Denial of Barisan Nasional parliamentary two-thirds majority in next general elections is the first important step to arrest serious erosion of civil and human rights

(Petaling Jaya, Saturday): In the United States, thinking Americans are worried that the painful, slow and embarrassing impeachment process of the President  Clinton will not only result in diminishing the credibility of the American Presidency both at home and abroad, but also in undermining the international image of the United States.

In Malaysia, many Malaysians are also very concerned about the long-term consequences of the Anwar Ibrahim trial, over and above the issue of the future of Anwar Ibrahim himself.

Let me refer to two postings on the Internet in the past few days in response to the long-running Anwar Ibrahim trial.

The first one three days ago  by a non-Malay Malaysian, who maintains a very high-profile Internet presence, confessed that he had  been "discreetly silent" on the Anwar trial as "I honestly believe that this is but part of the Malay leadership struggle for which a Chinese Malaysian, although being affected by the eventual outcome, should not comment too strongly or loudly."

He went on:  "But yesterday's charade of parading the mattress and front-paged on both the NST and Star today really scrapes the bottom of the muck-barrel.
 

"Have we come so low in the conduct of our national affairs that we do such things ? I am thoroughly disgusted that our public officials would resort to such low-down theatrics and histrionics in their efforts to bring shame and humiliation to someone out of favour.  The conduct of the trial is, in my opinion, no longer about seeking justice and the truth but a clumsy effort to bring contempt, odium, repugnance and revulsion to bear upon a man.

"By so doing, they have brought shame to the country."

He ended his posting by saying that he was "weeping for Malaysia".

The second posting, also three days ago,  is by a well-known Malay journalist/writer under the title "The Politics of Contempt", where he started with the following:
 

"Every new development in the Anwar Ibrahim trial deepens the disgust of it all. What next? Soiled underwear? Used condoms? The headlines local newspapers now run would curl the whiskers of a sewer rat. Does anyone up there care what this is doing to the Malays?

"This is shaming the Malays. This is stripping them of their dignity
and reminding them, as Mahathir Mohamad did in his book, ‘The Malay Dilemma’, that they’re a pathetic people…"

He wrote:
 

"Again I ask: how has Mahathir raised the pride and dignity of the Malays? Heading out of his second decade of leadership, he now admits of no worthy successor. A mighty slap in the face of some veteran Malay politicians, not to mention the 2.3 million party faithful who have kept them there. (Or even the entire Malay community, remembering that Mahathir once went foraging beyond the party for his successor.) Not one of them is fit to lead Mahathir's party and country. His deputy, he now says, must be an "exact replica" of himself. Some are like him in one way, he observes, others are like him in another, but no one matches him perfectly.

"But now it seems Mahathir would wish to be president-for-life. He would wish to die in office, it seems. A man of his age can realistically entertain such notions, and perhaps the party and the
country will too. What the hell, life goes on. But what has he done to us? I can hear the rebuttal: it wasn’t Mahathir who betrayed our pride & dignity, it was Anwar. I disagree. IF Anwar is guilty, he is the devil’s own scoundrel. But it wasn’t Anwar who mimed those acts on televison. Nor did Anwar write these headlines, or carry that stinking mattress to the court, or chase after it with a photojournalist’s zeal, or run the damned thing on the front page.

"Even IF Anwar is guilty, this matter could and should have been conducted in a very different manner nonetheless, to preserve dignity, to save people’s shame; above all to show that the answer to dishonourable deeds is honourable deeds; that the base are redeemed by the noble. Not by miming buggery before a live audience."

I submit that these two views, one by a non-Malay and another by a Malay, sum up the widespread concerns of many thinking Malaysians and this is why I would say that it is not merely  justice which is on trial, whether in the Lim Guan Eng, Irene Fernandez, Anwar Ibrahim, Sukma, Munawar, Tommy Thomas, Param Cumaraswamy or Zainur Zakaria cases, the whole system of  governance in Malaysia is on trial.  In fact, we are struggling with the very soul of the Malaysian nation.

An incontrovertible fact in Malaysia is that civil and human rights in Malaysia had suffered a process of unceasing erosion - to the extent that public confidence in the system of justice and democratic governance in the country had been seriously undermined.

This was why I had told the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad during the Parliamentary meeting at the end of September that under his administration, Malaysia does not have "rule of law" but only "rule by law".

This is the result of the merciless concentration of power by the executive at the expense of other branches of government, whether the legislature or the judiciary, making a complete mockery of the doctrine of the separation of powers.

The most important first step to arrest the erosion of civil and human rights in Malaysia and restore public confidence in the system of justice and democratic governance is for Malaysians to deny the Barisan Nasional its traditional parliamentary two-thirds majority in the next general elections to uphold the principle of accountability, transparency and democratic responsibility.

(19/12/98)