The government must tread carefully on the SRC International case
Raja Sara Petra
Nampaknya terdapat pertingkahan di antara pihak peguam pembela dan pihak pendakwa raya didalam kes SRC International mengenai berapa banyak bukti yang pihak pendakwa wajib serahkan kepada pihak pembela. The purpose of this is to ensure there are no surprises and to enable the Defence to prepare its case properly.
Kerajaan Malaysia perlu berhati-hati dengan kes ini. Kerana, yang pertama sekali, duit dari SRC didakwa duit yang dicuri dari 1MDB. Kedua, kes ini melibatkan bekas Perdana Menteri Malaysia. Ketiga, semenjak dari tahun 2015, Najib Tun Razak telah dibicarakan melalui media dan dihukum di dalam ‘court of public opinion’. Terakhir sekali, tuduhan 1MDB ini adalah sebab utama Umno dan Barisan Nasional digulingkan pada Mei 2018.
Therefore, this is not a normal criminal case and many would view this as a form of persecution rather than a prosecution and motivated by political revenge and vendetta. So, the government needs to be very careful that justice is not only done but is seen to be done. Pakatan Harapan came to power on the promise of justice, fair-play and good governance and they must show this is happening.
Pakatan Harapan bercakap tentang ‘rule of law’. Walau bagaimanapun ‘Rule of law’ dan ‘rule by law’ adalah berbeza and this appears to be what is happening here. The fact that the SRC case involves Najib and 1MDB means the government needs to walk that extra mile to demonstrate to the people that everyone is equal before the law and is assumed innocent until proven guilty.
