Saturday, August 02, 2008

Punch and counter-punch

Things are coming to a head in Malaysia. Anwar Ibrahim has just been arrested for alleged sodomy (i.e. homosexuality) with a young 23 former volunteer at his political outfit. People are wondering why he was taken to the hospital when a swap of the saliva is sufficient to provide material for determining one's DNA. But I suppose that, going by Malaysian government doctors, you need a specialist to extract the DNA sample 'properly'. You need even to go to the hospital to do it, and I suppose, it had to be a government hospital. No, a General Practitioner (GP) will not do, and much less a police with a mouth swap in his hands, although this is widely practiced elsewhere in the world. I suppose that the Malaysian government wants to uphold the highest standards as they will be accused of un-professionalism when and if Anwar is convicted of sodomy - again. So that's why the government steadfastly refuses to acknowledge the medical report filed by a GP at a private hospital that reportedly stated that Saiful, the accuser, showed no signs of being violated in his private parts - a necessary condition for his accusation of sodomy by Anwar to stand.

I suppose all these started with the opposition gaining a spectacular victory in the last GE in March, where the opposition came 30 seats shy of unseating the incumbent government. With Anwar promising to really unseat the government by September 2008, things couldn't lie still. Real or not, Anwar got slapped with the sodomy charge, which if convicted, would guarantee that he will stay out of parliament for another 10 years. A punch must be met with a counter-punch. Najib was then accused of sleeping around with a murdered Mongolian model, whom he claimed never to have met - in spite of circumstantial evidence that showed he was probably doing a Pinocchio. Curiously, the lawyer who made the charge recanted almost the next day and went missing. Then the government grabbed Saiful and put him under police protection and quickened the pace of charging Anwar for sodomy. They knew that was the most effective and legal way of silencing Anwar, at least in Parliament, if not in public. But truth be told, the Malaysia Police do not have much credibility in the eyes of Malaysians, or foreigners for that matter.

Now, Anwar is trying to beat them all by running for election in the ward vacated by his wife. Many believe that he will win, even if he were arrested and sits in jail during campaigning. A duly elected Indian MP still sits in detention under ISA laws. But Anwar will still be denied if the charge of sodomy is carried, unless a Member of Parliament carries immunity for this type of 'crime'.

What next?

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