In a blog posting, Tun Dr Mahathir complained against the many calls to the government not to appeal against the Sodomy II judgement.
”Anwar has made full use of the court process, with appeals upon appeals in the Saiful case. If the verdict had gone against him, he would likely have appealed further. Yet now that he is found not guilty on grounds of the lack of corroborating evidence, the right of the victim to appeal is being denied.
Or is it now one of Pakatan’s struggle, as mentioned by Anwar on BBC, that the laws of the country are archaic and needs to be amended to freedom to sodomize, following western liberalism?”
(my rough translation and summary) http://chedet.cc/blog/?p=663
Firstly, Saiful is not the victim. The charge against Anwar was not for rape but for sodomy. The prosecution did not try to prove that Anwar raped Saiful. Merely that sodomy had taken place.
And so for Saiful, his father, the Deputy Prime Minister, and TDM to call for an appeal against the verdict, is not a call for justice as we would understand justice. It is a call to continue to persecute Anwar.
Secondly, as Kim Quek wrote in his article, the fact that these samples, 56 hours in the rectum, and another 48 hours in the office of the police investigating officer, at tropical room temperature, could still be found in “pristine” condition (as reported by the Malaysian government chemist) pointed irresistibly to the fact that these were not the original swabs retrieved from the complainant’s rectum, but fresh substitutes presented to the laboratory.
In not as many words, this was the finding of the judge as well.
Simply put, the public does not believe there is a case against Anwar. And so to pursue an appeal is to spend Malaysian tax ringgit to continue to persecute Anwar.
Finally the insinuation that Pakatan wants to fight for “the freedom to sodomize”.
Sometimes what your enemies say about you carries the most weight.
Obviously the battle to defend the rights of a “despised” minority is one that pays little dividend but carries a great deal of downside. Anwar could easily have sidestepped the issue during the BBC interview but he said, “We Muslims and non-Muslims in Malaysia generally believe and are committed to support the sanctity of marriage between men and women, but we should not be seen to be punitive and consider the archaic law as relevant,” acknowledging that religious and sexual differences should not be grounds for punishment.
One accusation by the religious establishment of the day against Jesus was that he was “a friend of sinners.” Jesus embraced the charge, saying that only the sick needed a doctor.
If Pakatan is, as charged, a party that fights for freedom, defending the rights of the minority, even at a cost to their own interests, then it is a party that I am interested in. To TDM, freedom is “to sodomize” and is merely western liberalism. Clearly he, and his party, is not interested in defending freedom. The persecution of students seeking their rights and the heavy-handed prosecution of another student for what he wrote in his facebook, obviously in jest, are just further evidence of this. Arrested and investigated for criminal intimidation, the Star reported that the police are investigating if he has any terrorist links. The Sun quoted the IGP as saying that the student is incapable of carrying out any bombing. In the meantime, the student is released on police bail, on “humanitarian grounds”, to take his exams. The offense, according to the Star, and the subject of 3 police reports, is a posting on his Facebook saying, “najib is coming to our campus… let’s bomb his helicopter…”
The Micah Mandate is a Christian-based public interest advocacy ministry that seeks a transformation of our nation through justice, mercy and humility.
