The Bar and ‘God’s gift’ Anwar
The Bar and its president practice double standard when it comes to the law and Anwar Ibrahim.
Zaidel Baharuddin, Free Malaysia Today
I’m confused. All this while I was told by the usual rabid fanboys/girls of Pakatan Rakyat that the Sodomy II case was a conspiracy by the Barisan Nasional-led government, that somehow they managed to plant Anwar Ibrahim’s semen into Saiful Bukhari Azlan’s anus or something along that line.
Then of course he got acquitted, whether this was part of the conspiracy, I’m not sure. And now, the lead prosecutor in the Sodomy II trial works for Anwar.
If there is indeed a conspiracy, surely it seems like it’s not coming from the government but rather from Anwar’s side by having the prosecutor botching up the case so that you can get off scott free and as a repayment for his good deed he now scores a handsome paying job.
While some of you may find this hard to swallow, especially when your mind has already been programmed to believe that conspiracy is only a government thing, let me offer you a paradox so that we can view this whole episode in a different perspective.
Now let’s change the protagonist so that we can have a different scenario, let’s replace Anwar with Mohd Khir Toyo, the former Selangor MB who got his verdict around the same time as Anwar.
Let’s just say, hypothetically, Khir was acquitted, meaning that the judge found the evidence of corruption against him insufficient or the prosecutor failed to prove that indeed there is a case against him, and he walks free.
Now imagine a few months later, a key member of the prosecuting team resigns, starts off a private firm and his first client is none other than Khir himself.
Ask yourselves, be honest, would you say that perhaps Khir sees this lawyer as exceptionally competent seeing how he failed in his last prosecution case or that there is something fishy going on?
Wouldn’t you march to the Palace Of Justice in the blistering hot humid tropical afternoon in your black garb to protest against such an unethical action?
‘The pro-Anwar Bar president’
Now ask yourselves, why is it okay for Anwar but not for Khir? Is justice only to be served against Umno politicians?
Now if this paradox was presented to me by a rabid Pakatan fanboy I’m quite okay with it, after all they see Anwar as God’s gift to mankind and surely being such a gift you are entitled to some privileges, but coming from the Bar Council, the non-partisan professional body for law practitioners is something I find really hard to accept.
When Anwar was acquitted, Bar Council president Lim Chee Wee wrote about Natural Justice and that with the acquittal we can be sure that the cycle of justice has been completed, then he goes on saying the prosecutor should not pursue any appeal on behalf of the accuser, because it seems that Saiful does not deserve natural justice.