KEADILAN DI MALAYSIAKINI: antara Lingam, Khalid dan MACC

Sehari dalam kemelut. Tidak ada lagi dalam dunia ini, politik jadi kopi dan teh. Untuk dihirup dan diluah. Dalam senario itu, ingatan dari Raja Muda perlis tentang budaya mob sesuai diikuti rapi. Manakala Zaid waktu beralih ke longgok pembangkang menyentuh tentang Anwar, lebih kurang seperti ini, "Baik jika Anwar kurangkan grandstanding". Kita ketagih selalu. Yang ketagih candu dan kafein satu hal, yang ketagih dengan stail mob, hal yang lain pula.

2. Politik dimainkan oleh beberapa kerat. Selebihnya adalah pelengkap, manakala majoriti adalah pengundi, turun untuk memangkah bila waktunya tiba. Tetapi suasana politik adalah irama yang dialun oleh orang politik. Mereka ghairah dan dahagakan kemenangan dan kuasa. Sekali sekala ada juga yang suka menyebut tentang keadilan.

Keadilan.

3. Menamakan parti sebagai keadilan, tidak semestinya memperjuangkan keadilan. Tonggak keadilan adalah Mahkamah. Tetapi oleh kerana sebarang keputusan mahkamah akan mewujudkan dua rasa, yang menang tentu gembira, manakala yang kalah akan kecewa, keadilan itu juga berwajah dua, hitam dan putih. Malang jika yang kalah bukan hanya kecewa malah marah. Anwar adalah contoh manusia yang sudi jadi contoh. Dia kecewa dan marahkan mahkamah bila dipenjara. Beliau dalam sekelip mata memuji mahkamah bila dilepas dari tuduhan. Manusia dua rasa, seperti jua menu restoran ikan dua rasa.

4. Isu lingam menarik, kerana ada usaha ketara mengheret dan mencalar manusia sebelum asas-asas keadilan dilaksana. Maka terheretlah Hakim, pemimpin dan peniaga. Dalam mencari keadilan, kita lemparkan tuduhan dan hukuman sekali gus, sebelum neraca keadilan dipasang. Anwar berjaya menghakis kepercayaan terhadap kerajaan dan jenteranya, manakala Abdullah berjaya mencalar aura Mahathir. Namun Mahathir jarang tunjuk rasa kecewa, apatah lagi dengan permainan seperti itu.

5. Isu Khalid lebih menarik kerana ianya adalah terkini selepas siri-siri kejutan, bota, perak, nizar, zambry, sivakumar dan elizabeth wong. MACC mengeluarkan kenyataan bahawa ada bukti untuk dakwa Khalid berkaitan dengan lembu dan kereta. Dengan segera Anwar dan rakan-rakannya menyerang kononnya kerana MACC mendahului proses keadilan.

6. Dari satu sudut, tidak ada beza Lingam dan Khalid. Ada usaha menerangkan secara kasar dan ringkas latarbelakang kes, tanpa proses penghakiman. Tidak ada orang sudi membantu Lingam. Ramai pula menggelegak mempertahankan Khalid. Dengan laporan demi laporan yang telah dibuat dalam tempuh kemelut politik kini, adalah dipercayai ramai masih suka dengan proses keadilan yang ada. Juruvideo Lingam disanjung dan diusung ke Parlimen, manakala nasib jurugambar Elizabeth Wong belum tentu.

7. Isu Lingam dan Khalid wajar dilihat dalam perspektif yang sama. Sudahnya apalah yang dihairankan sangat. Kalau salah, salahlah, kalau betul, betullah.

8. Namun usaha membawa lembu ke perkarangan MACC adalah manifestasi kepada minda pejuang-pejuang keadilan.

9. Betul macam rakan kopitiam kata, ada bahaya bila lawyers jadi ahli politik dan ada bahaya bila tokoh agama jadi ahli politik. Erti keadilan dan agama disolek sedemikian rupa hingga ramai jadi terpesona dan terkeliru, kerana yang naive tidak sedar politics is an art of manipulative seduction. Hanya Don Juan yang tahu............


beritadarigunung

ACA has completed Lingam investigation

THE Anti Corruption Agency has completed its investigation into the case about judicial appointments and the New Zealand holiday that former chief justice Tun Eusoff Chin and lawyer Datuk V.K. Lingam had gone together.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Nazri Abdul Aziz said the New Zealand holiday case had been submitted to the Attorney-General's Chambers for further action.

The appointment of judges case was being studied by the ACA's senior federal counsel.

Nazri said this in a written reply to a question by Wee Choo Keong (PKR-Wangsa Maju) who asked about the action taken by the A-G's Chambers and the ACA on the recommendations made by the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the V.K. Lingam video clip.

ACA has completed Lingam investigation
New Straits Times

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Goes after his Nemesis

Jed Yoong

18 May 2008

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Goes after his Nemesis Ahmad Abdullah Badawi uses a royal commission report to try to neutralize former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad A royal commission investigation into judicial corruption in Malaysia has turned into a weapon in the struggle for primacy between Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and his rebellious predecessor and relentless critic, Mahathir Mohamad. The commission’s findings, which call for an investigation of Mahathir and other top officials for abuse of the judicial system, were first printed in The Star, the Kuala Lumpur-based daily controlled by the Malaysian Chinese Association, the second-biggest ethnic political party in the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition. Either Badawi or possibly Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, whom Mahathir has also loudly turned against, are widely believed to have used their own channels to leak the findings to the local media, which would never have dared use them without a wink and a nod from the government, since the charges strike at the very top of the United Malays National Organisation, the leading ethnic party in the coalition. Although Mahathir retired from power six years ago and had been largely regarded as a spent force for much of that time, he has begun a steady accretion of influence over the last two months, especially since disastrous national elections on March 8 that resulted in the worst showing for the Barisan Nasional since the country won independence five decades ago. The coalition lost its two-thirds majority in parliament for the first time and has been flailing ever since. The 82-year-old Mahathir, who has been in a state of outrage at Badawi almost since the time he left power, has turned up the heat considerably on his successor, demanding his resignation and seeking to form spheres of influence of his own within UMNO to rebuild his power and continue as a kingmaker. After first stalling for several days, (see: Asia Sentinel, May 15) the Malaysian cabinet Friday ordered the release of the report, which alleged that prominent government and judicial figures including the former prime minister were involved in the manipulation of appointments of top judges for political purposes. Along with the release of the report, the cabinet ordered the Attorney General, Abdul Ghani Patail to investigate those identified in it, including Mahathir. Mahathir reacted with typical brio, challenging the government to charge him and saying he welcomed the controversy. “I want them to charge me in court…if I am charged, then I can explain what I had done,” he told reporters in Kuala Lumpur. The report contains allegations of what had been reported since last September, when opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim made public an eight-minute segment of a 2002 videotape showing the well-connected lawyer VK Lingam in conversation with Ahmad Fairuz, Sheikh Abdul Halim, then the country’s third-ranking judge. The release of the videotape played a major role in energizing opposition to the ruling Barisan Nasional, the ruling national coalition of ethnic parties, in elections earlier this year that wiped out the coalition’s historic two-thirds majority and resulted in its biggest defeat since independence. The conversation appeared to indicate that Mahathir was closely involved in the appointment of malleable judges although appointments are supposed to be made by the court system itself. The videotape shows that some of Mahathir’s closest cronies, particularly gaming tycoon Vincent Tan, were involved as well. Ahmad Fairuz later became chief justice of the Supreme Court, now called the Federal Court. After weeks of stalling, during which its own “independent” inquiry commission investigated the allegations but never issued a report, the government finally acceded to the appointment of the Royal Commission of Inquiry. The five-person commission was first scheduled to report its findings on March, 11, but it was delayed. The panel agreed in a two-volume report that the video was authentic, that indeed Lingam was speaking with Ahmad Fairuz, and that there was sufficient evidence of misdoing to refer the matter for prosecution. Among those who could face charges, along with Mahathir, are attorney V K Lingam, Vincent Tan, UMNO Secretary General Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansur and former chief justices Ahmad Fairuz and Eusoff Chin, who was accused of taking a trip to New Zealand in Lingam’s company. Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mohamad Zaid Ibrahim said the six would be investigated on allegations of obstruction of justice as well as offenses under the Sedition and Official Secrets Acts. The question now revolves around what Abdul Ghani will do. Although Mahathir left power in 2002 in favor of Abdullah Badawi, the government is heavily populated with individuals appointed or selected by Mahathir during the latter’s 22 years in power, and Abdul Ghani is regarded as one of those most loyal to the former prime minister. It was Abdul Ghani, for instance, who served as chief prosecutor in 1998 in the trial of Anwar on charges of sexual perversion and corruption after Mahathir fired Anwar as deputy prime minister. The charges were widely regarded as trumped up by human rights organizations. Ever since Mahathir engineered the firing of the Tun Mohamad Salleh Abbas, the Lord President of the Supreme Court and two justices in 1988, the judicial system has remained largely in the thrall of UMNO politicians. Certainly, the courts and the justice system itself have shown little independence since that time. A case in point is the long-drawn-out trial of three men for the murder of Mongolian translator Altantuya Shaariibuu, who was shot in the head twice and blown up with explosives in October 2006. The three are the closest friend and two bodyguards of Deputy Prime Minister Najib. In a sworn statement Abdul Razak Baginda, Najib’s friend, confessed that he had gone to Najib’s chief of staff to ask the two bodyguards to take care of his jilted lover for him. But so far neither Najib nor his chief of staff has been asked to testify, and many questions remain over his involvement, or lack of it. The royal commission has also recommended that the government establish a Judicial Appointments Commission to take the power of judicial appointments back from political figures and to undertke a series of other reforms to clean up the system.

Mahathir will cooperate with Malaysian prosecutor

Mahathir will cooperate with Malaysian prosecutor

Sat May 17, 2008 6:00pm IST in.reuters.com

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia's former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Saturday he was willing to cooperate with the justice system in an inquiry over possible offences over the appointment of judges while he was in power.

The government on Friday ordered its chief prosecutor to investigate six people, including Mahathir and two retired top judges, for possible criminal offences relating to the 2001 judicial scandal.

"I welcomed any move to investigate me but don't give up half way and claim that there is no case against me," Mahathir, 82, told a gathering in the southern state of Johor.

"I want to go all the way to the court," said Mahathir, who retired in 2003 after 22 years in power and turned a bitter critic of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, his handpicked successor.

"Let me expose many other things in court. If I lose, I will accept whatever punishment," he added.

An inquiry set up to investigate the scandal found on Friday that a prominent tycoon and a former government minister were involved in a covert campaign to influence judicial appointments seven years ago.

The inquiry's 186-page report named tycoon Vincent Tan, who controls property-to-gaming conglomerate Berjaya Group and the then de facto law minister, Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, and a lawyer known as V.K. Lingam, Mahathir and the two judges.

Asked to comment on the report, Abdullah said: "The report recommends several actions that must be taken to further improve the judicial system in our country and other actions that we must also consider.

"So the question what action the government should take is best left to the government to implement." Continued...

Karpal: Who are the judges, Dr M?

Monday May 19, 2008 the star

PETALING JAYA: The remark by former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad that he would expose judges who came to him to lobby for promotion should not be ignored.

DAP national chairman Karpal Singh, who contacted The Star Sunday, said a tribunal should be set up to investigate these judges.

“I call upon Dr Mahathir to publicly identify the judges. If they are not identified, judges who are not guilty will be tainted with the same brush,’’ he said.

“On the other hand, those judges who are accused of lobbying should be given a chance to clear their name. In the public interest, he should let everyone know who are the judges involved.”

The Royal Commission of Inquiry into the V.K. Lingam video had recommended that Dr Mahathir and several other prominent figures be probed for allegedly being involved in a conspiracy to manipulate the appointment of judges.

Following the findings, Dr Mahathir said on Saturday that he was prepared to be charged in court so that he could reveal many things about the judiciary.

A political thing, says Gwo Burne

PETALING JAYA: The move to make public the Royal Commission Report is politically motivated, says Loh Gwo Burne, who made the V.K Lingam video clip.

Gwo Burne said yesterday that he believed it was a “political thing” that the report is being made open to the public.

He added it appeared everything was politically motivated, from the beginning of the commission until the present day, with no real attempt to get at the truth.

“Look how much society had to pressure for the Royal Commission to be set up in the first place,” he said.

The Kelana Jaya MP, however, disagreed that investigations should include former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad because he was “victimised” by the people who surrounded him and tried to influence his decisions.

When asked whether he intended to release more of what he recorded at Lingam’s house in December 2001, Gwo Burne said he did not intend to do so in the immediate future.

It was reported that he had stashed more video clips entitled VK1, VK2 and others, somewhere in China.

“It is definitely somewhere. I just have to go find it.”

His father, businessman Loh Mui Fah lauded the decision although he had some reservations.

“It’s a positive move to make the findings public, but the question is whether it is politically inclined.

“Based on the fact that the commission had deliberated and postponed the findings so many times, there could be public speculation that a complete picture would not be painted,” he said
... the star

BERITADARIGUNUNG

Cabinet wants Dr M and five others investigated

By SHAILA KOSHY and V.P. SUJATA

PUTRAJAYA: The Cabinet has agreed that investigations be conducted into all allegations against former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and five others identified in the Royal Commission of Inquiry report on the V.K. Lingam video clip.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Mohd Zaid Ibrahim said the five others were lawyer Datuk V.K. Lingam, tycoon Tan Sri Vincent Tan, Umno secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor and former Chief Justices Tun Eusoff Chin and Tun Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim.

Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail said he would go through the report before announcing whether he would be ordering a probe.

“I will study the recommendations in the report very carefully, after which I will issue a statement at the appropriate time.

“Please give us time to do our job properly,” he said.

Zaid said the six would be investigated for offences under the Sedition Act, Official Secrets Act and the Penal Code, which included obstruction of justice.

“All the recommendations in the report are advisory in nature so we have to have another investigation,” he said, adding that the Government had taken note of the recommendations for judicial reform and the establishment of a Judicial Appointments Commission.

“The Government is in the process of finalising the relevant laws to set up this commission and it will be made known soon,” he said, adding that the Government also proposed to include the recognition of “judicial power” as proposed by the Commission.

He said these moves were vital to help restore the people’s confidence in the judiciary.

The Cabinet, he said, had urged the public, including the media, to allow uninterrupted investigations without undue pressure and prejudice against any individual identified in the report.

“It must be reiterated that in our legal system, an accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law,” he told reporters at the Legal Affairs Division of the Prime Minister’s Department here yesterday.

The Royal Commission was formed to verify the authenticity of the video clip purportedly showing prominent lawyer Lingam on the phone brokering judicial appointments with a senior judge. Twenty-one witnesses testified at the 17-day inquiry which began on Jan 14.

Zaid also said that the Cabinet had agreed for the contents of the report to be released and sold to the public.

The report, which comes in four volumes comprising 2,889 pages, will cost RM541.60; of which the main report costs RM161.40 while the notes of proceedings, statutory declaration and lists of exhibits are priced at RM123.30, RM120 and RM136.90 respectively.

The public can buy the report at the Legal Affairs Division from Tuesday afternoon.

In its report, the commission said that the video clip, made by businessman Loh Gwo Burne, was indeed recorded at Lingam's house in December 2001.

It said it had no hesitation in finding that the clip to be genuine, real, reliable and trustworthy and its contents true in substance and material particulars.

In examining Lingam and Fairuz's testimonies, which they described as bare denials, against the direct evidence elicited from the phone conversation as well as the evidence of Gwo Burne and his businessman father Loh Mui Fah, the commission found that it was none other than Fairuz that Lingam was speaking to on the telephone.

The panel also said the evidence showed that Lingam was not intoxicated during the conversations, as he had suggested.

It added that the evidence also militates against Lingam's other suggestion that he could have been “bullshitting” or bragging.

The commission said that, in the final analysis, there was conceivably an insidious movement by Lingam with the covert assistance of his close friends Tan and Tengku Adnan to involve themselves actively in the appointment of judges, in particular that of Fairuz as Chief judge of Malaya and later Court of Appeal president.

In the process, the panel added that Dr Mahathir was also entangled.

While noting that the group's ultimate aim could not be ascertained, given the limitation of the terms of reference, the commission said it was reasonable to suggest that it could not be anything but self-serving.

The panel said the collective and cumulative actions of the main characters concerned had the effect of seriously undermining the independence and integrity of the judiciary as a whole... the star online

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