This is a most preposterous and outrageous allegation, suggesting one of three possibilities:
Firstly, that Anwar knew that he was being poisoned with arsenic and that he could time and control the analysis of his urine specimen and the announcement of its result to coincide with the APEC Summit and the Commonwealth Law Conference;
Secondly, that Anwar was poisoning himself with arsenic with the help of his family and timed the announcement of the analysis of his urine specimen to make an impact on the two international conferences; or
Thirdly, that the urine specimen was not Anwar’s and the finding that he was suffering from arsenic poisoning was bogus and a fake to gain international attention at these two international meetings.
Last Saturday, Mahathir and other Cabinet Ministers, notably the Minister for International Trade and Industry, Datuk Paduka Rafidah Aziz raised the question as to why it took so long for Datin Seri Dr. Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and Anwar’s lawyers to submit the report on the urine test report from Melbourne to the court. They claimed that according to Azizah, Anwar's urine samples were sent to the Gribbles Pathology Laboratory in Melbourne on Aug 18 and the results were received on Aug 26. The Kuala Lumpur High Court was informed of the urine test showing that Anwar was suffering from arsenic poisoning on Sept. 10. Dr Mahathir even said that usually if a person were to suffer from poisoning he would waste no time in going to the hospital for treatment.
In actual fact, there had been no 14-day delay in disclosing the results of Anwar’s urine test, which showed a high level of arsenic content.
At a press conference on Sept. 10 itself, Azizah had explained that the sample was sent to Gribbles Pathology Malaysia Bhd on Aug 18 and its laboratory in Melbourne carried out tests on Aug 26 and sent back the results of the tests to their local representative on Sept 8 at 7.02pm.
Azizah received the computer-generated report the following day, on Sept 9, and this information was brought to the attention of the court the very next day.
It is most regrettable that Mahathir has not only made the baseless accusation that Azizah and Anwar’s lawyers had deliberately delayed the disclosure of the report on Anwar’s urine sample for 14 days, but has gone one step further to allege that Anwar had stage-managed the entire arsenic poisoning episode to time it for the APEC Summit and Commonwealth Law Conference.
Malaysians will not forget that when Anwar first surfaced publicly last year after his arrest and appeared in court with a "black eye", Mahathir said the black-eye injuries could be self-inflicted, when Anwar was assaulted, while blind-folded and hand-cuffed, by none other than the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Rahim Noor, to within an inch of his life.
Before Mahathir makes any more outrageous and preposterous insinuation that Anwar’s arsenic poisoning was self-induced or the urine sample test was a fake, Mahathir should first publicly and fulsomely apologise to Anwar for his outrageous statement both inside and outside the country that Anwar’s black-eye was self-inflicted.
If Mahathir has nothing to hide with regard to Anwar’s arsenic poisoning, he should agree to the establishment of a Royal Commission of Inquiry to conduct a comprehensive investigation into how Anwar could suffer from arsenic poisoning while under incarceration.
(14/9/99)