What really happened outside the KL High Court on the morning of Jan 9 will most probably remain deep in my memory. There were the loud and repeated cheers of ‘ bebas ’ across the sky, and the huge crowds who refused to leave the scene long after the not-guilty verdict had been delivered in a swift, brief and bewildering manner.

NONE Studying the faces around me - old, young, men, women, Malays, Indians, Chinese, foreigners and others, I saw excitement, but also hopes expressed in shivering voices.

Then the MPV that was carrying Anwar Ibrahim and his family was moving slowly past me. I instinctively clapped my hands when met with the smiling face of Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, and she waved at me with her usual warmth. She certainly did not know who I am, but it really does not matter, for her beaming eyes were full of happiness and gratitude, and to see her beloved husband vindicated was all that I had been praying for over the last few years - or even decade.

Indeed, the most moving scene I remember from the Monday verdict has to be the joyful face of Kak Wan. Anwar’s family has since 1998 been through an ordeal on extraordinary scale that not many are able to withstand. But it was Kak Wan who assumed the unenviable role of fulfilling her husband’s political dreams while keeping the family together.

wan azizah pc 080112 01 The Malaysian public has witnessed her steadfast leadership and also the healthy growth of her children against all odds. To me, she is no doubt the mother of the decade in the context of Malaysia.

I still remember vividly the first time I saw Kak Wan on TV back in 1998, when she spoke rather fearfully and haltingly of Anwar’s arrest and the excessive violence by the commando-style security men that had frightened an otherwise loving family.

Nurul Hana, Anwar’s youngest daughter, was left nearly unattended when the supporters struggled to prevent the arrest. Like her elder siblings, she is now a mature and confident young woman, toughened by the years of state persecution of her father.

Save for  the diehard Anwarists, everyone interested in Malaysian politics would have an issue or two with the former deputy prime minister, whose fall from grace has altered our political landscape beyond recognition. Conservatives may feel wary at his reformist agenda that could jeopardise Malay dominance, and a fair number of people still see him as nothing more than a political chameleon.

But there has to be a consensus if Malaysia desires to remain a stable and flourishing democracy, that our views may be varied, we are duty-bound to express them in peace and in accordance with law.

Blatant distortion of judiciary

Not Mahathir Mohamad, who exarcebated the already rotting judiciary with Sodomy I, and Najib Abdul Razak, who sought to consolidate his power and take the wind out of the Pakatan Rakyat's sails with Sodomy II. The blatant distortion of the judiciary was emboldened by police violence, and the naked and arrogant power of Najib’s administration served to alarm not only the domestic audience, but the international community also.

It is out of human nature that people disagree on issues, but against the human spirit to resort to undemocratic, draconian and despicable measures in order to resolve them.

NONE At the height of the Reformasi movement in 1998/99, Lee Kuan Yew ( left ) of Singapore, in a rare expression of his confidence in Mahathir’s toughness, remarked that street protests would be over in weeks, while Anwar would be forgotten once behind bars. He could not have been more wrong.

Between the controversial yet pragmatic Mahathir and the seemingly Islamist Anwar, Lee backed the former as the ‘lesser evil’, but it only shows that he had terribly underestimated the widespread resentment on the ground against Mahathir’s autocratic rule.

There was a sizeable number of young faces outside the KL High Court on Monday, and I could clearly tell this is a generation that has grown up in the shadow of gutter politics conceived under Mahathir’s autocracy.  

Most of the young Malaysians who thronged the streets in KL during the heyday of Reformasi have moved on, but another generation of youth has come of age and is ready to carry on the torch, such as the charismatic and articulate Adam Adli.

Thirteen years ago, the non-Malays saw Sodomy I as a ‘Malay issue’ of which they would do well to steer clear, but Umno’s shabby betrayal and profane abuse of power have finally dawned on them, and they too became as concerned about the court’s decision as others and saw it as a harbinger of the things to come.

Mahathir thought he could play god over the Anwar incident, but it backfired so horribly on him that he will never likely to recover from the infamy that he had gained with his iron fists.

It is therefore rich of Mahathir to say the non-guilty verdict this time proves no government conspiracy. The megalomaniac Umno veteran is certainly cunning and calculative, but smart he may not necessarily be, for he has just admitted - albeit tacitly - that he and his cohorts/cronies DID conspire to sentence Anwar to jail over Sodomy I.

No gratitude owed to BN

As I have argued before, Malaysians owe no gratitude to Barisan Nasional even in the case of acquittal, for the pursuit of legal action based on the flimsiest evidence should have been abadoned in the first place. That Umno under Najib had determined to prosecute Anwar only lends credence to the perception of the judiciary being beholden to the ruling authorities.

Those BN leaders who are in haste to praise Najib’s ‘reform agenda’ to the skies ought to be reminded that many are still waiting for Chua Soi Lek to be charged under Penal Code 377. I am not in favour of the archaic law, but it has to be applied fairly nevertheless if Najib would want the public to believe in his ‘reform’.

azlan And until and unless Mahathir is charged in court with abuse of power and corruption, the Malaysian judiciary will not be able to recover fully from its seriously tainted image.

That Najib has emerged a winner is also wishful thinking. People still remember how he and his wife were absent during the Altantuya murder trials, and the apprentice prime minister again eschewed facing the court of law in Sodomy II despite his own admission that he had met with the ‘victim’ prior to lodging the police report against Anwar.

And it is most probably Najib’s evasiveness and indecision that led to the last minute change of mind on the part of Zabidin Mohd Diah. Only in May last year, the trial judge had quashed the defence team’s attack on Saiful’s credibility, ruling that he found the accuser a ‘credible witness’ and dismissing claims that the DNA samples had been contaminated. Why the volte face?

Having relied on the discredited script by Mahathir, Najib suddenly found he was cornered, for the backlash following Anwar’s incarceration would be too enormous for him and his party to sustain. True to form, he stepped back and caved in to political realities, demonstrating for the first time he may no longer allow Mahathir to lead him by the nostrils.

Needless to say, the hawks within Umno will likely not take it lying down, and are now awaiting Mahathir or others to fire the first shot.

Controversially promoted

NONE Zabidin ( left ) might also have the late Augustine Paul and Arifin Jaka in mind when he was reading out the verdict. The duo were controversially promoted to the Court of Appeal just before Mahathir ‘retired’ in 2003, but they both died an unhappy man one after the other, with their names forever tarnished by the judicial persecution of Anwar.

Should the hawks in Umno fight back, I hope Najib would have the guts to face them down. But I must confess I am rather sceptical given his shifting character.

Having said that, any infighting within Umno will only hasten its implosion and subsequent demise, which again makes it imperative for Pakatan Rakyat to put its house in order before it is entrusted with the people’s mandate. Anwar and his party must also from now on ditch their victimhood and fight their opponents on merit and substance, and start to address the hopes and fears of a nation that is now hungering for change.

 

JOSH HONG studied politics at London Metropolitan University and the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. A keen watcher of domestic and international politics, he longs for a day when Malaysians will learn and master the art of self-mockery, and enjoy life to the full in spite of politicians.