Anwar deprived of martyrdom
The last time I checked, consensual or otherwise, sodomy is not accepted by all religions and faiths. Perhaps the Bar Council is suggesting to rid the Penal Code of such “archaic provision”. We would probably be less rigid, less medieval and more free. Very free, in fact.
Johan Jaafar, New Straits Times
We should move on from Monday’s verdict
HE was prepared for the worst. Knowing him, perhaps he even had his toothbrush ready for a long spell in prison. His followers, too, were resigned to their conclusion that the judiciary is never independent and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim would be found guilty of the sodomy charge.
The court decided otherwise. Like a perfect sinetron (Indonesian TV serial), the ending was more than a cliffhanger; it was a massive surprise.
He was acquitted and discharged. No one was perhaps more surprised than Anwar.
His supporters who came by the thousands (actually about 5,000 and not 100,000 as planned), were stunned. Anwar was deprived of martyrdom. What a cruel irony.
He was supposed to be The Victim. And the judiciary was supposed to be another ideal whipping boy after all other branches of the government had been discredited. I am sure there was a lot of soul-searching among his supporters and backers.
That Monday morning, Anwar muttered something about the judiciary being still unable to unshackle itself from the man at the top. Forget about thanking the court at least once.
Or giving credit to the judge for the leeway in accommodating his demands — postponements (60 at least) and whatever else. After two long years and many, many hours of precious court time, Anwar is now a free man.
There are those who believe the case should not have been brought to court. Or that the judge should have thrown the case out in the first place for lack of evidence.
Everyone now has his or her own view on the matter.
The Bar Council, not to be outdone, even commented that the prosecution case was based on “an archaic provision of the Penal Code that criminalises consensual relations between adults”.
Now that is news. If only the president had made the same statement regarding the many others convicted for the same offence.
The last time I checked, consensual or otherwise, sodomy is not accepted by all religions and faiths. Perhaps the Bar Council is suggesting to rid the Penal Code of such “archaic provision”. We would probably be less rigid, less medieval and more free. Very free, in fact.
If you ask me, I would like to move on. The decision has been good for the government and absolved the prime minister’s position on the independence of the judiciary. In the first place, it was not the government that brought the case to court — it was a citizen who has every right to be heard. Conspiracy? Even John le Carre could not have written a better storyline: Everyone else is in cahoots to deprive Anwar of his march to Putrajaya.
The truth is everyone is equal in the court of law. You don’t need to be a lawyer to understand that.
Similarly, no one is guilty unless proven so in court. Anwar has every reason to prove his innocence not unlike a no-name drug addict accused of, say, stealing his neighbour’s eggs.
Unfortunately, he does not have the machinery nor the support to galvanise his defence in the eyes of the people.
He can’t get 10 people to hear his plea of innocence, what more 5,000. He can’t organise ceramah to bring his case to the people. It reminds me of Animal Farm — all animals are born equal but some are more equal than others.
His complaints about being demonised by the system has been perfected into an art form. Let’s deprive him of that. Let’s get on with our lives. Let’s get into the business of making this country a greater one.
The acquittal should mark the symbolic end of the sympathy card that he proudly and unashamedly used all these years.
Let’s put an end to that, too. Let him fight his war on his own accord. Let him have the benefit of a level playing field, which he nefariously believed he was deprived of. After all, his followers believe he can do no wrong.
But he is just human. And he has his ambitions, just like Mat Jenin of the Malay folk story. Let him.
In another folk story, Si Luncai was condemned to death by the king. Along the way, the scheming character taught the rowers of the boat to sing, Si Luncai terjun dengan labu-labunya (Si Luncai jumps with his pumpkin).
The chorus would be, biarkan, biarkan! (let him, let him!) He did jump into the river with his labu (pumpkin).
Let the rowers sing in unison biarkan! biarkan!
Why should we care?
