PKR, PR and the Sex Video - Zharrif Azrai

Yes, government leaders at times insult the people's intelligence in justifying their actions. PR politicians too, as it is becoming clearer now, are not immune from doing the same thing in their efforts to defend Anwar's reputation. They may just end up damaging the opposition more than any sex video could. After all, governing a country is much too important to be left to unquestioning and uncritical devotees of a personality cult.

by Zharrif Azrai via e-mail

---

Just like the current sodomy trial, this latest Anwar sex video episode shows how polarised and close-minded people are along political lines and beliefs.

It is both amazing and amusing how so many people are incredibly and unbelievably quick to condemn and vilify the video without so much as a glimpse of it. The most sorry of this lot are the PKR and other PR politicians. Surely good sense and prudence dictate that they withhold any comment about the video's authenticity until and unless they themselves had seen it.

But, no, sirrreee. They rushed in with denials which can only be explained by a belief on their part that their leader is a person blessed with infallibility and thus sheltered from the usual human frailties to commit any form of sin. On the planet that they dwell, Anwar Ibrahim is a chaste saint, truly a gift from God to the people from Malaysia. All their critical faculties go out through the window and there is no space within their sensibilities to ponder that maybe, just maybe, their leader may not be what he seems or claims to be. Because of this ingrained attitude, just as the sun can be predicted to rise from the east, they too can be predicted to meet any accusation of wrongdoing against Anwar with their own unsupported, unsubstantiated and increasingly wild conspiracy theories of how their saintly leader is being unfairly targeted. It's beginning to sound like the droning of a broken record – and getting tiresome.

The crucial point here is not the video itself, the veracity of which is unknown until it is seen by a wider audience. The point here is the manner in which the PR politicians are responding to this latest challenge. In being so blindly and stupidly devoted to the line that 'Anwar Ibrahim can do no wrong' and so blinkered by their hatred by Umno that they cannot think objectively any more, they risk disenchanting the voters, even the ones who are not necessarily pro-BN.

Yes, government leaders at times insult the people's intelligence in justifying their actions. PR politicians too, as it is becoming clearer now, are not immune from doing the same thing in their efforts to defend Anwar's reputation. They may just end up damaging the opposition more than any sex video could. After all, governing a country is much too important to be left to unquestioning and uncritical devotees of a personality cult.



ZHARRIF AZRAI

Anwar's Sodomy Trial: A response to Nik Nazmi - Zharrif Azrai

One undeniable fact is that PAS has been rather silent about it. And that silence, as Zaid had pointed out, is rather deafening. Such was Nik Nazmi's defensiveness over this that he came quite close to claiming to be a spokesperson for PAS with regard to the party's stand over recent revelations in the sodomy trial. Sorry, sir, we would rather wait for a PAS person to speak up about this.

by Zharrif Azrai via e-mail

---

Nik Nazmi's response on 16 March to Zaid Ibrahim's advice to Anwar Ibrahim about giving up his DNA sample appears to be an overreaction and surprisingly defensive.

He claims that Zaid while in PKR had enthusiastically advocated that the case against Anwar was made up. Very conveniently and self-servingly, Nik Nazmi had neglected to provide the instances as to exactly when and where Zaid had done so. Suffice it seems that Zaid was a party member and all PKR party members have to close their minds and subscribe to the dogma that Anwar is being framed. Any sense of objectivity or objective opinion in viewing the Anwar sodomy trial apparently is considered an act of heresy. What a fine progressive political organisation PKR is turning out to be.

What Zaid has advised of Anwar is shared by many other people. Zaid is right when he said should Anwar be unwilling to volunteer facts that can clear his name, it will be difficult for the majority of the rakyat to swallow. It's no use for Nik Nazmi to paint people who hold such a reasonable opinion to be of the same level as Perkasa or GAP or what not. He should learn to distinguish the message from the messenger.

One undeniable fact is that PAS has been rather silent about it. And that silence, as Zaid had pointed out, is rather deafening. Such was Nik Nazmi's defensiveness over this that he came quite close to claiming to be a spokesperson for PAS with regard to the party's stand over recent revelations in the sodomy trial. Sorry, sir, we would rather wait for a PAS person to speak up about this.

As for other matters related to the trial that Nik Nazmi took exception in his statement, they have all been dealt with during the trial. The full court transcripts show that proceedings have been quite unlike what Anwar's followers have tried to hold it out to be. Defence lawyers have had every chance to cross-examine witnesses and challenge their credibility and the evidence thus far adduced. Yes, on some occasions the court ruled against the defence but in others, the court did rule in its favour. It's this latter fact that people like Nik Nazmi and PKR have so studiously ignored or glossed over in their efforts to equate sodomy I with sodomy II in the public perception.

They seem to forget that such efforts appear quite dishonest and futile when unlike sodomy I where the defendant actually was deprived of every possible avenue for clearing his name, in sodomy II, as Zaid Ibrahim pointed out, he has a very good opportunity to do so.



ZHARRIF AZRAI