Media Statement by Lim Kit Siang in Petaling Jaya on Saturday, 20^th February 2010: 

Just commission public opinion poll and Najib will know whether majority of Malaysians buy his claim that Anwar’s Sodomy 2 trial is “a personal, not political trial”

In rejecting my call for an emergency meeting of Parliament on Parliamentary Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s Sodomy2 trial, the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak does protest too much.

Najib said the Anwar Ibrahim Sodomy2 trial does not warrant a special sitting of Parliament as it is a private matter between two individuals, that it does not involve government policy and not a matter of national interest.

I challenge Najib to commission a public opinion poll and the Prime Minister will know whether the majority of Malaysians buy his claim that the Anwar Sodomy2 trial is “a personal, not political trial”.

Extend the opinion poll to all keen observers of Malaysian affairs world-wide and there can be no doubt that the overwhelming majority of opinion – whether national or international - will be of the view that the Anwar Sodomy2 trial is a political, not personal, trial!

Najib can entrust the Minister for KPI and 1Malaysia Government Transformation Programme, Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon with the responsibility to commission such national and international opinion polls, and I have no doubt of their outcomes.

This is why Najib was only demonstrating his “denial syndrome” when he claimed that the Anwar Sodomy2 trial did not involve government policy and was not a matter of national interest.

Is Najib really unaware that national and international confidence in Malaysian governance, an important element for Malaysia’s declining international competitiveness, hinges considerably on the process and outcome of the Anwar Sodomy2 trial, which explains the presence of international observers at the trial?

Furthermore, if Anwar’s Sodomy2 trial was a strictly personal and not a national matter, why is Najib dispatching a high-powered mission comprising three top officials comprising the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, the Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail and former Chief Justice, Tun Abdul Hamid Mohamad to Washington next week to sell the Barisan Nasional Government’s case in response to the criticism by John Kerry, chairman of the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the Anwar Sodomy2 trial?

In fact, the demonstration by a handful of Barisan Nasional MPs outside the Australian High Commission on Thursday, protesting against the call by 50 Australian MPs for the dropping of the Sodomy2 charges against Anwar, has further internationalized the issue, debunking the stance that Anwar’s Sodomy2 trial is “a personal, not political trial”.

If Anwar’s Sodomy2 trial is escalating into an increasingly bigger international issue, Najib must thank the handful of BN MPs who had attracted even greater international attention with their puerile demonstration outside the Australian High Commission to the issue.

The handful of BN MPs who protested outside the Australian High Commission against the 50 Australian MPs two days ago had misrepresented the stand of Parliament on the Anwar Sodomy2 trial and this itself would be sufficient reason for the convening of an emergency meeting of Parliament on a matter which vitally concerns the restoration of national and international confidence in the independence, integrity and professionalism of key national institutions in the country.

Is Najib worried that he will not be able to get the solid support of every Barisan Nasional MP if there is an emergency meeting of Parliament on the matter?

*Lim Kit Siang, DAP Parliamentary Leader & MP for Ipoh Timor