Media Statement by Lim Kit Siang in Petaling
Jaya
on Friday, 8th August 2008:
Rais should remember his own book "Freedom under Executive
Power" and pluck up courage at next Cabinet meeting to demand dropping
of Sodomy II charge and persecution of Anwar
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:
"Another person looking for justice is the victim.
You seem to forget Saiful. You think Anwar is more important.
"This is an issue of law. Somebody feels that he needs justice and
he makes a report to the police. And the police, therefore, have a
duty to conduct investigations, to question him, to invite others to
assist in the investigations.
"If there is nothing, no evidence whatsoever, drop the charge. Drop
the whole thing, the investigation. Don't do it. If there is
evidence to charge, they have to charge. You can't stop them from
doing that. They have to think of Saiful."
Clearly, the police have found that there is no evidence to
support Saiful's allegation that 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"!
*
Lim
Kit Siang, DAP
Parliamentary leader & MP for Ipoh Timor
http://dapmalaysia.org