The Rosli Dahlan Trial gets a new Judge in the 11th Hour!

June 27, 2010

The uncanny similarities in the Trials of Anwar Ibrahim and Rosli Dahlan

by Din Merican

I worked with Anwar Ibrahim in Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR). I know his values, his ideals and his political vision. I supported his slogan to struggle for a better Malaysia.(Harapan Baru Untuk Malaysia). Circumstances change and I have chosen to do research and  some serious writing.

Quite apart from all that, I also know him personally. My personal knowledge of him was the basis for my belief that the sodomy charges were nothing more than political persecutions. Many Malaysians believe these shameful events will forever remain as a stain in the political and legal history of the country.

The present global political climate is one of openness, of transparency and good governance and of possibilities and hope. The hope of a better world is revived with the departure of George W. Bush and the recent  defeat of Blair-Brown Laborites in USA and UK respectively. These leaders of the two superpowers, who lied to the world in order to invade Iraq, left office. The audacity of hope was reflected in the rise of Barrack Hussein Obama as President of the USA.

UMNO rejects better relations with Pakatan controlled states

In Malaysia, the hope for check and balance appears to be delivered on March 8, 2008 when BN lost its 2/3 majority in Parliament and 5 states fell to Pakatan Rakyat, a loose and now troubled coalition of PKR, DAP and PAS. The BN federal government was given a chance to show its acceptance of the concept of federalism by working with the state governments in these opposition controlled Pakatan Rakyat (PR) states. Did BN, as dominated by UMNO, accept this opportunity for change? No, it did not.

Instead, UMNO went on its usual machiavellian way to undermine the opposition governments in these 5 states. Being in control of the executive arm of government, UMNO used the MACC to achieve its objective of harassing, intimidating and forcing cross-overs of the weak PR wakil rakyats so that UMNO/BN can seize control and form the government in these states.

Perak Saga

What UMNO could not achieve via the ballot box, they did by the force of might. So, the PR government of Perak fell. The people’s hopes and reverence in the Sultan of Perak, as the former Lord President and the most enlightened of the Malaysian royalty, who would defend the Rule of Law evaporated almost immediately. Reverence turned to scorn.

Teoh Beng Hock Case

In Selangor, the abuses of the MACC is best illustrated by the death of Teoh Beng Hock, killed by being thrown out of a window of the MACC Selangor’s office. The attempt to cover up this murder incensed Malaysians generally but more so the Chinese community. As an appeasement, an Inquest was held, only to achieve the objective of relegating it to become  stale news, as it now appears to be.

The culmination of absurdity is when the Home Minister, Dato’ Hishammuddin Hussein Onn, and the de facto law Minister, Dato’ Nazri Aziz, publicly abused and challenged the famous Thai forensic expert, Dr Pornthip Rojanasunand, as an unreliable foreign expert witness. . Before doing that, they should have referred to the judgement of Judge Supang Lian who had denounced IGP Musa Hassan as an “unreliable witness whose evidence is not to be believed”.

Political Tsunami of GE12(March 8, 2008)

The results of GE 12 brought about a realisation to UMNO that Sodomy I did not quite finish off Anwar. UMNO’s slogan that Anwar Ibrahim is a political has-been was like “senjata makan tuan”. The unprecedented success of the PR alliance has resurrected Anwar as the saviour of real change in Malaysia. UMNO realised that it could be in grave danger come next GE13. UMNO needed to bring Anwar down for the second time. There was a ready model in Sodomy I!

Sodomy 1

In Sodomy I, we saw the might of the executive (Mahathir bin Mohamad) in suborning the judiciary. The shameful legal writings of the various compromised judges are all over the wall, especially of that “Irrelevant” Judge Augustine Paul, who is now facing divine judgment in his grave. It is there in the legal annals. Just open these law journals and you will understand the trauma that the judiciary went through since the sacking of the former Lord President of Malaysia, Tun Salleh Abbas. Unlike the Sultan of Perak, this commoner Lord President was made of sterner stuff. His refusal to yield to UMNO’s demands, changed the judicial landscape permanently.

Today, Malaysia has the distinction of having sacked its Lord President and several other Judges of the Supreme Court. If there was ever any good in the Abdullah Badawi administration, it was that his government made an apology and paid compensation to these judges. But even so, that decency is to be credited to the then Minister of Law, Dato’ Zaid Ibrahim. The irony is, today, Zaid Ibrahim is with PKR .

Devoid of any better idea, PM Najib’s “think tank” came up with Sodomy II. The setting in Sodomy II is worse, and not only because it is a poor copy of Sodomy I. The frightful scene we have today is a combination, never seen before, of the three branches of government i.e. the executive, the judiciary and the legislative, to bring down one man.

The frightening scenario is this – IGP Musa Hassan and A-G Gani, as the tested executive tool, are using all their resources to frame Anwar. The judiciary is headed by an UMNO appointed Chief Justice, Tan Sri Zaki Tun Azmi. Parliament’s Speaker, Pandikar Amin Mulia, will chair the special committee that will decide on Anwar’s fate as a member of Parliament in the APCO (Israeli infiltration) case brought about by Law and Parliament Minister, Dato’ Nazri Aziz.

I have been shuttling between the two court rooms at the Jalan Duta Courts Complex to observe Anwar’s trial and Lawyer Rosli Dahlan’s trial. Anwar’s case is receiving publicity from the main stream media (MSM), although no longer front page, because he was a former DPM, a politician and the current opposition leader. Anwar’s case is being reported by the mainstream media because there is propaganda value to demean him by publicising the alleged sexual exploits in a Malaysian society obsessed with perverted sex stories.

The Lawyer Rosli Dahlan Trial

By contrast, Lawyer Rosli’s trial is being blacked out because he is just a professional lawyer who got snared in a conspiracy to remove the director CCID, Dato Ramli Yusuff, who was about to expose IGP Musa Hassan’s complicity with the underworld. Rosli was brought down because he defied A-G Gani who wanted to release a known criminal Goh Cheng Poh @ Tengku Goh and close the case involving MAS’s RM 8 billion losses caused by its former chairman Tan Sri Tajuddin Ramli. It has now become necessary to mothball Rosli’s case into oblivion because the MACC witnesses and DPPs are now badly bashed and exposed in court as law enforcement officers who abused their powers. That the MACC is an agency that has gone rotten at its very inception is amplified by the tragedy that befell Teoh Beng Hock who, like Rosli, was just another witness, only that former ended up dead!

The case against Anwar and that of Rosli are as far apart and as unconnected as can be. Or is it? As I compared my notes on the trials of Anwar and Rosli which are taking place almost at the same time in different court rooms of the same Jalan Duta Courts Complex, I was astounded by the similarities between the two.

From the start, Anwar insisted that the present sodomy charge against him is a frame up by the  Barisan National Government using IGP Musa Hassan and A-G Gani. Anwar swore he will fight this to the end. Rosli too insists that he has been fixed up by IGP Musa Hassan and A-G Gani by using the MACC. This fact seems very clear since all of the MACC witnesses have now admitted that Rosli was never a suspect for any offence. He was merely needed as a witness. Since the day he was charged, Rosli had maintained that he was a victim of a conspiracy against his client. Apparently, Rosli had been advised to make a written representation to A-G Gani to seek a withdrawal of the charge. But Rosli, like Anwar, is also a proud Leo, and has refused to be seen as begging and grovelling to a scumbag like Gani Patail. Rosli’s fight to expose this trumped up charge deserves public attention especially since the MACC is now being stripped naked in court.

The accusers in both cases are named Saiful. In Anwar’s case it is Saiful Bukhari whereas the MACC IO who lodged the report against Rosli is Saiful Ezral. In Anwar’s case, a faggot alleged Anwar buggered him. In Rosli’s case, the faggot DPP Kevin Morais lied countlessly in order to cover up his lies (see my earlier article: The Liar Kevin Morais Buried In His Lies!).

Musa Hassan (the Mattress Carrier) and Gani Patail fabricated evidence against Anwar in Sodomy I and had mercuric promotions after that to give them the powers to now orchestrate Sodomy II. These same culprits are the hidden hands in the conspiracy against Dato’ Ramli Yusuff and the false charge against Rosli.

Anwar was at one time the President of the International Islamic University (IIU). Rosli was the first batch of law graduates from IIU, and probably received his graduation scroll from Anwar.

The prosecution team against Anwar included senior DPP Nordin Hassan who was also a graduate of IIU. Nordin had a mercuric rise after Sodomy I and is now also part of the prosecution team in Sodomy II. In Rosli’s case, Dato’ Nordin Hasssan, since then promoted as Director of Prosecution MACC, was the hidden hand behind Kevin Morais’ actions. In fact the DPPs prosecuting Rosli namely DPP Dzulqarnain and DPP Sophian are also IIU graduates, both of them many years Rosli’s junior. Perhaps they learned from their senior, Nordin Hassan who prosecuted the IIU President and received fast track promotions and became a Dato’.

People like Nordin Hassan, Dzulqarnain and Sophian would do whatever that is necessary to please their bosses regardless that they sell out their comrade or brother in Islam. They are no different from graduates of the other secular universities when it comes to jockeying for positions and promotions. It mattered little to them that their actions betrayed the principles of “Am’r Maaruf, Nahy Mungkar” (Encourage good, discourage wrongdoing) that they were taught in IIU. That was just a slogan to them. It is little wonder that the Muslim world is so fraught in strife!

Mainstream Media sued by Anwar and Rosli

Anwar has sued the MSM for defaming him in their reports of his prosecution. Rosli too has sued Utusan Malaysia, The Star and The NST. Utusan Malaysia had tendered an unequivocal public apology to Rosli for its untruthful article admitting that its reports “exceeded the parameters of ethical journalism”. For all that apology, Utusan Malaysia and 15 other defendants, the MACC and their individual officers included, are now potentially liable to pay Rosli damages for RM50 million. That is what happens when you frame innocent people, they fight back!

A new Judge for the Rosli Trial

In Anwar’s case, they keep changing the goal post. Unfortunately for Rosli, the same is about to happen to him. Judge Abu Bakar Katar who has been hearing Rosli’s case which is now at its tail end, has, since 1st June, been transferred to Malacca. So when Rosli’s trial continues on Monday June, 28, it will be a different judge. This is where the similarities become more uncanny. The Judge who will take over Rosli’s case is Puan Rozilah Saleh. She was the court registrar who assisted Justice Augustine Paul in PP v Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim (No. 3). A feeling of eeriness must now envelope Rosli like being in Twilight Zone. While Rosli can only hope that Judge Rozilah would remain impartial, this whole case is sounding more and more bizarre.

Mahkamah Jalan Duta

These uncanny similarities may be a divine signal to both Anwar and Rosli. To Anwar, it is time that he ponders the failings of his PKR parliamentarians and state assemblymen that may be causing widespread disenchantment amongst the Malaysian electorate.. Unless Anwar identify better, stronger candidates who share his ideals and political values and vision; unless Anwar field candidates with integrity who are neither easily bought over nor intimidated; unless Anwar arrest this problem of cross-overs, the PR alliance stands in jeopardy in the next GE13.

Time for Lawyer Rosli Dahlan to champion the cause of Civil Liberties

To Rosli, it is time that he looks beyond his cushy profession and ponders if he truly cares for justice or whether it is just justice for himself when others less fortunate than him can only bend to the will of their abusers. If Rosli believes that justice is for all, then he should ponder whether the incident that befalls him now is to make him come to his true calling – to take up the cudgels of politics or fight in the cause of civil liberties by being active in the several NGOs that are badly in need of professionals of his calibre.

In his Barrack-room Ballads, Rudyard Kipling said that “East is east and West is west, and never the twain shall meet”. While Anwar and Rosli may seem as far apart as the twain, there are more uncanny similarities between them than they ever realise.

Rudyard Kipling