To defend Anwar is to defend Malaysian democracy

Excerpts from The Financial Times
By Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and Abdurrahman Wahid.

We know Anwar Ibrahim well and have the highest regard for him. For that reason, we are very concerned about recent developments in Malaysia that seem aimed at defaming him and threatening him with imprisonment in a manner reminiscent of the campaign to defame him in 1998.

• [campaign to deframe him - it's clearly evidence here. Inspite of the absence of evidence, as per Dr Osman's report, they went ahead to charge him]

The power to prosecute is one of the most awesome powers of the state. Without proper checks and balances it can easily be abused by those in power to humiliate and discredit innocent people. Even when the injustice is corrected, its victims are often left with their reputations permanently damaged......

• [this is where Malaysia's integrity is being questioned. The power to prosecute is vested in one person who decides on who to prosecute and who not to prosecute. Many questionable cases where the "supposedly guilty" ones get away, but the "not-so-guilty" ones get trapped. If power is vested in one person, he becomes very powerful. The saying "power corrupts and absolutely power corrupts absolutely" runs true.]

In 1974 Mr Anwar was jailed for 20 months, under Malaysia’s notorious internal security act, for leading demonstrations against rural poverty........................................he was unjustly accused of sodomy and corruption, beaten in jail and convicted in a trial that was marked by coerced testimony, fabricated evidence and serious lapses in judicial integrity.

• [internal security act -the draconian law that has been invoked many times to put somebody in Kamunting for 2 years without trial. Though it is claimed to be used for cases involving public order and national security, it's also used to put some political foes away for a while. Isn't that draconian enough?]
• [coerced testimony, fabricated evidence -very evidence in recent times. How Dr Osman of Pusrawi Hospital was coerced to sign the statements in BM which he didn't understand? How certain sentences were included in the statements when they weren't discussed earlier?]
• [serious lapses in judicial integrity - remember the former CJ's New Zealand's holiday trip, lawyer writing judgments for judges, former CJ's dismissal and many more. How to reinstate the judicial integrity when one person is all too powerful, when the executives interfere with the judiciary.

It is not that I'm all for Anwar but I'm truly saddened on seeing how things are happening here in Malaysia, how corrupted they are just to cling on to power, what they do to silence off political foes, how they abuse their power.

Sandra Day O'Cconner, Abdulrahman Wahid and other foreign observers see the way I see it. That's why the seem to be supportive of Anwar. By supporting Anwar, they are telling us that things are very wrong here in Malaysia. They are telling us how rampant corruption and abuse of power are in Malaysia. That being the case, might as well have a Dictator, rather than a Prime Minister.

abROcadabRO @ just-mythots

Subang Jaya