eventually ANWAR loses patience with UMNO
A retired senior police officer has said Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was linked to a sex video in 1999, and is asking for an investigation to uncover any connection with similar allegations last month.Former KL CID chief Datuk Mat Zain Ibrahim wrote about his suspicions in an open letter to Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Ismail Omar this week, saying he had investigated the first case 12 years ago.
“Several comparisons and questions arise regarding the two sex videos. I am of the opinion that the investigation into the 2011 Sex Video II must take into account the circumstances surrounding the 1999 Sex Video I.
“There is a ‘nexus’ between the two,” he wrote in the letter that was made available to The Malaysian Insider.
A mysterious “Datuk T” had first screened the video purportedly showing the opposition leader having sex with a Chinese prostitute on March 21.
Former Malacca Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Thamby Chik, Perkasa treasurer-general Datuk Shuib Lazim and businessman Datuk Shazryl Eskay Abdullah later took responsibility for the 21-minute recording, stating that their aim was to “show that a man who wants to be prime minister is not qualified.”
The police said last weekend that they have wrapped up investigations into the video after verifying that it had not been doctored. Ismail said yesterday the Attorney-General’s Chambers has sent back the investigation papers as it needed “to be re-worked”.
“Some areas have to be re-looked at and re-worked. This is normal,” the IGP said.
But Mat Zain called on the police to investigate seven possible links between the two videos, namely:
1. Is Sex Video I also authentic now that Sex Video II has been officially declared authentic?
2. Are the contents of Sex Video I the same in full or in part with Sex Video II?
3. Is the identity of the man in Sex Video II that police have declared can be determined positively the same as the man in Sex Video I?
4. Does the voice of the man in Sex Video I belong to the man who is said to be identifiable in Sex Video II?
5. Does the voice of the woman in Sex Video I belong to the woman who is said to have been identified in Sex Video II?
6. Is the recording location of Sex Video I the same as Sex Video II?
7. Are the trio involved or played any role in the production or distribution of Sex Video I in 1999, seeing as they have been identified as having a relationship with Anwar? More so Rahim who is believed to have cause for revenge as Anwar had accused the former Umno Youth chief of corruption just three months before Sex Video I was made public on November 24 and 25, 1999.
Mat Zain, who was the investigating officer in the case involving the assault of Anwar in police custody, said that the sex video was distributed in Kuala Lumpur just a few days before the 10th general election on November 29.
“I believe a large segment of the public and even some police officers themselves are not aware and will be shocked to know of the existence of this first sex video that supposedly involved Anwar,” he wrote.
He said that several members of the public had found the video left in front of their homes or offices and made individual police reports, surrendering the copies as evidence.
As the city criminal investigation chief at the time, Mat Zain said his department had investigated the video.
“I myself saw the videos at least twice. The first time with senior Kuala Lumpur criminal investigation officers to classify the investigations and the second time with the former Kuala Lumpur mayor.
“To the best of my memory, the contents of the 1999 Sex Video I included recordings of phone conversations between a man said to be Anwar and his girlfriend,” he wrote.
Mat Zain said that the investigations identified “the source” of the video but failed to find the persons responsible for distributing it to the public.
“However, it is believed that the distribution was politically motivated as it was done just a few days before the 10th general election,” he said, adding that some of those who made police reports were members of Anwar’s PKR.
Mat Zain said Sex Video I should be screened to the people so that the public, especially the Malays, could make their own decision over whether the former deputy prime minister really lacked the morals to become prime minister as claimed, or if the video was created by his enemies to destroy his political career.
“Or even revenge due to Anwar exposing the abuse of power and corruption of certain leaders as mentioned,” said Mat Zain, referring to a segment of his letter where he named the Datuk T trio.
He said that the film was not pornographic and more like a documentary which would not fall foul of laws banning obscene material.
In his letter, Mat Zain also cast doubt over Rahim’s credibility as the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) had recommended he be charged for making a false statutory declaration in 1999.
“The question that arises is whether Rahim’s testimony in Sex Video II can be accepted fully, seeing as he was willing to make a false declaration to the prime minister and government to hide criminal offences as reported by the ACA,” he said.
Will there be a national life after Anna? The Gandhian's satyagraha against rampant corruption has evoked a countrywide response unmatched by anything in the history of independent India, not even perhaps by Jayaprakash Narayan's 1974 movement against the increasing authoritarianism of Indira Gandhi's government.
JP's 'swarajist' campaign - initially spearheaded by students in Bihar but later spreading to include citizens from all walks of life, across the nation - caused the biggest political earthquake the country has ever witnessed when Indira Gandhi, backed into a corner, declared her infamous Emergency and overnight turned democratic India into a totalitarian dictatorship.
But though shrouded, the torch of freedom was not extinguished. And it burned brighter and fiercer than ever when in the general elections following the lifting of the Emergency, the collective wrath of the people voted Indira Gandhi out of office and brought in the Janata government.
The new dispensation, which got into internal wrangles almost from day one, was to pose its own challenges of cohesion. But the 'spirit of '77' made one thing clear: no one would again dare to try and stifle India's irrepressible democracy. The powers-that-be today will attempt to derail Anna's runaway movement at their own peril. Some critics have tried to put a verbal spoke in the wheels of the anti-corruption juggernaut by suggesting, among other things, that such extra-parliamentary forms of legislative activity would eventually derail democracy by encouraging irresponsible copycat movements which could be wilfully subversive of the rule of law.
Such sceptics, however, have been swiftly silenced by the overwhelming support that Anna's cause has generated, targeting as it does what is universally seen to be the nation's single most baneful affliction. Public disgust with all-pervasive graft has reached a pitch where corruption is perceived to be the root cause of all our myriad social, political and economic ills. The groundswell of opinion seems to be that if we can somehow exorcise the demon of corruption we will be freed of all the other evils that daily bedevil us.
Such a single-point agenda would be dangerously short-sighted. Corruption, in all its many manifestations, is without any question one of the most harmful of the toxins poisoning our body politic. But it is by no means the only one. Anna himself has already identified electoral reform as the next banner around which to rally his growing legions of followers. The criminalisation of politics, and the open use of muscle- and money-power to capture votes has made such reform a vital necessity which has been far too long delayed. Some of the electoral changes debated have been the right of recall and the voter's right to cancel their ballots in case they find all the candidates unsuitable in a particular constituency.
Such much-needed political reform, however, presupposes that the voter is free to make a truly informed choice. Illiteracy and the deep-rooted patriarchal system by which women voters are no more than rubber-stamp extensions of the male head of the household are only two of the major obstacles in the path to making the electoral process more truly representative.
Indeed not a few would say that to the extent - and it is a very large extent - that gender discrimination in effect disenfranchises the female half of the population India is at best a shambolic democracy. The progressive disempowerment of women is revealed by studies of sex-selective abortions which indicate that in 20 years' time India will have 20% more men than women. A clear case not of genocide, perhaps, but certainly of gendercide. And perpetrated, largely, by the urban middle class which is the most visible in championing Anna's cause.
Let's get rid of corruption by all means. But let's not forget the other - and far worse - monsters which lurk within us.
JP's 'swarajist' campaign - initially spearheaded by students in Bihar but later spreading to include citizens from all walks of life, across the nation - caused the biggest political earthquake the country has ever witnessed when Indira Gandhi, backed into a corner, declared her infamous Emergency and overnight turned democratic India into a totalitarian dictatorship.
But though shrouded, the torch of freedom was not extinguished. And it burned brighter and fiercer than ever when in the general elections following the lifting of the Emergency, the collective wrath of the people voted Indira Gandhi out of office and brought in the Janata government.
The new dispensation, which got into internal wrangles almost from day one, was to pose its own challenges of cohesion. But the 'spirit of '77' made one thing clear: no one would again dare to try and stifle India's irrepressible democracy. The powers-that-be today will attempt to derail Anna's runaway movement at their own peril. Some critics have tried to put a verbal spoke in the wheels of the anti-corruption juggernaut by suggesting, among other things, that such extra-parliamentary forms of legislative activity would eventually derail democracy by encouraging irresponsible copycat movements which could be wilfully subversive of the rule of law.
Such sceptics, however, have been swiftly silenced by the overwhelming support that Anna's cause has generated, targeting as it does what is universally seen to be the nation's single most baneful affliction. Public disgust with all-pervasive graft has reached a pitch where corruption is perceived to be the root cause of all our myriad social, political and economic ills. The groundswell of opinion seems to be that if we can somehow exorcise the demon of corruption we will be freed of all the other evils that daily bedevil us.
Such a single-point agenda would be dangerously short-sighted. Corruption, in all its many manifestations, is without any question one of the most harmful of the toxins poisoning our body politic. But it is by no means the only one. Anna himself has already identified electoral reform as the next banner around which to rally his growing legions of followers. The criminalisation of politics, and the open use of muscle- and money-power to capture votes has made such reform a vital necessity which has been far too long delayed. Some of the electoral changes debated have been the right of recall and the voter's right to cancel their ballots in case they find all the candidates unsuitable in a particular constituency.
Such much-needed political reform, however, presupposes that the voter is free to make a truly informed choice. Illiteracy and the deep-rooted patriarchal system by which women voters are no more than rubber-stamp extensions of the male head of the household are only two of the major obstacles in the path to making the electoral process more truly representative.
Indeed not a few would say that to the extent - and it is a very large extent - that gender discrimination in effect disenfranchises the female half of the population India is at best a shambolic democracy. The progressive disempowerment of women is revealed by studies of sex-selective abortions which indicate that in 20 years' time India will have 20% more men than women. A clear case not of genocide, perhaps, but certainly of gendercide. And perpetrated, largely, by the urban middle class which is the most visible in championing Anna's cause.
Let's get rid of corruption by all means. But let's not forget the other - and far worse - monsters which lurk within us.
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