Sunday, 6 July 2008

"What is happenning to Malaysia?"

I have received a few inquiries from overseas friends asking me about recent developments in Malaysian politics. I have always been a very keen political observer, never much of a commentator. But what has happened in the last ten days is enough to provoke me to say something and indeed I have some things to say.

What has happened in the past ten days are as follows: Anwar Ibrahim accussed of sodomy (again!) - Anwar denied and filed a defamation suit; private investigator revealed Statutory Declaration implicating Najib Abdul Razak in Altantuya murder case - Najib brushed off allegations as total lies - private investigator retracted declaration and issued a second declaration withdrawing all statements that contains the name Najib Abdul Razak - private investigator is currently MIA; Anwar Ibrahim promised more revelations against Najib and will no longer "forgive and forget". (Readers may refer to reports in http://www.malaysiakini.com/ for a fair, non-partisan reporting of all the above events)

When Anwar Ibrahim was first accussed of sodomy (and 49 other things) back in 1998, I became a deeply troubled young man. Not that I was an Anwarist, in fact I was far from being one. During the UMNO crisis of 1987, most of my relatives were pro-Team B which was led by the respectable Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah. Anwar of course was in Team A and pro-Mahathir. Anwar therefore, was not a political figure that I grew hearing nice things about. To me, he was the not-so-nice-guy (and not so intelligent according to many) and that perception prevailed throughout my teengage years despite many of my peers' obvious adulation towards Anwar Ibrahim. After all, he was the man on the rise, and heir apparent to Mahathir Mohamad.

But when Mahathir openly accussed Anwar of sodomy, I was startled. More so after watching a press conference he gave when he explicitly said "Anwar masturbated him (Dr. Munawwar Anees)". Anwar was also, in addition, accussed of engagging in sexual activities with women from different countries and having an affair with the wife of his private secretary. All these were reported and described not only in the infamous 50 dalil book, but also in the front-pages of all local newspapers on the 2nd and 3rd September 1998 (copies of which I still keep).

The question I had was, "can all this be true?" Can a man really appear so genuinely religious but is in fact a devil reincarnate? As one of my respected professors said at the time, "if all this is true, Anwar must be the devil himself". But is he?

To find these answers, I began to search for information from many different sources. I have had the chance to speak to many different people from different sides of the political equation. I have also seen some of these "evidence"; recorded phone conversation between Anwar and a married woman, and a video of Anwar in close proximity with an unidentified lady. These "evidence" were so filmsy and utterly unconvincing. And rightly so, they were never presented as evidence in court. In the end, Anwar was convicted almost antirely based on the "testimony" given by his former driver, who contradicted himself many times during the trial, yet his testimony was considered by the presiding judge to be as strong "as the Rock of Gibraltar".

Now, coming back to present day events, with all the above (and many others) in mind, do I believe Anwar is guilty of sodomy? Absolutely not. Do I believe that there is a conspiracy against Anwar? Definitely. Can we trust the police to investigate and the judiciary to decide fairly the cases against Anwar Ibrahim and Najib Abdul Razak? I don't think so. Should Anwar Ibrahim become the next Prime Minister of Malaysia? Why not?

The truth is, as often repeated by various pro-UMNO figures in various closed-door meetings and BTN courses, the real reason why Anwar should not be the Prime Minister of Malaysia is because he is an American/Jewish agent. Thus, Anwar should be stopped no matter what it takes. Though the means to achieve this are devious and unlawful, they are necessary to champion a bigger cause which is to the protect the supremacy of Islam and the Malay race. Justified, or fuzzy logic? We'll look into that next.

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