IT'S SODOMY AGAIN

About 10 years ago, Anwar Ibrahim, our Deputy Prime Minister, was arrested and imprisoned for charges of sodomy and corruption against him. These series of actions were claimed to be political motivated as its purpose was to eliminate the increasing support and influence of Anwar in the ruling government at that time. The ‘Reformasi’ (Reformation) movement was born as to protest the arrest of Anwar Ibrahim and later, this movement by the coalition of different parties formed the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) or the People’s Justice Party.

The PKR was then led by Anwar’s wife, Wan Azizah, a tough and independent lady who has strong faith that one day, justice will release her husband despite many obstacles and difficulties that are unpredictable. Her dream was finally fulfilled as we could see her happiness when Anwar won in the Permatang Pauh by-election and he was appointed to be the opposition leader of the Pakatan Rakyat (People’s Alliance), a coalition of PKR, DAP and PAS.

Today, Anwar was alleged for the sodomy trial again. This 63 year-old opposition leader was accused of sodomising his ex-political aide, a 24 year-old young man named Saiful. Despite many critiques controversial issues about this case, either nationally or internationally, the powerful prosecutors are still able to handle the professional defense counsels led by prominent criminal lawyer Karpal Singh, who is also the Chairman of the DAP. Although the defense team had tried their best to appeal and apply for the rightful evidence, they are still unable to obtain any point of advantages from the fair judge.

Looking at the current situation, many people worry that the history will repeat itself, even though they ask the same question among themselves,
'How does an old man sodomise a young man?’

That is the voice of the people.

PR's CHALLENGE

When the Perak Sultan used his power to manage the religious matter, it is clearly shown that this affair was directly against decision of the Menteri Besar of Perak, Nizar and this led to the dissatisfaction of the DAP chairman, Karpal Singh. After that, he made a statement which caused him into trouble. He claimed that in his opinion as a lawyer, the Perak Sultan should not carried out his duty in that improper way. Until today, more than 20 police reports were made to put him under investigation. No doubt, in our constitution, the Sultan of each state has the right to manage any of the religious matter. However, as a prominent lawyer, there must be reasons for him to say something which would affect the cooperation of the People's Alliance (Pakatan Rakyat). This is because a majority of people misunderstood his intention to voice out his personal view.

As many can see, many Malays were not contented with him and parties like Keadilan and PAS would have to be extremely careful in handling this problem so that their cooperation with DAP would not cause them to lose support from Malays. In this critical period, we can see many BN leaders took this opportunity to accuse Pakatan leaders for not respecting Sultan and his authority. Obviously, we know why they did this. Therefore, Pakatan Rakyat would have to get ready to face any possible challenge in future by strengthening its coalition of different parties.　

That is the voice of the people.

WORLD-CLASS PARLIAMENT

In the General Elections 2008, Pakatan Rakyat (coalition of PKR, DAP and PAS) won 82 (31, 28 and 23) seats to deny BN's two-thirds majority in Parliament. BN only won 140 seats out of 222 parliamentary seats. BN candidates who were defeated by PR include Acting President of Gerakan Dr Koh Tsu Koon, MCA Vice President Donald Lim, MCA Wanita Deputy Chair Chew Mei Fun, MIC president S. Samy Vellu as well as PPP President M. Kayveas. PR also won key parliamentary constituencies located in the capital cities of several states such as Klang (Charles Santiago) Petaling Jaya Utara (Tony Pua Kiam Wee), Lembah Pantai (Nurul Izzah), Bandar Tun Razak (Khalid Ibrahim).

The first parliamentary meeting shocked all the Malaysians when words like 'Bigfoot' and 'Big Monkey' came out from the respective YBs while arguing with each other. As representatives of the poeple, they should be able to control and abstain themselves from committing sins with their mouths, for example, MP from Kinabatangan (BN- Bung Mokthar) and Pasir Mas (IND- Ibrahim Ali) should not insult MP from Bukit Gelugor (DAP- Karpal Singh) by ordering him to stand up and talk. And even after they were found guilty by doing so, they refused to apologize for their misbehave in the Parliament. If any of you could still remember, there are some NGOs who represent the disabled had made request to these MPs with the hope that they could admit their fault and promise not to offend the disabled again. However, their attitude were so bad that especially MP from Pasir Mas even shouted to them, saying that he will never apologize for he did nothing wrong. He even claimed that he did not know that MP from Bukit Gelugor could not stand when he made the statement that 'Yang Berhormat dari Bukit Gelugor telah melanggar peraturan mesyuarat kerana tidak berdiri semasa bercakap'. If you have watched the Parliament on the first day, you can see he even laughed after he stated this.

Obviously, these people did not receive any warning or punishment, even the opposition MPs have been appealing for many times. Their request did not get any clear respond from the fair and just Parliament Speaker, Tan Sri Pandikar Amin from BN government. This matter should be taken into further consideration and immediate action should also be taken against these MPs so that they would learn how to behave themselves well while serving the people. Otherwise, they will remain like naughty kids who know nothing but create troubles and problems.

That is the voice of the people.