Anwar Ibrahim was fired because he opposed the use of public money to support the political and personal cronies of Mahathir and Daim Zainuddin. In order to stop Anwar Ibrahim from deposing UMNO, which he was doing daily by telling the stories of insider theft and bribery to growing crowds of many thousands, the stalwarts ordered that the UTK killer squad break into his house fully armed and guns drawn.
Anwar did not resist, nor would he leave the lights and cameras of the assembled international newsmen. The police were forced to bring him in alive. So begins the descent into darkness, for Anwar and his family, and for the Malaysian people.
Anwar was arrested without a warrant, and no charges were forthcoming. A trial was out of the question, as it would only provide a podium for him to reveal more of the government's criminal activity. As Finance Minister, Anwar knew the names, dates and amounts. This presented a serious problem, and the result was that Anwar was held in solitary confinement for over six months, while a case based on fraudulent testimony was concocted against him.
UMNO strategists, an axis of evil (conspiracy) if there ever was one, decided that a charge of sodomy could be made, and that enough fraudulent evidence could be fabricated to get a conviction. How then to legally hold Anwar until the phony show was ready? He had committed no crime that allowed him to be kept. He was entitled to bail. Bail was out of the question, for obvious reasons.
That is when that old nag, the Internal Security Act, was gain resurrected and saddled up for duty. It is an ancient warhorse, relied on by tyrants in times of political crisis (meaning an opposition challenge exists). This noxious device allows for indefinite detention, without access to legal advice or any visitation that would allow for the presentation of a proper defense. The HOME MINISTER (Mahathir and Badawi) must sign the order. Mahathir carefully chooses the Home Minister, but only when he feels secure enough to relinquish the title himself. Mahathir himself actually holds the key offices of Finance Minister and Home Minister; any appearance to the contrary is pure camouflage. Badawi, for all his fuss and feathers, is still just a lame duck in false finery.
The ISA allowed Anwar to be held without charges until the trial could be staged. And staged it was, to the disgust of all observers. The entire proceeding was devoid of any legal merit, the prosecution and judge repulsive in their conspiracy to railroad an obviously innocent man. When every effort to prove the charges failed, they were dropped in favor of a new charge, supported by the perjured testimony of two lackey policemen, whose contribution to the demise of Malaysian honour does not go unrecorded.
The ISA is ineffective unless there is a national emergency, and no emergency was evident except the threat UMNO would be unmasked for the criminal conspiracy it was (and still is). The government decided, in its infinite stupidity, to construct a great lie, that a group of martial arts athletes intended to steal arms from two Malaysian Army camps, and with these arms attack and overthrow the UMNO gang in Kuala Lumpur.
It was too preposterous to believe, and still is, though the government adds lie upon lie, like its murdered sons one atop the other in a hole, in continued attempts to make the lie credible. The enterprise required a large cast, and months of preliminary work and infiltration, to make it even remotely believable. Sacrificial goats, in the form of an Indian SB officer and a young Ranger from East Malaysia, were secretly selected and sent to the slaughter, with a UTK bullet between the eyes.
Nothing went right with the big lie, and the public was unconvinced of anything except the government was capable of an unspeakable conspiracy to commit continuing cruelty. The Defense Minister Najib, and the IGP Norian Mai, acting as official press agents, handed out the daily list of new lies, the police and military carefully keeping reporters and cameramen at least fifty kilometers from any scene in which the truth of the matter would be clear. The gullible among the village folk, willing to believe anything shown on TV, were suspicious from the first, and the weak of mentality were not fooled for long. For the government, it was another colossal blunder.
The Al Ma'unah members were kept from the press and any legal representative. The busy prosecutors in the Attorney General's office arranged another kangaroo court. The defendants were paraded before the bench in another egregious display of judicial corruption, the same prosecutors doing the same castration of truth and justice. When the black verdict was delivered up, Malaysia became officially a home for terrorists, although this term had to await the events of 9-11 and the formal declaration of war by USA President Bush. Mahathir in Malaysia was eager to join up, because it seemed to lend him a touch of credibility.
The Mahathir government defended the ISA, waving the Al Ma'unah incident as proof and justification that a threat against national security existed. Although it was clear to the entire country that the incident was pure fabrication and stagecraft, the government had the effrontery to demand the death penalty for the innocent defendants. For reasons known to most, the court-appointed and fee-paid-by-government defense lawyers allowed the travesty to go unchallenged. Let the Malaysian Bar Council wrestle with this underlying rot that erodes its integrity.
The ISA was then used to arrest opposition figures, especially the young leaders, depriving Keadilan, the major opposition party, of both leadership and candidates. The government has been unable to look this matter in the eye, although the courts have declared the arrests are without any basis in fact. The shining spotlight silhouettes Badawi The Innocent, who signed the damnable papers allowing indefinite incarceration without charge, trial or defense.
The ISA was used to arrest and keep in detention other members of opposition parties, including the son of Nik Aziz, the Menteri Besar of the northern state of Kelantan, which has an opposition PAS party government. The government announced that these men had been to Afghanistan, and associated them with recent events there, alleging a connection to the Taliban government and Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda.
The arrests are designed to curry support with the USA, but it is obvious to everyone that trips to Afghanistan in the early 90's predated the Taliban. The war then was against the occupation by Russia, and resistance was encouraged and funded by the CIA of the US. Certainly there is no visible connection with either the Taliban, which sheltered Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda organisation.
It is only another big lie, contributing to the earlier ones, that Malaysia has terrorists, and that those arrested are terrorists threatening Malaysia, USA and the world. In effect, the behaviour of Mahathir and the USA, keeping men without formal charges, confuses in the public mind the ISA and the USA, both representing the failure of Western civilisation to safeguard individual freedoms and human rights. "USA, ISA, what is the difference?" people ask. The U and I are interchangeable, it seems.
Now begins the irony. Mahathir every other day states that Malaysia is indeed an "Islamic State" in order to attract Malay votes, all of whom are followers of Islam. Malaysia, however, is a secular state, with a Constitution that clearly says so. Islam, moreover, has a fundamental prohibition against theft and lying. Islam has zero tolerance for betrayal of public trust or political chicanery of any kind, and insists on scrupulous devotion in serving the public good. UMNO can display none of this, and Muslims are revolted by the sham display of piety.
The West (primarily the USA) has bought the big lie (or pretends to) that there are terrorists in Malaysia. In response, the Malaysian passport has become a suspect thing. The new e-passport, touted as a thing of the future, is now dead as a Dodo. Its inventor, the company Iris Sdn. Bhd., benefits by the personal sales support of Mahathir himself. It is to no avail; Mahathir, super salesman that he is, cannot move the e-passport idea, with its expensive e-machines, as the stock buying public is now aware.
No country willingly accepts a Malaysian passport that has no visible stamps to verify travel. Student visas to the USA and Canada have been canceled, Malaysian travelers are detained for special interrogation, and new requirements are in place to hinder all visitors to Malaysia, whether the trip is tourist, business or school related. Mahathir has succeeded in establishing Malaysia as terrorist state in the eyes of the world, and he continues to reinforce this with a rationalisation that the visa problems are the price Malaysians must pay for being an "Islamic State." He cannot imagine how foolish he looks when he says this. He is past his prime, and cannot lie with the old panache. It is time to bow off, head hung low. When the play is over, it is useless to try to hold back the closing curtain.
The Malaysian strategists have concocted another story that the 9-11 bombers transited through Malaysia, and this allegation is buttressed with videotapes of meetings made by who knows whom. Mahathir is desperate to be thought sincere in his anti-terrorist stance, yet a crucial witness in the Zacarias Moussaoui trial, one Yazid Sufaat, is kept away from the US prosecutors. The reason is obvious, he is innocent. If the USA discovers that, and concludes the entire episode is just another fabrication, just another fraudulent attempt to curry favor, the gigantic fraud of Mahathir, in presenting Malaysia as a terrorist state, will be exposed. In this disgusting charade Singapore joins in, to its everlasting discredit.
Which is worse, to falsely accuse one's innocent citizens of terrorism, dishonestly pretending an intent to end criminal activity, or to cruelly extinguish the rights of an indigenous people fighting to regain their land? Malaysia points the finger of one hand at its own citizens, victims of calculated injustice and torture, then points a finger of the other hand at the atrocities being committed daily by Israel against the Palestinians. This is the definition of hypocrisy.
Malaysia has agreed to buy US-made fighter planes, but given recent developments the sale may not go through. If it does, the spare parts and ammunition supplies may be put on delayed delivery, as Indonesia found to its displeasure and discomfort. Mahathir denounces Western efforts to dominate Asian economies, refusing IMF aid and conditions, but he is willing, if not eager to become dependant on Western military technology. He may have reason to regret this decision, as it puts him on an uncomfortable Western tether.
What then is the truth of the matter? Simply this: Mahathir has made a fool of himself in order to conceal the plunder of the public and UMNO treasuries by Daim and himself. He is in office by fraudulent means, and maintains himself there through total corruption and destruction of all the public institutions. He and Daim have cleaned out the till of the state, federal and UMNO treasuries, giving no accounting to anyone for the twenty years they have been in collusion. The Registrar of Societies requires an annual accounting, yet the UMNO party has not given a treasurer's report the entire period of its existence. It has been illegal from the first failure, many years ago, yet there has been no complaint. Only Mahathir and Daim can answer to that.
The Employees Provident Fund, Khazanah fund, Tabung Haji Savings, Petronas, Telecom, Malaysian Airlines, and Tenaga are all seriously plundered, as the public is soon to discover. There are many others. Mahathir as Prime Minister has directly overseen the malfeasance, the full extent of which will become known in due time. The hope is that the day of reckoning can be indefinitely delayed. It is a false hope, as the markets daily demonstrate.
Anwar Ibrahim knows the details of the transactions, and he is not afraid to tell. Therefore, he must be kept in solitary confinement. If Mahathir has a testicle left, he will release Anwar and challenge him do his worst. If Mahathir cannot do it, he will be replaced by someone who will, and it will not be Badawi, the Not So Innocent.
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