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http://themalayobserver.blogspot.my

Saturday, October 25, 2014

Imprisoning Anwar will save Malaysia or Umno?


As the country’s political landscape undergoes a massive transformation, Najib Rogue regime is expediting the nailing of their 'coffin'. Najib ’s stock has hit rock bottom after For this reason, I think even the conservatives will realise this unpalatable reality, given time and persuasion to chew over the fatal consequences of so decisively alienating such large and important sectors of the electorate; and the progressives who fervently believe and support the common cause of good governance and social justice of Pakatan Rakyat will surely prevail in the current power tussle and gain clear power by the next party election  the latest. UMNO have downplayed Najib the significance of the defeats and resorted to political manoeuvrings designed to, yet again, shield Rosmah from being held responsible for the party’s serial debacles. when UMNO was reduced to its lowest strength ever.In any party, a leader who presides over so many election debacles will be called to account. Not so in UMNO,This will make UMNOs decline into gentle irrelevance in national politics, sooner rather than later. The only solution is for Najib to gracefully step aside, enabling a new leadership to take over the reins of UMNO.— is a rudderless organisation led by a dynasty which a majority of Malays have become indifferent to. Cocooned in a party loath to acknowledge the obvious failure of the high command, Najib has not shown leadership skills and qualities, if not near-complete apathy in the task of rejuvenating
an organisation that appears in terminal decline.When that happens, PAS will emerge stronger, so will Pakatan Rakyat, considering the excellent rapport existing between PAS’s progressive leaders and their counterparts in PKR and DAP

Anwar’s departure to prison will not leave a vacuum, as the Reformasi ideals are already firmly implanted in the leadership of all the component parties of Pakatan Rakyat. Neither would Anwar’s PKR party suffer a leadership deficit, as its youthful leaders are already groomed to carry on the torch of reforms without Anwar’s physical presence. If there is any difference, Anwar in prison will only inspire and strengthen their political conviction that, come what may, they must save the country from the seemingly unending crutches of an evil regime.
To those Umno hardliners gleefully looking forward to what they think is the political annihilation of Anwar, I advise them to take a trip down memory lane.

Mahathir vs Najib
The other main factor that may impact the court verdict is the current power tussle between Najib and Mahathir.
For Mahathir, it is a relatively simple decision.  Eliminate what is to him Umno’s enemy No1 would safeguard Umno’s hegemony, as well as dodging the day of reckoning for him personally if Anwar were to become the prime minister. Besides, with Anwar removed from the scene, Mahathir would feel free to unleash his fury to unseat Najib without the worry of the dreaded Anwar to take advantage of Umno’s open rift.
However, Najib may have quite a different view.  Knowing that Mahathir sees Anwar as his most-feared enemy, the continued presence of Anwar in the political arena may serve as a counterweight to Mahathir’s reactionary influence to restrain him from all-out attacks against Najib’s premiership.
Another important consideration for Najib is his concern for his international image. For years, he has been painstakingly cultivating his image as a moderate leader in the international stage (at great costs to the public of course) and even launched his pet Global Movement of Moderates to buttress such credentials.
Now, what will the world make of Najib, if an internationally respected leader like Anwar is sent to prison in a notorious trial that has already been universally condemned as a great travesty of justice, transgression of human rights and democracy? Where would Najib and his wife Rosmah (more so the latter) hide their faces at distinguished international gatherings during their frequent overseas trips?
Hence, it is not entirely impossible that Najib would prefer to see Anwar freed, or perhaps, as a compromise to Umno’s hardliners, penalised with a fine that would bar him from election or appointment to party post for many years to come.
To sum up, Anwar’s fate at his final appeal hinges on the outcome of cross-currents of Umno’s party interests and conflicting personal interests of feuding leaders.

The last time Anwar was jailed on a sodomy charge in 1998, it caused such a torrential backlash that Umno, for the only time in history, lost the support of the majority of Malays. And Barisan Nasional (BN) would have been defeated in that 1999 elections, if not for the massive and unprecedented swing of Chinese support to BN. That swing was a result of BN’s campaign of deception through a blitzkrieg on street violence against Chinese in Jakarta in the aftermath of the toppling of dictator Suharto, Mahathir’s constant warning of a May 13 style racial riot and the concocted imminence of an Islamic state under PAS.
Fifteen years on, the political scenario has much changed.  The sound and fury of the Malay masses that greeted the previous sodomy trial of Anwar is no more found in the current trial. But equally, if not more important, is the virtual permanent alienation of Chinese electoral support for BN.
Taking the 2013 election as a benchmark, where Pakatan’s 52% share of the popular votes is estimated to comprise 40% of Malays and 75-80% Chinese, and there were dozens of seats lost to BN on thin margins, BN can ill afford to lose even a small swath of Malay votes, keeping in mind that the massive swing of Chinese support to Pakatan in the last two general elections in 2013 and 2008 is virtually irreversible.
Is Umno so sure that the second-time jailing of Anwar on sodomy will not incur a backlash among Malays, though understandably less sweeping than the previous occasion?
The rapid advance of the social media has made our people much better informed now. If Umno couldn’t hide the injustice against Anwar fifteen years ago, it is even less able to do the same this time. Take it that the majority know what is going on, and it is certainly not to the credit of Najib’s leadership and government to so savagely maul Anwar yet again, with a trial which is manifestly void of merit in fact and in law.
Keeping silent does not mean ignorance or approval. Beneath the calm on the surface, hazardous undercurrents could be running that may cause fatal consequences to the perpetrators of such an injustice.
Umno is hence advised to look before it leaps.
The symptoms of this malaise are easy to spot: outright intolerance for another’s point of view, the belief by every faction that they alone have a monopoly on truth, absolute black or white categorisation of every issue leading to the complete absence of appraisal of merit or nuance or relativisms in debate, an atmosphere of constant suspicion and hostility, the routine use of foul language and lumpenisation of almost all processes of dialogue. for some time now, Indian democracy has become a barren landscape of brittle mediocrity. People expound, but rarely listen. The cyber world in India is full of unpunctuated, ungrammatical, uncouth expressions of hate. Such illiterate venom raises the decibel of debate but reduces its quality to abysmal levels.Debates in Parliament have mostly deteriorated to uninhibited slanging matches where lung power routinely overwhelms the elegance and substance of argument. Absolute leaders nurture absolute followers who believe in absolute intimidation. The high command remains an impregnable citadel. Leaders welcome sycophancy. To question is to be suspect. Democratic dissent is equated with disloyalty. Those in opposition are enemies.There is an atmosphere of near complete intellectual inertness. The syncretism of our culture, which was itself the consequence of a remarkable socio-philosophical dialogue, is being sought to be replaced by a hate-filled ‘me’ versus the ‘other’ campaign. A richly endowed, complex culture has been reduced to a sterile simplification: don’t talk, vilify; don’t discuss, condemn; don’t differ, just follow.
 UM is an institution of learning and as such should be neutral in politic. What is wrong for the student body to invite Anwar to speak? It is up to the students body to decide. Likewise they can invite foreign politicians, politicians which favour the incumbent or politicians who do not side either party. This is part of learning and the University should not intervene. The more they do that the more suspicious Malaysians, particularly the students will be. Unless there is something the incumbent did wrong, I do not see why are they so scare of the students from listening from opposition. I am sure the students will not blindly believe what the speakers told them. We need to move on otherwise we may be having the 1st whole infrastructure but we are still stuck with 3rd world mentality. A lot got to thank to the incumbent government for being so narrow minded and fearful of the opposition leaders.
Few would doubt that the outcome of the final appeal of Anwar Ibrahim on October 28 & 29 against his sodomy conviction will be decided by politics, not by law.More specifically, the court’s verdict will likely be determined by Umno’s political considerations of the impact of such a final judgment.
Two main factors will decide Anwar’s fate. The first is Umno’s answer to this question: will the jailing of Anwar be a net gain for Umno’s political survival? The second is the outcome of the competitive influence on the judiciary between Prime Minister Najib Razak and the conservative faction led by former premier Mahathir Mohamad.

What are the causes behind this malaise? The first is a new form of ‘informed’ intellectual shallowness. Everybody claims to know the answer to every question. There is no scope for self-doubt. The denunciatory vehemence with which views are parroted is in inverse proportion to an in-depth knowledge of the subject. This atmosphere of superficial certainties is in direct violation of the cerebral refinements, based on moulik soch or the power of original thought,Such an astonishing degree of intellectual sophistication happened at a time when in most parts of the world people had not yet come down from trees. .In Alan Bennett’s celebrated play ‘Forty Years On’, there is an amusing but poignant scene centred on the trial of Neville Chamberlain by the ‘Court of History’. This court, the presiding judge informs the disoriented accused, is "not a ‘Court of Justice’. We judge solely by appearances, and i don’t like yours." In a court where the presentation of evidence follows the sentencing, Chamberlain is held guilty for his failure to recognise that Hitler was a "patent scallywag". He is handed out a two-word sentence: "Perpetual ignominy".There may be unintended similarities between the procedural quirkiness of Bennett’s ‘Court of Justice’, particularly its decision to ”judge solely by appearances”, and the lack of rigour that marked Justice
Looking deep into your own eyes, or another’s, can be an uncomfortable experience because not all of us are prepared for the truths revealedOn the face of it, it’s difficult to figure why Anwar is treated as a heinous offender by the  Malaysian criminal justice system because, according to his prosecutors But , Muhammad Shafee celebrity federal prosecutor currently pursuing Anwar with great ferocity, is hardly going after friends of Mahathir and Najib  of a large number on this score from leading the Attorney General’s Chambers’ appeal against Anwar Ibrahim’s acquittal for sodomy. Shafee’s appointment as Deputy Public Prosecutor smacks of desperation and sets another bad precedent, sending the wrong message that the authorities will go to extraordinary lengths to secure the conviction of UMNO’s political adversaries.Shafee is a well known UMNO lawyer and has appeared in court and advised in several matters that concern UMNO’s interests and has admitted so in his CV.Umno lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah (pic) and Putrajaya will suffer from negative public perception if he is made the Attorney General, a lawyers group said.Lawyers for Liberty adviser and co-founder Eric Paulsen said Putrajaya should not even consider Shafee a candidate for the job as “he is carrying too much baggage”.“The office of the AG is sacrosanct and any candidate must be seen to be neutral and above politics,” Paulsen told The Malaysian Insider. He has acted and advised former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and Prime Minister Najib Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor, all known and bitter political adversaries of Anwar Ibrahim. Shafee is also presently defending a few high profile defamation cased filed by Anwar Ibrahim appeal case that went awry? .The most important issue is is the power struggle between Mahathir and Najib , why did then Shafee give up his cover and focus attention on Anwar? Shafee is key fixer in Baginda non appeal freedom while Ghani is chief  architect of sodomy1 and 2 with appeal . There are no easy answers but it is conceivable that Shafee realized that he was being watched and put pressure by Rosmah pointing out that Ghani was vulnerable If this is the case, then kudos to Ghani smart enough to realize that he was being targeted. As pressure mounted on Najib to remove Ghani first Mahathir and then Rosmah put counterpressure on Shafee. Ghani by filing a case agaist Mat Zain possibly got some help  from a US CIA agents working at Attorney Generaloffice of Malaysia.He said if Shafee was appointed or even considered for the post, then the whole debacle that had plagued the AG’s position would turn from bad to worse because he (Shafee) is “through and through an Umno lawyer”.

He said Shafee had acted and advised previous prime ministers and even current premier and Umno president Datuk Seri Najib Razak on various matters.
“Shafee was also known to have taken up adversarial position against the opposition, especially Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
“That is why, it is all the more inappropriate for him to be involved in Anwar’s sodomy case. The public perception is that if he successfully secured a conviction for the prosecution, there will be a trade off, and Shafee gets to be the next AG,” said Paulsen.
On January 9, 2012, the High Court in Kuala Lumpur acquitted Anwar on a charge of sodomising his former aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, 26, at the Desa Damansara condominium unit in Bukit Damansara, Kuala Lumpur, on June 26, 2008.
Shafee is expected to lead the prosecution when the Court of Appeal hears the public prosecutor’s appeal on February 12.
Paulsen was commenting on The Malaysian Insider report today where Shafee had said that he would take up the position of Attorney General as “service to the public was far more important than making money”.
“I would take any position to do public service. And if that public service is something I am qualified for, if the government really requires me, I will take it,” said the 61-year-old Shafee.
Shafee said rumours of him becoming the AG had been around since the time of former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, some 15 to 20 years ago

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