Everybody and his next door neighbour’s mother-in-law are probably talking about nothing else for the past 5 days or so, in Malaysia.
Fact. Sodomy is illegal in Malaysia. So are a lot of other things like murder, criminal breach of trust, money laundering, insider trading, bribery, buggery (the inevitable result of coveting your neighbour’s rather cute Boer goat), sex with a minor (I could have sworn she was 30) etc…
I don’t know if homosexuality is illegal too. But we do have a lesbian in the Cabinet, so the Malaysian govt, despite its “moral” public stance, must not really care whether you’re gay. Word has it that we even blasted one into space.
Sorry for rambling on.
This post is about the erstwhile DPM Anwar Ibrahim and the fresh allegations of sodomy against him, this time by a young college dropout/aspiring pilot/volunteer staff at Anwar’s office.
Did he do it? Was it consensual? Does it matter since it is a crime anyway?
Ancient Mariner says he finds it too much of a stretch to believe that Anwar, a 61 year old with a bad back, can force himself on a 23-year old young man just about entering his physical prime. Yeah, kinda hard to fathom on this score.
If it was consensual, then why did the guy lodge a police report after that? The most obvious solution would be for money and celebrity. The young man’s camwhoring ways lend credence to the celebrity theory, and ah…face it, who doesn’t want money.
I’m no fan of Anwar. I found him kinda dodgy a long long time before 1998, and even before the Bahasa Baku period.
However, to assume truth in this young man Saiful’s allegation is to beggar your logic.
For one, we have to assume that Anwar is some kinda sex maniac who can suspend his sense of self preservation just to assuage his sexual need. C’mon, I believe that power is a greater aphrodisiac and the guy has been getting his fix from PKR’s impressive showing at the March polls.
For another, you’d also have to assume that Anwar is a grand fool who has not learnt a lesson from his 6-year ordeal. Even a dog will shy away from you if you hit it once. (Not that I condone animal cruelty, God forbid). I think Anwar may be many things. He may even have been sleeping with the Americans and Singapore (yeah, that friendly neighbour’s tip off about an assasination attempt)
But stupid he is not.
Even that rush to the Turkish Embassy (you may laugh) has a surface and subterranean explanation, if you think about it. But it is understandable when you consider that Rahim Noor actually gave him a black eye back then. The country’s highest ranking police officer, no less. If he is scared, he is justified.
So, Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar’s sniggering dismissal of Anwar and his defence of our police as being professionals, I will take as seriously as some people take Syed Hamid himself.
I read somewhere once that while his dad was known as the Lion of Umno in those “glory” days, Syed Hamid himself is known a Kodomo Lion.
Having said that, I do think that that was a bit of drama that Anwar played with the Turkish connection. Anwar is a showman after all.
And you know something? I think there is something in Shahrir Samad’s cheeky statement that how come a govt that is accused to be inept and flip flopping suddenly intelligent enough to engage in conspiracies.
Ezam says it is not a question of politics or conspiracy, it is rather a “soal peribadi, soal akhlak”. Why kinda makes me wonder, since Ezam himself was better looking than Saiful the alleged sodomy victim, how come Anwar didn’t make any advances to him…eh?
I’d like to say to Ezam that “Ini soal kredibiliti” and remind him of his own born-again status and how his “slayer of all things corrupt” platform doesn’t sit so well in that hotbed of corruption that is Umno.
So who fixed Anwar? Search me. I don’t think it is Wak Dollah. That guy has his hands full now. I don’t think its Dr M either. That guy would be more original.
Think about it.
In the meantime, I am more pissed off by this Tom Casey statement.
The United States said Monday it would oppose any politically motivated investigation or prosecution of Anwar and that it hoped there was no “pattern” in the new accusations against him.
“The main point for us is that the rule of law needs to stand above politics,” said US State Department spokesman Tom Casey.- AFP
The Malaysian govt has sent a protest note over this kinda interference, and rightly so. Those meddling Yanks have no place here. We are a sovereign nation, and we are not Mugabe’s Zimbabwe.
I’d like to point Mr Casey’s attention northeast-wards to that joke of a nation that is Burma/Myanmar now. They need help, yet you Yanks don’t bother with such humanitarian holocaust since you have nothing to gain.
Dubya just approved more than US100 billion to sustain the Iraq operations. May you live in interesting times.
To Wak Dollah, let this be a lesson. When you are perceived to be weak, the vultures circle. Snap out of that lethargy or just get the hell out of the hot seat.