By Lim Kit Siang blog This is the third DAP SSS (Support Sympathy Solidarity) Anwar Ibrahim Ceramah, the first in Taman Cheras Jaya in Selangor on Sunday and the second at the Han Chiang School Hall in Penang last night.
DAP proposes to organize hundreds of SSS Anwar ceramahs, vigils, gatherings and events throughout the country in the next three years before the 14th General Elections with 3Save objectives – firstly, to save Anwar from prison, secondly to save Pakatan Rakyat from disintegration and thirdly, to save Malaysia from becoming a “failed state”.
Anwar has exhausted the judicial process and lost out when the Federal Court returned a shocking 5-0 unanimous decision to dismiss Anwar’s appeal, as even the most pessimistic about Anwar’s chances believing that he would lose in the Federal Court appeal had expected either a 3-2 verdict or at worst a 4-1 decision.
Everybody was floored by the unanimous 5-0 decision. There were not only no dissenting judgment, there was no other judgment from the five-member Federal Court quorum, apart from the single judgment by the Chief Justice, Tun Arifin Zakaria!
Anwar may have lost in the courts of the Malaysian judiciary, but he has won two battles in the first week of his five-year jail sentence – firstly, the court of public opinion in Malaysia and secondly, the court of international opinion, as it will not be easy to find another Federal Court judgment in the past two decades which had met with such instant universal condemnation, not only inside the country but also outside.
Foreign governments like United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Germany, Switzerland (which declared that it would raise Anwar’s jailing at the next meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva), the European Union; international legal, parliamentary and human rights organisations like the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, International Federation for Human Rights, LAWASIA and the Law Council of Australia and international press like Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal and the Economist have all spoken up to condemn the Federal Court decision.
Anwar’s case ranks with two other cases in Malaysia as the top trio which embodied the greatest travesty of justice.
The second case is the murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu.
The latest news in Malaysiakini today is about former police commando Sirul Azhar Umar, who is a fugitive in Australia from the hangman’s noose after being found guilty together with another former police commando Azilah Hadri, of the 2006 murder of Altantuya, whose remains were blown up with C4 explosives.
Malaysiakini reported that in a telephone conversation, Sirul said he is considering the possibility of “telling all” about the murder of Altantuya Shaariibuu, as he was “acting under orders” in the murder of Altantuya and “the important people” with motive to murder Altatunya “are still free”.
Although the courts did not establish the motive for the murder of Altantuya when convicting Sirul and Azila of the murder and handing down the death sentence for both, public interests demand that the motive for the Altantuya be probed and established as both police commandos have not known Altantuya in the first place and have no motive of their own to kill her.
I belive that most Malaysians believe that if Sirul and Azila have to be sent to the gallows for the murder of Altantuya, it will be a gross travesty of justice if the “mastermind” of Altantuya’s murder gets away scot-free as this “mastermind” must join Sirul and Azila in the death row.
The third case is the death of DAP aide Teoh Beng Hock at the MACC headquarters in Shah Alam on July 16, 2009, which remains a mystery as nobody believed that Beng Hock had any cause or reason to commit suicide by jumping off the 14th floor of MACC headquarters to his death.
I stand by what I said at Teoh Beng Hock’s fifth death anniversary, that he was killed by person or persons unknown and his killers are still large, and justice demand that Beng Hock’s killer or killers be identified and brought to justice.
The first objective SSS Anwar campaign is to “Save Anwar” who is facing ten-year political oblivion, i.e. five years of jail sentence followed by another five years of disenfranchisement of his civil rights, where he could not stand for elective office or even to exercise his constitutional right to vote.
If the voters stand united and vote out the UMNO/Barisan Nasional from Putrajaya in the 14th General Election and the Pakatan Rakyat forms the new Federal Government of Malaysia, then the conditions will be there for Anwar to regain his freedom and even to fulfil his destiny as the Prime Minister of Malaysia.
The second SSS Anwar objective is to “Save Pakatan Rakyat”. UMNO strategists see the death of Tok Guru Nik Aziz, as the opportunity to revive their “Unity Government” (UG) proposal to destroy the Pakatan Rakyat, as during his lifetime Nik Aziz had uncompromisingly opposed any idea of UG.
This is why UMNO and BN leaders want the Chempaka by-election to be uncontested purportedly as a mark of respect for Nik Aziz while they will go out in the Permatang Pauh parliamentary by-election in Penang.
This is indeed a most astounding turn of events, for UMNO to talk about showing respect to Nik Aziz when for 23 years, UMNO and Barisan Nasional had discriminated against the PAS Kelantan state government in terms of infrastructure development, and the most heinous example is the denial of RM12 billion oil and gas royalty to the Kelantan State Government from 2005.
If UMNO really respects Nik Aziz, then Najib should immediately announce the return of the RM12 billion oil and gas royalty to the Kelantan State Government.
The return of RM12 billion of oil and gas royalty to Kelantan State Government would work out to returning RM7,000 per capita to the 1.7 million population of Kelantan, which is not a small amount considering that the per capita GDP at current prices of Kelantan is the lowest and poorest in the country – in the region of RM10,000.
The return of RM12 billion oil and gas royalty to Kelantan is more meaningful than just UMNO staying out of the Chempaka state assembly by-election in Kelantan, as ther latter will only allow the UMNO conspirators to continue to hatch their strategies and plots to divide and destroy Pakatan Rakay by luring PAS with the temptations of “Unity Government”.
I remain very intrigued however as what the promoters of “UG government” really meant, when it is obvious to all that there is no unity in UMNO itself, with former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir going all out to topple Datuk Seri Najib Razak as Umno President and Prime Minister of Malaysia.
In fact, many are openly asking whether Najib could survive this year or even mid-year as Prime Minister in view of escalation of the internal UMNO campaign to bring him down from the highest office in the land.
To save Pakatan Rakyat, I have mooted the proposal of an Eight-Year PR Roadmap where the three PR component parties of DAP, PKR and PAS “return to basics” and reaffirm commitment to the two fundamental principles which had been the secrets of the PR success in the 2008 and 2013 General Elections – strict adherence to the PR Common Policy Framework which had formed the bedrock common principles of the three component parties in the coalition, and the operational principle of consensus regarding the Pakatan Rakyat Leadership Council as the highest policy-making body for PR.
If we stay loyal to these two fundamental principles, I am confident that PR stands a good chance of replacing UMNO and BN in Putrajaya in the 14th General Elections, creating the conditions for saving Anwar to enable him to meet his destiny as the Prime Minister of Malaysia.
The third SSS Anwar objective is to “Save Malaysia” from joining the ranks of a “failed state”.
Two days ago I met a Malaysian returning home from Singapore for the Chinese New Year holidays. There are about 400 employees in the Singapore office of Microsoft, and 80 per cent of them are Malaysians.
Other countries are scouring the world for talents to lure them to contribute to their national development, but for decades Malaysia had been driving away our talents and youths overseas because they cannot find comparative employment and recognition in their own country.
The continued educational, economic and environmental decline in the country, the worsening of racial and religious polarization with the rise of extremism, bigotry and intolerance and the unchecked deterioration of all the indices of good governance, are threatening to turn Malaysia into a new “failed state”.
We must not allow this to happen as Malaysia continues to hold the promise of greatness with the human talents from a plural society and the natural resources that we are blessed with – which is why Malaysians must unite for the third SSS Anwar objective to “Save Malaysia”.
(Speech at the third DAP SSS (Support Sympathy Solidarity) Anwar ceramah at Gurun, Kedah on Tuesday, 17th February 2015 at 10 pm)
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