Anwar goes for broke in his high stakes political poker game
Instead, from the time this current meeting started on June 23, the House jazzed, rapped, rocked but almost didn’t steadied, a cumbersome anchor sinking tightly to its legs to coerce a lopsided gait. Call it the House of Cards built precariously on the furious tempo of a high stake, no-limit political poker game. At the current bet, the action is on the tremulous BN majority to raise tremendously the ante that rode on the sensational arrest of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim yesterday.
As insurance, the BN 140-82 majority had injected “add-ons” – buying more chips before they get busted to rebuy themselves into this poker game while holding a perceived weak hand of deuces against the seemingly diamond flush of the Pakatan Rakyat. The appeasement of Sabah MPs the other month with extraordinary funding and promises of better representation was a crucial “add-on” after the Sabahans diced with the idea of shifting loyalties to the other galvanised political divide.
And so goes the BN strategy of trying to outfox and out-bet the Pakatan Rakyat in the national political casino that sometimes doubles up as the People’s Hall. Inevitably, the players who win are always players with the toughest nerve, the dullest poker face and the unchecked guts to bluff their way and deceive opponents into thinking they have lost. Victory on a losing hand is very satisfying but the bragging rights soon after are also intoxicating. But in big-time poker, just like in big-time politics, nothing is what it seems, everything is to play for and nobody wins until the one player goes for broke and bets everything on the table.
After he was released on police bail this morning, Anwar counter-attacked strongly with allegations that he was the victim of a “vendetta”, claiming that his arrest was designed to destroy his ambitions of seizing power. The way he was arrested also evoked a sense of déjà vu – a big team of police officers, balaclava-wearing cops carrying automatic weapons, a sodomy charge (though no charge of corruption since Anwar is not in Government) and thousands of supporters willing to be water-cannoned, tear-gassed, bludgeoned and dragged into jail for his sake.
Anwar’s outrage was a piece of his classic counter-provocations: “Dumped in a cell to sleep on a cold cement floor with nothing…that has exacerbated the (back) pain,” he told an earlier Press conference. “I don’t deserve this. No Malaysian deserves this. Why treat me like a major criminal? They have seen all my private parts. Of course I refused to be photographed; it could be on YouTube very soon!”
What about this subtle inveighing of police serving the Section 111 Criminal Procedure Code notice: Police had demanded Anwar’s presence at Federal Territory police headquarters at 2pm Monday but they however served him on Sunday an ex-parte court order prohibiting him from physically being within 5 km from Parliament on Monday. “My house and the police HQ are within 5 km radius from Parliament building. The court order effectively put me under house arrest on Monday and at the same time prevented me from going to the police headquarters!”
Anwar stoutly defended his decision NOT to give a DNA sample during his medical examination last night at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital, claiming that fabricated DNA evidence had been used against him at his turbulent sexual misconduct/power abuse trials in the late 1990s.
However, Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar refused to absorb Anwar’s punches staggering like a punch-drunk boxer, opting to parry all punches and counterpunch with raking efficacy and defend every police action that was deployed. In his rendezvous with reporters at the Parliament lobby, the Minister insisted that every police made the arrest by the book, including pre-empting the 2pm deadline Anwar should report to police by an hour to “avoid any untoward incident.”
Syed Hamid pointed to police’s bad experience when they tried to serve him a Section 111 Criminal Procedure Code notice last Sunday, prevented from doing so by Anwar’s battery of bodyguards. “If police forced themselves, there will an incident again and the Government will be blamed. When we left the notice to his security guards, they (the lawyers) used the technical excuse that the notice must be served personally to him. So how do you avoid being involved in a scuffle and unruly behaviour?” went Syed Hamid’s entreaty.
Syed Hamid alluded to the fact that Anwar’s blanket security included a seven-vehicle convoy every time he went for an outing. “He was very well protected. By doing what the police did, they avoided a scuffle. Anwar cooperated very well and we are satisfied with that.”
Here’s an interesting Syed Hamid denial: he denied knowledge of balaclava clad plain clothes policemen being deployed to arrest Anwar, contending that uniformed officers made the arrest. Citing that every possible convenience was afforded to Anwar, from medication to praying time, Syed Hamid conceded that Anwar was within his right to decline giving a voluntary DNA sample. “We cannot force a person for his DNA because under our law, if you want to take any intimate sample, you require consent from the person. Since we did not get his consent, so we did not proceed and he was brought back to his lock-up.”
However, Syed Hamid strongly felt that Anwar should had just submitted his DNA sample if “truth is what he seeks to establish”. Anwar retorted that the authorities still kept samples of his DNA from his previous trial if they desperately wanted a small piece of him. In a related House development, Syed Hamid was relieved that the long-awaited proposed DNA Identification Act was not tabled in the current meeting, convinced that if the Government had done so, the Opposition would have made a meal out of questioning the “dark motives” behind the political ramifications of the Act.
Syed Hamid did at least take a political dig on Anwar. “Unfortunately, instead of upholding the truth, Anwar turned the sodomy report against him into a political motivated incident. Everybody has registered in their minds that it is a political thing. I think politics have to be fought politically; we cannot use the law and order to fight politics. As far as the government is concerned, the last thing we are going to do is to put him in trouble because he is a possible candidate for Prime Minister.”
Demurring against Anwar’s claim that the sodomy charge was fully fabricated, Syed Hamid argued the government’s responsibility to ensure that public interest like the sodomy complaint as serious. “Otherwise, the complainant will feel that we have given preferential treatment just because of the personality. This is what we want to avoid.” Syed Hamid also shot down any theory of conspiracy. “If there is going to be a charge, the police must be satisfied with the investigation and the Attorney-General Office must be satisfied that it is a prima facie case. So it is at the investigation stage to establish criminality.”
Would the Anwar arrest, sparking yesterday ugly scenes of verbal whiplash across both sides of the political gorge in the House, be the moment that distinguishes the BN or PR, or both, as going for broke? As it stands now, the pivot on public opinion and outrage seems to be tipping towards Anwar and even if he has broken his bank, all he will lose is his liberty and perhaps the chance to contest a by-election while his loose coalition will be further entrenched in the political psyche.
However, for the BN to go for broke is a messy picture: losing means setting an alarming chain reaction where backing from traditional states like Sabah may slip to force the pendulum to swing to PR, breaking the decades-old dominant hold on the Federal Government or, to avoid a total collapse, force a snap general election, the odds worst than prior to March 8. But these are calculated conjectures plainly propagated by the political punditry and their ecosystem of probable outcomes.
Let’s switch the gambling metaphor into adducing out-of-this-world odds: Anwar may still be wily enough to endure the last throw of the dice by rendering himself as the ultimate sacrificial lamb – his likely indictment, torrid trial and virtual incarceration, if that’s what the authorities crave for, in return for a spanking new Pakatan Rakyat Federal Government. Anwar would come to terms that he won’t be Prime Minister as much as he would love to, but if the wife was to lead the coalition to an overpowering victory and geared to become PM, anything’s possible.
What are the odds the bookmakers will offer this outlandish outcome as the final result? 100-to-1? 1,000-to-1? 10,000-to-1? It’s heady days again in the land of hazardous political wagers.
Demurring against Anwar’s claim that the sodomy charge was fully fabricated, Syed Hamid argued the government’s responsibility to ensure that public interest like the sodomy complaint as serious. “Otherwise, the complainant will feel that we have given preferential treatment just because of the personality. This is what we want to avoid.”
Instead of shit coming out of his anus, it comes out of his mouth…..HYPOCRITE!
Comment by MT — Thursday, 17-07-2008 @ 22: 58.53
Spudhead will always be speaking nonsense ; there is no hope of otherwise. Police lockup can’t even provide aome sort of rough mattress for anyone in the lockup overnight? And M’sia is a civilized country? Such a person is not yet proven to be guilty ; he has not been convicted. And what about those mysterious death in lockups? And he is hand picked by imam Hadhari to be HM!
Comment by wits0 — Friday, 18-07-2008 @ 00: 14.22
“In his rendezvous with reporters at the Parliament lobby, the Minister insisted that every police made the arrest by the book, including pre-empting the 2pm deadline Anwar should report to police by an hour to “avoid any untoward incident.”
People have to understand that this police “arrest” is nothing more than a cover up to take physical evidence from Anwar. If Anwar were allowed to go home, he might have taken a shower and put on new clothes before he went to the police station. In which case, there would be no hair on his clothes. But by arresting him in front of his house and subsequently taking him to the hospital to be examined, it increases the chance that there will be more hair and other physical evidence that could be vacummed or scraped off the clothes and be used as evidence.
To collect evidence is therefore the reason for arresting Anwar before he could go to the police station voluntarily. Everything else is just so much hot air.
Comment by Liang1a — Friday, 18-07-2008 @ 10: 03.42
“When we left the notice to his security guards, they (the lawyers) used the technical excuse that the notice must be served personally to him. So how do you avoid being involved in a scuffle and unruly behaviour?” went Syed Hamid’s entreaty.”
The police could arrest Anwar but could not serve him with the notice? What nonsense is this? If the police were afraid that Anwar’s bodyguard would prevent the police from serving him with the notice, then they certainly could have send in 100 well-armed policemen to serve the notice. As it is, I doubt very much if Anwar’s bodyguards will physically prevent the policemen from doing their duties such as preventing them from entering Anwar’s house. They (Anwar’s bodyguards) would have to be very stupid to get into a gun battle with the police. And as far as I know, the first notice was left with Anwar’s daughter and not his bodyguard. I don’t think Anwar’s daughter would have gotten into a fist fight with the police let alone a gun battle. Therefore, there were absolutely no reason to base Hamid’s excuse that Anwar’s bodyguards will scuffle with the police.
And most of all, Anwar had already promised to go to the police station voluntarily. So why actually risk provoking some kind of incidence by arresting him? That is to say, if Hamid’s main concern is to avoid provoking any kind of incidence, then the rational thing to do is to give Anwar the chance to present him voluntarily at the police station, and not to sent out a squad of storm troopers to arrest a highly respected senior politician thus risking the chance that his followers might try to defend him and so provoke an incidence. The fact that the “arrest” went without incidence is due entirely to Anwar’s peacefulness and not due to the provocative action of the police who obviously did everything they could to provoke a fight.
From this it can be seen that Hamid’s double talk is just nonsense that fools nobody. The truth is Hamid did his damnednest best to provoke an incidence. Therefore, Hamid is a liar.
Comment by Liang1a — Friday, 18-07-2008 @ 10: 22.01
, Syed Hamid conceded that Anwar was within his right to decline giving a voluntary DNA sample. “We cannot force a person for his DNA because under our law, if you want to take any intimate sample, you require consent from the person. Since we did not get his consent, so we did not proceed and he was brought back to his lock-up.”
Suppose there is a cut on Anwar’s body somewhere. Let’s say he has a cut on his finger or foot. If he handled a cup or walk on the floor barefeet, then he would leave blood samples on the cup and floor. The police can then scrape these blood stains off the cup and floor and plant them on Saiful’s underpant and use that as evidence.
If the police did not announce before that they had DNA evidence and then suddenly announce that they now do have DNA evidence, it is obvious where they got the evidence.
Comment by Liang1a — Friday, 18-07-2008 @ 10: 30.45
Syed Hamid did at least take a political dig on Anwar. “Unfortunately, instead of upholding the truth, Anwar turned the sodomy report against him into a political motivated incident. Everybody has registered in their minds that it is a political thing. I think politics have to be fought politically; we cannot use the law and order to fight politics. As far as the government is concerned, the last thing we are going to do is to put him in trouble because he is a possible candidate for Prime Minister.”
Everybody thinks it is a political thing because it IS a political thing. And the best way for Anwar to “uphold the truth” is to expose the political nature of this witch hunt. While Syed Hamid is sanctimoneously claiming that law and order cannot be used to fight political battles, yet this is precisely what he and UMNO are doing. They can’t fight Anwar politically. So they now use police to frame him with a crime. For shame, Syed Hamid! For shame!!!
Comment by Liang1a — Friday, 18-07-2008 @ 10: 38.06
Demurring against Anwar’s claim that the sodomy charge was fully fabricated, Syed Hamid argued the government’s responsibility to ensure that public interest like the sodomy complaint as serious. “Otherwise, the complainant will feel that we have given preferential treatment just because of the personality.
If Najib or Badawi were charged with sodomy, I’m sure the police definitely will give preferential treatment to these people because of the “personality.” In fact, the police is dragging their feet over the Altatunya murder case while duressing Bala to exclude Najib in any involvement. This is obviously giving preferential treatment to Najob just because he is the Deputy Prime Minister. So where is the justice and truth about not giving preferential treatment to personalities? It’s all a lie!
Comment by Liang1a — Friday, 18-07-2008 @ 10: 44.15
“If there is going to be a charge, the police must be satisfied with the investigation and the Attorney-General Office must be satisfied that it is a prima facie case. So it is at the investigation stage to establish criminality.”
Is this guy kidding? The head of police and the head of the prosecutorial office are the same two guys who were directly involved in Anwar’s first sodomy case who investigated and gathered evidence and prosecuted Anwar. If nothing else, these two guys should recuse themselves to avoid suspicion and conflict of interest. Especially, since Anwar had filed law suits against them. (I’d say it is a conflict of interest when they can put Anwar away and so prevent his law suit against them. In other words, they have a vested interest in putting Anwar in jail to save their own skin.) Yet these same two guys are now heading the police and the prosecutorial office who are investigating Anwar and in due time prosecuting him. This is just about as bizarre as it can get.
Of course, these two guys are busily manufacturing evidence to turn the frame-up into a “prima facie” case with all the evidence taken from Anwar’s body during the detention.
Comment by Liang1a — Friday, 18-07-2008 @ 10: 54.16
“So it is at the investigation stage to establish criminality.”
The criminality will be established, all right. No doubt about it. The head cop and the head prosecutor will see to that. What a joke!
Comment by Liang1a — Friday, 18-07-2008 @ 10: 56.30
to avoid a total collapse, force a snap general election, the odds worst than prior to March 8. But these are calculated conjectures plainly propagated by the political punditry and their ecosystem of probable outcomes.
The way things are in Sabah right now, a snap election will tip the balance toward SAPP and DAP which will sweep Sabah into the opposition. O, how Datuk Yong will love a snap election right now.
Comment by Liang1a — Friday, 18-07-2008 @ 11: 00.26
“but if the wife was to lead the coalition to an overpowering victory and geared to become PM, anything’s possible.”
If Anwar is jailed again, then the sentiment will definitely swing toward his wife. And if the PR wins the government, then his wife will most likely become the new prime minister. And with her prime ministerial power, she can order a new trial to catch all the scumbags to find who had organized the frame-up and planted the evidence. Then Anwar will be freed and take over the government becoming the prime minister after all.
In the end, everything depends on the sentiment of the people. If the people judged that UMNO-BN had played fast and loose, then they will slap them down and give the government to PR. This is how democracy works where the will of the people is the last word.
Comment by Liang1a — Friday, 18-07-2008 @ 11: 06.58
What are the odds the bookmakers will offer this outlandish outcome as the final result? 100-to-1? 1,000-to-1? 10,000-to-1? It’s heady days again in the land of hazardous political wagers
The truth is Malaysian people are sick and tired of all the corruption and lies and the inflation and the economic stagnation and the racist hatred and a thousand other unpleasant things that are going on in Malaysia. And they are also tired of the witch-hunting of this unending attack on Anwar who seem to be the only one who knows anything about reducing inflation and improving the economy and establishing racial harmony.
Obviously, the UMNO-BN still have many corruption tricks they can play, but if the will of the people is what will ultimately decide what will happen, then my bet is on Anwar - 90%.
Comment by Liang1a — Friday, 18-07-2008 @ 11: 13.09