been “a slip of the tongue” (New Straits Times).
If so, it is a very big slip or Nasir has got a big tongue when he could in one gulp make so many offensive, insensitive and anti-1Malaysia utterances as:
-
Labelling Indians and Chinese in Malaysia as “pendatang”;
-
“Indians came to Malaysia as beggars and Chinese especially the women came to sell their bodies (jual tubuh)”;
-
Claimed that Umno was solely responsible in drafting the constitution sidelining the contribution of MCA and MIC;
-
Threat to revoke the citizenship of those vocal about the subject cap for SPM examination.
Clearly, it cannot be a madness of a moment, but madness for many moments!
Although the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak had been very quick and prompt in damage-control, getting Nasir to resign within 12 hours of the outrage on Tuesday and declaring that the Nasir episode should be “a lesson to all” to be racially sensitive, Najib must admit that the greatest casualty is his 1Malaysia campaign.
Read the rest of this entry »
There they go again
Posted by Kit in Anwar Ibrahim on Friday, 5 February 2010, 11:04 am
The opposition leader treads a familiar path into the dock
Feb 4th 2010 | BANGKOK | From The Economist print edition
SLINGING mud at opponents is a staple of most democracies, even if voters might prefer a more sensible debate. In Malaysia, a prudish, majority-Muslim country, it seems that nothing succeeds quite like below-the-belt personal attacks. For Anwar Ibrahim, the opposition leader and former deputy prime minister, who went on trial this week accused of sodomising a young male aide, the tactic is wearily familiar. In 1998 he was charged with the same crime, found guilty and jailed. Exonerated and freed, he has staged a comeback that another conviction might jeopardise.
Much has changed in Malaysia since Mr Anwar last took the stand. His nemesis, the country’s longest-serving prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, who presided over his downfall, has retired, if not exactly gracefully or quietly. The once-mighty United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), which leads a 13-party multiracial governing coalition, looks increasingly vulnerable at a future election. A judiciary that was seen as beholden to its political masters has begun to assert its independence, and has sided with free-speech plaintiffs in prickly faith-related cases.
That independence will be put to the test in “Sodomy 2.0”, as Malaysia’s press has taken to calling Mr Anwar’s trial. His lawyers have pressed for the disclosure of prosecution evidence, including medical reports of the accuser, Saiful Bukhari. Read the rest of this entry »
Don’t use ISA against Nasir Safar – more important to flush out all the closet Nasir Safars holding influential positions in government
Posted by Kit in ISA, nation building on Thursday, 4 February 2010, 12:03 pm
Recently, the Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein warned that there are forces bent on derailing the government’s 1Malaysia concept.
Hishammuddin was referring to the recent spate of arson and vandalism at places of worship but he failed to realize that the enemies of Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1Malaysia concept are to found closer home – in the very sanctum of the Najib premiership!
MIC leaders, from its President Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu, are baying for Nasir’s blood and even demanding that Nasir should be detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA).
This is the last thing that should be done, for it will only make Nasir a martyr. Furthermore, the ISA detention-without-trial law is so iniquitous, unjust and undemocratic a legislation that I will not want to wish it on my worst opponents as its only proper destination is the scrapyard.
The strongest and most severe action must be taken against Nasir for his offensive, seditious and anti-1Malaysia outburst, labelling Indians and Chinese as “pendatang”, alleging that “Indians came to Malaysia as beggars and Chinese especially the women came to sell their bodies (jual tubuh)” and threatening to revoke the citizenship of Indians vocal about the subject cap for SPM examination.
Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysia’s Democracy on Trial
Posted by Kit in Anwar Ibrahim, Najib Razak, UMNO on Thursday, 4 February 2010, 11:06 am
By Chris Wright | Australian Financial Review, February 2 2010
When Anwar Ibrahim walks into the Kuala Lumpur High Court today, he will at least know what to expect.
Anwar, Malaysia’s one-time deputy prime minister and now the de facto leader of the first credible opposition in Malaysia’s independent history, is facing the third incarceration of his life. The first was a 22-month detention when a student leader in the 1970s; the second a six-year stint in 1998 for sodomy (overturned in 2004) and corruption, during the administration of his one-time mentor, Mahathir Mohamed. Now, he faces another sodomy charge, and the potential of 20 years in jail. Locally the press are calling it Sodomy II, like a sequel. “They use the same script,” he tells the AFR in an interview in his Kuala Lumpur offices. “I’ll leave it to the lawyers. I don’t have any trust in the system.”
That’s no surprise. Anwar’s trial represents an enormously significant moment for Malaysia, because it could make or break the opposition movement at a time of intense racial tension on a scale the country hasn’t seen since the race riots of the 1960s. Malaysia, though a sometimes uneasy patchwork of a Muslim Malay majority and significant Chinese and Indian minorities, has for decades been amongst the most moderate and peaceful of Muslim nations. Yet in recent months it has become a place where churches are firebombed over the right for Christians to use the word Allah, and where cows’ heads are kicked around outside Hindu temples.
Read the rest of this entry »
Nasir Safar outrage latest reason why parliamentary select committee on 1Malaysia GTP is vital and indispensable
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak, nation building on Wednesday, 3 February 2010, 12:19 pm
The Nasir Safar outrage is the latest reason why a parliamentary select committee on 1Malaysia Government Transformation Programme (GTP) Roadmap is vital and indispensable if Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1Malaysia slogan is not to become a bogus one, degenerating into a farce and a joke.
In a three-paragraph statement just before 8 pm last night, the Prime Minister’s Office said:
“The remarks allegedly made by Datuk Nasir Safar, Special Officer to the Prime Minister, in Melaka today does not in any way reflect the views of the Prime Minister.
“Datuk Nasir never intended to make any derogatory remarks. He spoke at length on the contributions made by all races in developing the country. Nevertheless, Nasir apologises for any offence caused.
“In light of this, Datuk Nasir will tender his resignation.”
This is a most unsatisfactory statement. Why is the Prime Minister’s Office so protective and defensive about Nasir’s anti-national and anti-1Malaysia speech although Nasir will be resigning from his present post as Special Officer to the Prime Minister.
Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysia itself, not the opposition leader, is in the dock
Posted by Kit in Anwar Ibrahim, Court on Tuesday, 2 February 2010, 5:41 pm
Anwar’s Second Sodomy Trial | The Wall Street Journal
Malaysia itself, not the opposition leader, is in the dock.
More than a decade after he was beaten, tried and jailed, opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim will once again face a Kuala Lumpur court today on charges of sodomy. The accusations are highly dubious and raise a serious question: Is this moderate Muslim democracy becoming a nation with no real rule of law?
The circumstances surrounding Mr. Anwar’s prosecution are suspiciously familiar to most Malaysians. In 1998, he was arrested as he was mounting serious arguments against the increasingly erratic government of United Malays National Organization chief Mahathir Mohamed. On a nearby page, Mr. Anwar’s former aide Munawar Anees describes being tortured and forced to confess to sodomy, a criminal offense in Malaysia. Mr. Anwar was convicted of sodomy and abuse of power and served six years in jail before the sodomy ruling was overturned in 2004. He was allowed to run for political office again in 2008, which he did, in earnest.
Mr. Anwar was arrested again in July 2008, a day after participating in his first nationally televised debate in more than a decade—an event that showcased his political skills and highlighted the growing momentum behind his three-party opposition coalition. He was accused of sodomy with a 23-year-old former aide, Saiful Bukhari Azlan. Mr. Saiful was taken into protective police custody after he made his allegation and has since rarely been seen in public. The government denies any political motivation for the charges. Mr. Saiful himself has not been charged.
As in 1998, the evidence in this case is thin at best. The police made a show of arresting Mr. Anwar, put him in jail for a night, and forced him to undergo a humiliating medical “examination.” The government then passed a bill in parliament to give the police expanded powers to collect DNA in criminal cases. Mr. Anwar’s lawyers claim they have a hospital report that shows no sodomy occurred.
Read the rest of this entry »
