Anwar Verdict: Bewildering Justice

Justice Ariffin Jaka finds Anwar guilty, 12 years to the day after Lord President Salleh Abas was sacked

The 8th of August has a special significance to thinking, caring and feeling Malaysians. It will forever be remembered as a shameful and scandalous day for justice.

Twelve years ago, on this day of infamy, the Lord President of Malaysia Tun Salleh Abas was sacked from his office. The dismissal of Tun Salleh was perceived by the general public as a travesty of justice for the allegations against him were totally ludicrous. The composition of the Tribunal itself - that found Tun Salleh guilty - raised a basic question of its integrity.

Twelve years later, it would appear that things are not very different and little, if any, has changed. Observers of history must be forgiven if they are revolted by the repetition of a similar event.

It is in this context that Aliran views Anwar's guilty verdict which has left all thinking Malaysians bewildered and confounded.

They would find it difficult to accept how a guilty verdict could be handed down in the face of glaring discrepancies.

Questions of integrity were left hanging, controversies surrounding the year and date regarding the commission of the crime had not been laid to rest beyond a reasonable doubt, the truth of the allegation raised contentious questions especially after the so-called victim had admitted on three occasions in an earlier trial that he was not sodomised and there was no corroborating evidence to sustain the allegation.

Rightly or wrongly, the common perception is that the allegation did not deserve to be prosecuted further after the purported dates for the alleged commission of the offence kept on changing from 1994 to 1992 and finally to one night between January and March 1993. In the light of this Anwar will forever be seen as a victim of a political conspiracy. This perception, notwithstanding the court decision, will persist and haunt our sense of justice.

More than imprisoning a politician the verdict has dealt a deadly blow to justice itself. Instead of arresting the erosion of public confidence in the system of justice, it has a tendency to undermine our concept of justice even further.