‘Datuk T not the wrongdoer’
(NST) – Former PKR deputy president Dr Chandra Muzaffar lashed out against critics who targeted the men behind a sex video allegedly featuring opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim with a prostitute.
Joining the fray on the sex video scandal, Chandra said it was the wrongdoer and not those who exposed the wrongdoing that should be targeted.
The former PKR deputy president said he was disappointed with some quarters whose focus had gone astray.
“It is not the individuals who expose the wrongdoing who should be our target, but the wrongdoer himself and his wrongdoing,” said Chandra, who was once a staunch Anwar ally, told the New Sunday Times yesterday.
The men behind the video, the “Datuk T” (trio), have become the subject of attacks by the opposition and some parties for possession and distribution of pornography, which they said was tantamount to a criminal offence.
The trio, comprising former Malacca chief minister Tan Sri Rahim Thamby Chik, businessman Datuk Shazryl Eskay Abdullah and Per- kasa’s treasurer-general Datuk Shuib Lazim, claimed responsibility for the public screening of the video to selected journalists on March 21 at Carcosa Seri Negara.
Using an analogy of corruption as an example, Chandra said people should condemn the person who committed the act rather than those who exposed the act.
“Why should we be so obsessed with those who wash dirty linen in public when actually we should be chastising those who dirty the linen in the first instance?”
Chandra, who is now a social activist and an academician, also gave his support for the establishment of a royal commission of inquiry (RCI) to determine the identity of the man in the video despite objections from Anwar’s family and supporters.
He said they should have no compunctions about the establishment of the royal panel if they were convinced that Anwar had done no wrong.
However, he warned the opposition leader of serious repercussions if it was proven otherwise, “as others in similar circumstances have done”.
“If, on the other hand, Anwar is prepared to come to terms with the truth, he should resign from his position as leader of the opposition and cease to be the ketua umum (de facto leader) of the opposition grouping”.
He further reminded the public not to have illusions about the man named Anwar, emphasising that it was not only just the latter’s alleged “sexual misdemeanours” that made him abandon the opposition ship 10 years ago.
“There were graver issues pertaining to money politics, ethnic relations and international affairs that compelled me to part company with Anwar.
“Ten years ago, when I quit (the party), I appealed to Anwar and his wife, Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, in public to be honest to their conscience. I am still waiting.”
Although there were many calls supporting the setting up of a RCI to probe the sex video clip, the Bar Council, on the other hand, went against the tide by saying that such a suggestion was “misguided”.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz said on Friday he would table a proposal to establish the royal panel to the cabinet.
In a statement issued yesterday, Bar Council president Lim Chee Wee said an RCI was only set up to enquire into matters of public importance, commonly involving public institutions, as stated under the Commissions of Enquiry Act 1950.
