Sex Video: A Desperate Gamble of a Dying Regime
Although they can try to convince themselves that transgressions by Anwar and opposition members must be condemned rigorously while those on their team can be overlooked, they have to convince the Malaysian public that what they have done is acceptable conduct. Double standards can never be accepted.
By William Leong Jee Keen, Member of Parliament for Selayang
The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Dato Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz, is pushing for a Royal Commission to enquire whether the man in the sex video is Anwar Ibrahim. The Minister said earlier the three Datos who exhibited the video are whistle blowers.
Certain UMNO leaders past and present also appear to have a fervent need for the public viewing of the
video without regard to the sensitivities of the people, in particular the children. The Inspector General of Police Ismail Omar also took the unusual step of announcing the video is authentic while further investigations were needed to determine whether the three have committed any
offence.
When all these are considered, the only reasonable inference ordinary Malaysians can make is that this sex video is another smear campaign. UMNO has a fixation to paint Anwar as a sexual deviant. This has been relentlessly pursued to put an end to his political career. As a consequence, Malaysians have to bear with regular and repeated servings of sex scandals allegedly committed by Anwar.
In trying to portray Anwar as being immoral and therefore unfit to lead, this sex video instead exposed the moral decay within UMNO. The release of the sex video by the trio of UMNO veterans is a desperate gamble to cling to power at all costs. Far from a coup de grace over Anwar’s head, this sex video has become the death throes of a doomed UMNO regime.
The police know whether the three Datos have committed an offence by looking at Section 5(1) of the Film Censorship Act 2002. The section provides that no person shall have in his possession, circulate or exhibit any film which is obscene or is otherwise against public decency. Section 5(2) provides that anyone who contravenes Section 5(1) commits an offence and on conviction shall be liable to a fine or imprisonment or both.
The trio in the media conferences admitted they exhibited the video. Anyone who has seen this video confirms it is obscene. Why is there the hesitation to act? Is it because they are from the same side?
To set up a Commission of Enquiry to determine whether Anwar is the man in the video the matter must fall within the provisions of Section 2(1) of the Commissions of Enquiry Act 1950. Section 2(1) provides that a Commission may be set up to enquire into the following:-
(a) The conduct of any Federal Officer;
(b) The conduct or management of any department of the public service;
(c) The conduct or management of any public institution; or
(d) Any other matter in the opinion of the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong is for public welfare.
A Commission can only be set up in this case if it is for public welfare. Therefore in order for Anwar’s moral character to be a matter of public welfare the Government must concede he is going to be the next Prime Minister. If the future Prime Minister is to undergo such an enquiry then Anwar is right to ask for an enquiry on the present Prime Minister. Never in the history of our nation did we have a Prime Minister with so many clouds hanging over him. Applying Nazri’s brand of logic for the RCI because Wan Azizah denied the man in the video is Anwar then enquiries on the Prime Minister must be conducted since he denied his involvement in those matters. This has not been done. The double standard is therefore clear for all to see.
Anwar’s reply to Nazri’s proposal for a Commission of Enquiry that the Government first hold enquiries on Altantuya, Port Dickson, the deaths of Teoh Beng Hock and customs assistant director, Ahmad Sarbani Mohamed, succinctly sums up the moral hypocrisy that have beset the UMNO stalwarts. Roger Malcolm Mitchell said:
“The devil decries evil
Virtue is his guide
To find the hidden villain
Listen to the loudest voice”
The loudest voice belongs to the moral hypocrite. Although they can try to convince themselves that transgressions by Anwar and opposition members must be condemned rigorously while those on their team can be overlooked, they have to convince the Malaysian public that what they have done is acceptable conduct. Double standards can never be accepted.
They may be able to give to each other “self-proclaimed halos” and preach to the public “to do as I say but not as I do” but the people can see through this. Moral hypocrisy allows them to gain the benefits of appearing virtuous without incurring the costs of personal virtuous behavior. Malaysians have unfortunately until recently kept silent on this and thereby encouraged this behavior.
The question for Malaysians is that even if these leaders can deceive themselves into believing they are acting for the common good in releasing the sex video, can we Malaysians deceive ourselves? For some, moral hypocrisy is a useful tool for self-delusion but for many of us it will not be enough to overcome our conscience to do unto others as we would have others do unto us. Our minds cannot justify double standards and our hearts cannot accept as right what we know is wrong.
The decay in UMNO set in because they have been in power for too long. Malaysians have allowed UMNO’s self-delusion to fester and it has become gangrene. Jesus told the Scribes and Pharisees who wanted to stone the adulteress that “He who has no sin cast the first stone “. One by one, they left until only Jesus and the woman were left and Jesus said “Go and sin no more”. We should be grateful the UMNO veterans were not there, otherwise Jesus would have run out of stones!
UMNO having cast the stone outraged our society’s dignity and insulted our intelligence. They think that once we see this grainy black and white video of a pot-bellied contortionist performing with such rigor that would be physically too demanding for an Olympian much less a sixty-four year old with a bad back, we will all rush out and vote for UMNO and BN. They have obviously not heard what Eleanor Roosevelt said:
“Great minds discuss ideas;
Modest minds discuss events
Small minds discuss persons
Sadly, they think we not only have small minds but also feeble ones that will make us vote for the corrupt, oppressive and arrogant because of what the man and the woman were doing in the video.
NGOs like Suaram have condemned the sex video. Enalini Elumalai, Suram coordinator in a press statement urged Malaysians to reject “sexual politicking” as it is shameful and an insult to the dignity of all Malaysians.
The President of the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism (“MCCBCHST”), Reverend Dr Thomas Philips said MCCBCHST viewed the video with disgust. He said their aim in publicly humiliating our elected opposition leader of Parliament offends the sensitivities of decent people no matter what race or religion they belong to.
Mohd Roslan Md Nor, the secretary general of The Malaysian Ulama Association (“PUM”) in a statement said those calling for a screening of the video in Parliament are “suffering from a cancer of rubbish politics.” He said the trend of trying to degrade and spread slander is not Malay Muslim culture. Moreover, it is illegal and
unethical anywhere around the world. Recording, possessing and distributing the video is clearly haram.
By releasing the video at the same time the Sarawak assembly was dissolved, they hoped it would help BN in the state elections. They should have released the bibles and not the video.
They forget it is issues, policies and reforms that are what we want to know and would determine the people’s vote. We do not want to see a sleazy video. We want to watch a debate between Anwar and Najib on Pakatan Rakyat’s Orange Book versus BN’s 1 Malaysia. We want to know who has the courage of conviction to make the structural reforms so badly needed for our nation to regain its competitiveness. We want to see who has the strength of character to rebuild our education system so our children can think creatively, innovatively and stand amongst the best in the world. These are the issues that should determine our votes.
We have enough of allegations of sodomy, sexual impropriety and every other type of smear politics that can be invented to steal an election with the cooperation of a controlled media that is so derelict in their duty of responsible reporting that what they write should be labeled as black propaganda and not news. If UMNO and Barisan Nasional are to win an election on the basis of smear politics it will give the signal that this is the way to go for all future elections.
The solution lies with us, the people. When we are at the ballot boxes, we have to punish and show our disgust against those who indulge in “gutter politics’” by voting them out. We must teach them a lesson that they will not forget or we will forever be dealing with the garbage of cesspool politics.
