Lingam Tape - If MCA Ministers want to undergo a lobotomy or behave like the traditional three monkeys of having eyes that see not, ears that hear not and mouths that speak not, there is no reason why Malaysian citizens should emulate them

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Media Statement 
by Lim Kit Siang  
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(Petaling Jaya, Sunday): Deputy Internal Security Minister Datuk Fu Ah Kiow in Kuantan yesterday asked all parties to refrain from speculating on the video clip of a lawyer allegedly brokering the appointment of judges, saying it was unwise to make assumptions or draw conclusions without solid evidence.

He repeated the nonsensical line: �The video clip merely shows a telephone conversation between the lawyer and another person. We don�t know exactly what they are talking about.

�Therefore, we should not arrive at a conclusion before police conclude their investigations.�

In the first place, it is very clear as to the matters that were talked about in the Lingam Tape.

Secondly, matters adverted to in the Lingam Tape is not just about brokering the appointment of judges but the wholesale perversion of the course of justice, polluting and contaminating not only the present administration of justice but the whole system of governance.

Thirdly, if MCA Ministers want to undergo a lobotomy or behave like the traditional three monkeys of having eyes that see not, ears that hear not and mouths that speak not, there is no reason why Malaysian citizens should emulate them.

Only yesterday, the Bar Council emergency meeting called for the immediate establishment of a Royal Commission of Inquiry to investigate into the Lingam Tape and the rot in the judiciary since 1988.

The Bar Council also decided on a march from the Palace of Justice in Putrajaya to the Prime Minister�s Office on Wednesday to submit a memorandum to the Prime Minister calling for the Cabinet to discuss the setting up of the commission.

An extraordinary meeting of the 13,500-strong Malaysian Bar would also be convened on October 6 in Kuala Lumpur on the Lingam Tape and the �mother� of judicial crisis which encompassed all the judicial crises of the past two decades.

Is Fu passing critical and adverse judgment on the Bar Council, the 13,500-strong Malaysian Bar and all vigilant and patriotic Malaysians, individual or organization, who had spoken up to demand immediate action to be taken on the Lingam Tape, including Transparency International Malaysia, Aliran, Suaram, etc?

Recently, MCA and MCA Youth leaders have been very fond of waving the Malaysian Constitution at their functions. 

MCA Ministers should wave the Constitution at Wednesday�s Cabinet meeting to support the call for a Royal Commission of Inquiry to restore public confidence in the judiciary and to remind all Ministers that the principle of judicial independence, impartiality and integrity had always been a fundamental cornerstone of the Merdeka social contract instead of dishing misleading and dishonest advice asking Malaysians not to �speculate� on the Lingam Tape.

MCA Ministers should declare whether they fully support Fu in wanting to stifle national outrage and muzzle all public discussion on the Lingam Tape and the latest national and international crisis of confidence in the judiciary � or whether they are prepared to speak up in the Cabinet on Wednesday to speak in the strongest possible terms that no responsible government can turn a blind eye to the far-reaching and horrendous consequences of the Lingam Tape scandal.

The initial response by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on Friday after further examination, is even more troubling.

After saying that the Lingam Tape must be �viewed seriously� as it �bears a story that can harm the good name of the judicial system�, he stressed that �if there is no proof that the video is true, then action should be taken against those behind it�.

Is Abdullah saying that unless it could be proved that the Lingam Tape is true, it must be taken as �untrue�, even when there is no denial whether by Lingam or the Chief Justice, Tun Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim, purportedly the other party in the telephone conversation recorded in the Lingam Tape?

If so, isn�t this setting up an escape clause for Lingam and Ahmad Fairuz?

Last month, Abdullah publicly said that the Chief Justice must answer the allegation that a Federal Court judge had failed to write the grounds of judgment in over 30 cases, followed by an announcement by Ahmad Fairuz a week later that he had written to the Prime Minister about the matter.

Why can�t the Prime Minister ask Ahmad Fairuz to make a simple statement of denying the veracity of the Lingam Tape on a matter which is far more important, as it is capable of undermining Malaysia�s international reputation and competitiveness?

Four days have passed but there has not been any denial from Ahmad Fairuz or Lingam. Isn�t the duo�s silence deafening?

What is very troubling is that on two consecutive days after the public revelation of the Lingam Tape by Anwar Ibrahim, photographs of the Prime Minister seated on the same table breaking fast with Ahmad Fairuz was prominently published in the New Straits Times (Thursday�s paper on the Istana Negara breaking of fast and Friday�s paper on the event hosted by the Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Sidek Hassan).

On both occasions, didn�t Ahmad Fairuz make a single denial of the Lingam Tape?

Is the purpose of the message of the two prominent photographs in the press that despite the nation-wide outcry and outrage over the Lingam Tape, Ahmad Fairuz has the full and solid support of Abdullah and that the Prime Minister is backing the Chief Justice to the hilt regardless of the facts of the case and the consequences?

(23/9/2007)