Malaysian Courts and Double Standards

Will the judges be cowed? Pic from MOLE

 The High Court found the ex-Selangor Menteri Besar guilty as charged yesterday (One year jail for Khir Toyo - NST). Someone asked me, wasn't he your friend? Ca't you help him? And Shahrizat is in a lot of trouble over the NFC issue, isn't she? Are you helping her?

There is no stopping the system when all the engines are fired up. Shahrizat's predicament was triggered by the Auditor-General's report, which was tabled in Parliament and made public. Yes, it was the AG that exposed NFC, not some anonymous whistleblower or the some wannabes from Pakatan Rakyat, and not the Alhabshees of Umno who reportedly gave out packets of Menglembu ground nuts to the Wanita reps during the recent Umno general assembly. Again, Najib Razak, he did not stop the report from being made nor did he try to sweep anything under the carpet. As PM, he ensured that the system is not tampered with. He allowed his AG to do his job. 

Khir Toyo was tried by the same court of law that has been accused countless of times, mainly by the people who make use of the system most, of having been cowed and compromised [by Mahathir] and subservient to the Executive. But the same system and the same courts have tried and banished several big politicians from the government before. My friend Khir Toyo is not the first one. And he will certainly not be the last one. Former Transport Minister Ling Liong Sik is being tried by the same Malaysian judiciary. So is Anwar Ibrahim.

Lim Guan Eng, the DAP Penang Chief Minister, won his defamation suit against Utusan Malaysia middle this month, and he is now RM200k richer. He is now suing the New Straits Times for defamation after NST snookered itself by agreeing to apologize to Kalimullah Hassan. The article NST was sorry about involved Kali and Guan Eng, but no apology was offered to the Opposition leader! 

In October, a judge hugged Karpal Singh on --- after ordering a businessman to pay the DAP strongman RM2 million in damages.It was a spontaneous act of compassion, Karpal defended the hugging judge later on. [And there I thought that if the judge really needed to show compassion, she should have hugged the dude who would have to fork out the RM2 million].

Earlier this week, ex-Selangor exco member Mohd Sharif Jajang was found not guilty by the courts that convicted Khir Toyo [before that he had won a RM400,000 suit against The Malay Mail for articles published when I was the Editor]. I think Guan Eng is going to win his suit against the Umno-owned NST, no thanks to the apology to Kali, who was the paper's own ex-supremo from a failed era. 

And you know what, I think many expect Anwar Ibrahim to walk on 9 January 2012. 

But so what? He may be your friend or your master, if he's done something wrong he should not get away with it, right? Same with Khir Toyo, Ling Liong Sik, Shahrizat Jalil, Lim Guan Eng, Kalimullah Hassan and everybody else.

But Yang Arifs, whatever you decide, no hugging afterwards, please! Takkan tu be tak reti, ye tak? 

And be prepared for Malaysia's great double standards when you rule against them. I quote fellow scribe Desiderata:

"IF there is one case of double standards from Malaysia, esp wrt to lawyers who are also politicians, it is always OKAY if the judge found in favour of their client. But when the decision is against them, hey, cry "FOUL" or the other "F" word."

updated: Anwar's supporters are piling up the pressure on the judges to rule in favour of the Opposition de facto leader. Not all varsity students want to be associated with him, though, h e r e.