Wee: Karpal believed in Anwar’s guilt

KUALA LUMPUR: Former PKR Wangsa Maju parliamentarian Wee Choo Keong continued with his attack on Karpal Singh, insisting in his latest blog posting that the latter believed Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim committed sodomy in 1997.

In his posting, Wee disputed Karpal’s open letter to the New Straits Times condemning the writer behind the article entitled “’The Taming of the Tiger of Jelutong”, Shamsul Akmar, who questioned Karpal’s credibility based on the same allegation.

Karpal, now the MP for Bukit Gelugor, was Jelutong parliamentarian in 1997. A year later, he became one of Anwar’s defence lawyer when the latter was sacked as deputy prime minister and slapped with sodomy charges which were later dropped on alleged technical reasons.

The article was published by the same English daily on Jan 9. Shamsul quoted the now-independent Wangsa Maju MP and several other former PKR federal lawmakers to prove his point that Karpal’s “stellar reputation” as the defender of justice is questionable.

Karpal avoiding the point

Karpal in an immediate response challenged Shamsul to report him to the Legal Profession Disciplinary Board if the latter had facts to prove he had committed any wrongdoing.

The DAP chairman also said the major players involved in Anwar’s first sodomy fiasco – former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, former Inspector-General of Police Rahim Noor and the Attorney-General (AG) at the time Mohtar Abdullah – had defended Anwar of sodomy allegations prior to his sacking.

“It can be clearly seen from the statements of Mahathir, Rahim and Mohtar that Anwar had been exculpated by these personalities of no mean rank of the allegations made against him,” he said.

But Wee said the response showed Karpal was sidestepping the allegation and failed to respond to the points raised – that he had openly said in party ceramah that he had evidence that Anwar was involved in sodomy in 1998 and that on Oct 22, 1997, he had accused the then deputy prime minister of sodomy in Parliament.

“These two glaring facts were enough to show that Karpal, who is also a lawyer, must have fully studied and was satisfied with the evidence he got from Azizan Abu Bakar, Ummi Halfilda Ali and others for him to pursue against Anwar and demanded that he was to be charged.”

‘Gutless tiger from the past’

Wee then pointed out that until another former PKR lawmaker, now independent Bayan Baru MP Zahrain Mohd Hashim, asked the current AG (Abdul Gani Patail) to subpoena Karpal as a witness in Anwar’s current and second sodomy trial, the lawyer had never made his position on the matter clear.

“He had never uttered that he was in full agreement with Mahathir’s and Rahim Noor’s (defence of Anwar prior to his sacking). Why now? I can only come to one conclusion: his sudden U-turn was consistent with his innate talent for politics of expediency.”

Calling him a “gutless tiger of the past”, Wee said Karpal should stop misleading Malaysians and “stop coming up with the indefensible to justify his U-turn for the sake of political expediency”.

Wee after his defection was the first to make the allegation against Kapal in a prolonged verbal war between him and leaders of Pakatan Rakyat The opposition coalition at the time was rattled by a series of defections by its lawmakers that triggered the altercation.

Four PKR lawmakers including Wee had defected, citing disillusionment with the party’s top leadership, particularly against its de facto leader, Anwar.