Laksa Kuching

once again, i am very angry.

over
the past few weeks, i’ve been watching this judiciary debacle very
quietly. for those not in the know of this issue, and i am sad to have
discovered that this number is far greater than i would care for it to
be, which is also one reason that spurred this post in the first place,
here is a brief summary of the issue before i continue :

made public via Malaysiakini last month, was a 8-minute video clip
that is proof of the corruption that exists in our judiciary system.
taken in 2002 when Mahathir was still PM, the video clip showed a
senior lawyer VK Lingam having a phone conversation with an
unidentified person, strongly believed to be Datuk Ahmad Fairuz, who
was at that time the Chief Judge of Malaya (CJM), the 3rd highest post
in the judiciary.

the situation was that the Chief Justice (CJ)
of that time, aka the top guy, the judiciary No.1, the main man who has
the post everyone else covets, was stepping down as CJ soon. but before
his tenure was to officially end, it seems he was hard at work making
sure his ‘men’ would secure the top judiciary positions after he left.

Ahmad
Fairuz (judiciary’s No.3 guy, aka person allegedly on the other end of
the phone conversation in the video clip) is not part of the CJ’s camp,
and would probably NOT be promoted to No.2 or No.1 unless something was
done. obviously, he would like to be No.1, right? and so ’something’
must be done.

the Chief Justice is appointed by the country’s
Agong upon advice from the Prime Minister, and so the Prime Minister is
the person you want on your side if hypothetically speaking you would
like to become the Chief Justice of Malaysia. but of course the PM is
not accessible to all and sundry, so when you wanna get to him, you get
to his good friends first. the PM’s good friends in this case and as
implicated in the video, are none other than Tan Sri Vincent Tan
(tycoon and owner of Berjaya Group) and Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan
(current Tourism Minister).

enter VK Lingam, well-connected
and ‘correct’ lawyer as he is, who offers to help Ahmad Fairuz obtain
the CJ post. he claims to have already pursued - and will continue to
pursue - the assistance of Vincent Tan and Tengku Adnan in persuading
Mahathir to appoint Ahmad Fairuz as the next Chief Justice of Malaysia.
can lah friend, can lah can lah, i help you because you suffer so much
already. ya ya correct correct i help you.

long story short : Ahmad Fairuz -> VK Lingam -> Vincent Tan & Tengku Adnan -> Mahathir

remember
that this video was secretly filmed in 2002. one year later in 2003,
Ahmad Fairuz was appointed Chief Justice of Malaysia. end of summary of
issue.

so yes, our judiciary is helmed by someone appointed not by means of meritocracy or integrity, but by means of corruption.
it can be deduced that if corruption can exist at such an elevated
position in the judiciary hierarchy, it can exist at all lower levels
of the judiciary too.

also, if the appointment of someone this
CRUCIAL and INSTRUMENTAL to the country can be manipulated so simply,
just so long as you know the right people, then think about all the
people in the higher levels of your government. the people in the
higher levels of your police force. your cabinet. your ministers. does
it not disgust you to know that the people who run your country are
people appointed because they are cronies of the government, because
they are corrupt, because they know who to bribe and pull strings with,
and not because they are the best people for the job?

does it
not make you sick to the stomach to think that the people in your
country’s judiciary - the people who decide who is wrong and who is
right, the people who mete out punishment and sentences, the people who
have the power to release alleged criminals, the people who are
supposed to uphold JUSTICE in the name of 27 million Malaysians - may
be crooks?

does it not make you wonder about recent court
cases of government vs anyone else, and all the verdicts that have been
passed? do you not think of the Altantuya case which has been twisted
beyond recognition (dont forget who was implicated in the first place)
and is now almost forgotten? do you not think of Lina Joy?

all
of the above makes me angry. it makes me angry to know that such
injustice can happen in ironically what is supposed to be the body of
justice in the country. and you know what else makes me angry? the
UTTER AND COMPLETE INEPTITUDE OF THE GOVERNMENT IN DEALING WITH THIS
ISSUE.

the response of the government thus far has been this :
“shock. how can our government’s judiciary be corrupt. no such thing
because we are not corrupt. wait, the rakyat are not happy and demand
that this incident be investigated? okay, but first we dont believe
that this video is real. it could be fake. it could be people trying to
set up Ahmad Fairuz cos they dont like him. it could be, gasp,
opposition tactics to erode belief in the government!!! so yes we
understand that this could be a serious issue, but before we
investigate Lingam, Ahmad Fairuz or anyone else implicated in the
video, let us first determine the authenticity of the video. let us set
up a 3 man panel that will decide what to do. only when this video is
deemed ‘authentic’ by the panel, then will we make the next step.”

if
you have been following the news, you will know that this 3 man panel
that was set up to probe this issue is essentially DOING NOTHING.
Lingam cant be reached for comment and the panel is not even following
up. Ahmad Fairuz has denied any involvement in this and the panel has
decided to allow him to do that. basically this panel has been given
the most narrow terms of reference, and what they’re doing is sitting
back and saying, okay we cannot do anything unless the person who took this video owns up.

what. the hell. is that.

why
is there a need for the videotaker to own up, when the proof in video
form, is right there for the entire country to see? it is SO CLEAR that
the people to be investigated are the people IMPLICATED, not the one
who exposed this issue. say if a person kidnaps a child in a mall, and
there is video footage of him doing so, you bloody arrest the kidnapper
lah right? you dont get to say, ‘oh, the kidnapper is a friend of mine,
so i kinda wanna determine the authenticity of the footage before we
make any drastic decisions, ok? btw i’m gonna arrest the shopkeeper
because i think it was really irresponsible of him to accuse someone of
kidnapping! nvm that he has video proof! the proof may not even be
authentic!’

i mean, what for crying out loud, is
‘authenticity’ of video footage anyway? what exactly would make this
panel sit up and say, okay yes this video is authentic, we can now
proceed to the next stage of investigation? seriously, would having a
name and face to the videotaker prove anything? i am willing to bet
that if someone really did own up to taking the video, they would come
up with a million reasons to say why this person could have faked the
entire video for anti-government, anti-patriotic, disharmony-inciting
reasons.

see this is how messed up the system is. you get stuck
at Stage 1 because of all this red tape, because the government doesnt
really WANT anything to be achieved, but then they blame it on lack of
evidence and authenticity. so in the end, what gets settled? absolutely
jack shit! as i write this, it’s Hari Raya, and the whole of Malaysia
will be happily feasting on raya cookies and beef rendang for a whole
week. all the newspapers will be covering happy clappy open houses
instead of keeping the public focused on what really matters. we have a
freaking angkasawan on some high tech space trip (when he is really but
a ‘flight participant’ on this journey), and everyone is happy because
Malaysia is making history by sending the first ever Malaysian up in
space! yay got a few days Raya holiday, i think i’m going to go to
Pangkor Laut! oh Government so nice say dont have petrol price or toll
increase for the whole of next year! huh what judiciary incident?
forgot already lor!

i am SO MAD that this is allowed to happen. all this delaying and stalling tactics,
so that people will forget what is going on, so that the rakyat’s zeal
to see a conclusion achieved will die down, and in the end the corrupt
judiciary and government get to save face and of course win the next
election.

our favourite minister from the PM’s department Nazri Aziz was recently interviewed on this issue. oh my god the GEMS that came from this text!

when
asked on what the government will do to protect the identity of the
videotaker, and under what Act will this protection be granted (because
protection under certain Acts are stronger than the rest, and naturally
the rakyat want to make sure the government doesnt grant protection
that is full of loopholes that they themselves can later exploit), he
said “The government can do anything. (The protection is) actually
in various Acts, the government can provide protection. It doesn’t have
to be in any other Act.”. just listen to that arrogance, just
listen. it completely befuddles me as to why this arrogant, lazy,
corrupt government is given power election after election. yea if you
can do anything, why not listen to what your people are demanding of
you, and do a proper investigation into this matter rather than
something so half-assed and plebeian! you all can do anything wat. why
not subject Ahmad Fairuz and VK Lingam to the law and make them cough
up real answers? if you can simply detain people under the OSA and ISA
and Sedition Act, then surely you can do something as small as this, oh
powerful Barisan Nasional!

when asked on whether the government is serious about this issue, he said, “Of
course, we are serious. We have to settle this problem first. If it
turns out that the video clip is not authentic, there is no case at
all. What is there to talk about?”. ahhhhhhhhhhhh see. that is all
they are setting out to do! not to prove the ‘authenticity’ of this
video as good law enforcers and justice keepers would, but to disprove
it so that they can save face and cover up exposed mistakes. no case,
indeed! how dare he have the nerve to say that! being so saturated in
politics, and being in the PM’s department, he of all people would be
the most privy to any corruption going on in the upper echelons of our
country. how dare he sit there and have the cheek to deny that there is
something so very wrong going on!!! *furious

when asked on how the panel is to proceed when the videotaker is not coming forward, he said “You have to ask them, I don’t know.”. yes obviously even the freaking panel does not know.

oh and then and then and thennnnnnn, he said this : “I can’t interfere, I am the executive.”.
HAHAHAHA YA RIGHT as if the executive EVER had a problem with
withholding interference in the 50 years leading up to this very
day!!!!!! suddenly when you’re accountable for something so huge, you
have a RIGHT to say that you CANNOT interfere??? what is this???

and
this is my favourite part. the interviewer made a comment that if
action is not taken by the government soon, then this issue would be
forgotten by Malaysians. and Nazri Aziz said, “Who’s fault is that? It’s not the government’s - the fault is on Malaysians.”

so
this is me playing my part as a good Malaysian. i sat here for an hour
blogging one whole long angry post about this, so that this issue will
not be forgotten by whatever few people i can reach out to. you know
how when it comes to issues like this, people always say, there’s
nothing you can do? WRONG. i have NEVER believed that there is nothing
we can do, especially when armed with something as powerful as
intellect, opinions, the freedom of speech and the one thing the
government of Malaysia feels threatened by - blogs.

all that
tripe about how bloggers are irresponsible, about how bloggers cant be
trusted, obviously they say that because they know that we blog all
their dirty dark secrets. we blog about what our crappy newspapers
cannot say for fear of having their licenses revoked. we blog the truth.
and that is what scares them, that is what makes them feel insecure,
because they are afraid of us knowing the truth, the truth like this
corrupt judiciary case. so here i am blogging about this, making sure
my opinions about this are heard and that this issue is refreshed in
the midst of all this complacence.

is there really nothing we
can do to save the judiciary? of course there is. just keep talking
about it over our lunch hours. keep blogging about it. join that Save
The Judiciary group on facebook if you must. sign petitions. just keep
talking and talking and talking, because that will pressure the hell
out of them and ultimately force them to take some form of swift action
that will satisfy the masses. we should not fear them; they fear us
because we have the voting power to take them out of government. and
the more people realize this, the more educated and aware we become,
the better off we are as a country and one people. because then, they
know that we are smart. they know that we expect things, and that is
when they will deliver. do you seriously want to continue remaining
stupid for a government who wants to keep you stupid so they can
exploit the hell out of you?

please think about that.

Selamat Hari Raya everybody.