On the 9th of January, 2012, Anwar Ibrahim was acquitted from a sodomy charge (dubbed Sodomy 2.0) on technical reasons. The DNA specimen that was submitted as one of two incriminating evidences, was found to be tainted. Anwar, as were people on both sides of the political fence, was caught by surprise. Later, Anwar was reported to have said that he will amend the law pertaining to sodomy which he opined as being archaic. In doing so, he condemns not just the law, but also Holy Books of Peoples of the Book as being equally archaic.
To some benighted supporters of his, this event proves Anwar’s innocence and that he is not a sodomite. Perhaps, they should re-read the judgment of the Appellate Court when releasing Anwar from jail for Sodomy 1.0. Critically, the majority judgment says, “we find evidence that the appellants were involved in homosexual activities.” It is this point that many in the media, particularly outside Malaysia, missed. What the judges couldn’t find evidence for was the dates.
In one respect the majority judgment went further than earlier courts. It was found that the driver “was an accomplice” to the acts of sodomy. Earlier courts had judged him to be a victim. To put it crudely, the judges paint a picture of a happy threesome rather than of two aggressors.
Just when every one was ready to put Sodomy 2.0 behind them, and Anwar picking up momentum in his life-long quest to become the Prime Minister, the Prosecution had decided to appeal. Anwar’s spin-doctors quickly went into an attack mode claiming that the Barisan Nasional is bent on keeping Anwar out of Putrajaya; but in reality his “victim’s” father appealed to the Public Prosecutor to appeal, and that process is part of the processes of natural justice. If anyone has a problem with that, he or she ought to move to Rwanda or Angola, or even to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. A caveat from me is I hope the Prosecution has compelling evidences this time to incriminate Anwar, else this would be another waste of time.
In an unrelated development, after a long while of pussyfooting, it was decided that the assets of the National Feedlot Corporation Sdn Bhd be frozen – an gesture that would have won political points had it been done some three months ago. This decision was made a day after the person in focus, Minister Shahrizat Jalil, announced that she was going on leave for three weeks to assist the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission in its investigation of her family-run company.
Shahrizat has also sued Ampang MP Zuraida Kamaruddin and PKR’s Strategy Director, Rafizi Ramli over what she claimed to be acts of defamation. While that is within her rights to sue people who defame her, she must also remember Newton’s three laws of motion.
I. Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it.
First and foremost, as a Cabinet Minister, she should have advised her husband against applying for a government grant or loan to start a personal business, OR, she should have resigned and helped her husband in running the multi-million Ringgit business. Going against the norm, or disturbing the equilibrium causes motion.
II. The relationship between an object’s mass m, its acceleration a, and the applied force F is F = ma. Acceleration and force are vectors (as indicated by their symbols being displayed in slant bold font); in this law the direction of the force vector is the same as the direction of the acceleration vector.
As she is a Minister, she should have realised that being such a huge public figure would cause acceleration of public perception. The negative force against her was produced by the combination of her being a huge public figure and the acceleration of public negative perception of the issue.
III. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Well and good that she is taking action against those whom she claims to have defamed her. However, a caveat from me: I hope she is prepared if the sued party calls for documents related to what the defamation was all about – and that can cause equal pain to her as well as to members of her family.
This is going to be one crappy but interesting quarter of 2012.
With that, I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of you Gongxi facai.
SeaDemon Says 