I think I have probably said this before, but I find it interesting/strange/concerning that the major newspapers are actually owned by the different political parties. For example, the main English daily in KL was owned by the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) which is part of the ruling BN coalition. The editor of the main Malay newspaper owned by the United Malay National Organization (UMNO), the main component of the BN government, actually said that his main job was to support the party (silly me, I though that a newspaper's job was to accurately report the news. You know, "we report, you decide".) Thus, you had to be aware of the inherent bias of each of the news sources while reading them. Information on the web received less governmental control, so most of the information criticizing the government was published on on-line news site and blogs.
Originally, I was interested in going into the details of a number of stories, but now I have decided that these may not be off too much interest to outsiders and that anyone in Malaysia would have heard more about these stories than they ever wanted to. Instead I will focus on the major ongoing story in the Malaysian news.
Anwar Ibrahim
By far the most interesting (and bizzare) stories in Malaysia involve Anwar Ibrahim. For the secoind time Anwar, the leader of political coalition that is in opposition to the current Malaysian government and former Deputy Prime Minister, is on trial for sodomy (a sexual act "against the order of nature"). Anwar was convicted at the end of his first trial and was imprisoned for several year before the conviction was overturned. In 2008 he was accused of sodomizing an male aide so he is currently on trial for this offense. Anwar claimed that he was innocent of all charges and there are many people who believe that the charges have been orchestrated by government officials to remove Anwar as a threat for political power.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anwar_Ibrahim
Sodomy II
The best concise descrition of the whole episode that I can find is in the article linked below. Please do not read this if you are a kid or easily offended because the details are quite graphic.
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/sodomy-ii-evidence-testimony-and-anwars-defence/
Some highlights of the case.
The accuser, a 20-something guy named Saiful, claims that he did not go to the bathroom or change his underwear until he went to the police two days after the alleged event so the evidence was still in place
Some of the police work related to the collection, storage, and analaysis of DNA evidence reminds me of the Keystone Cops (it is clear that the Malaysian police have never watched CSI).
At the beginning of the trial, Saiful was allegedly having a romantic relationship with a female lawyer who was part of the prosecution team. She eventually was removed from the team.
Key evidence that was originally excluded because it was apparently collected illegally has now been allowed to be introduced.
The way the Malaysian legal system works is that the prosecution presents their case and if the judge is convinced that the evidence is good enough to support the charge, then he will order the accused to present their defense. Last week the judge ordered Anwar's legal team to present their defense starting in June. I will have to follow the trial via long distance.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anwar_Ibrahim_sodomy_trials
Anwar Sex Tape
But wait, this story is going to get even better. A few months back someone, known only as "Datuk T", invited a select group of journalist to meet at one of the most exclusive and expensive hotels in KL to view a video allegedly showing a leading member of the political opposition having sex with a female Chinese prostitute (I am not sure how anyone knows that she is Chinese and not Malaysian-Chinese, but she is always claimed to be Chinese. I guess that means that there must be no Malaysian prostitutes).
According to reports in the Malaysian Insider- Datuk T said the person who found the video, only identified in a statement as “The Insider,” was instructed to head back to the hotel to look for the watch after the politician had left the hotel. “Upon close inspection, I found four well-hidden CCTV cameras”.
During the screening this morning, Datuk T said he wanted the media to watch the footage showing the politician before sending the copy to him and his wife “to identify the person in the video” a week from now. If he and his wife do not resign, then we will call for an independent panel of NGOs to conduct a forensic investigation into the video,” he said after the video was screened.
Not surprisingly, the person allegedly shown in the video was claimed to be Anwar (whose wife and daughter are both invovled in politics) so he in involved in yet another scandal.
Datuk T turned out to be a trio of men who either had past ties to the UMNO political party, were involved in pro-Malay NGOs, or otherwise have interesting pasts. They claimed that they had turned over the only copy of the video to the police for further investigation.
(But wait, the story gets better).
Soon a short edited version of the tape (excluding all of the naughty parts) appeared on You Tube. The video showed the man and women dressed in towels and showed that their was a third man in the room with them. This video had a strip across the bottom with word written in Thai saying "Phaholyothin Road Bangkok, Thailand 10400, Copyright 2011"). Was the video shot in Malaysia as claimed by Datuk T or was it filmed in Thailand? Were Datuk T lying when they said that they had returned the only copy of the video to the police or were the police somehow involved in leaking the video (plot thickens).
As this was going on members of the opposition party started to claim that it was not the people photographed in the video who should be in trouble, but instead that Datuk T should be prosecuted for showing pornographic material. So far the police have not prosecuted Datuk T.
Of course it didn't take too long for the full, unedited version of the video to be released including all of the "naked details" (still noone knows who is responsible for leaking the video). Now everyone can decide for themselves- is it, or isn't it Anwar. Not surpringly, Anwar supporters are convinced that it is not him while many people sympathetic to the government have claimed that it is Anwar in the video. The man in the video celarly has man-boobs and a fat belly so Anwar claims it can not be him because he is thin and trim. It has been very sad to have to watch Anwar's wife and daughter have to address questions about whether or not they think that it is their husband/father in the video.
In order to prove that they are not lying, a couple of the Datuk T guys went to the mosque and swore an oath on the Koran. They challenged Anwar to do the same; he has declined. Apparently, there were worried that they might be at risk from Anwar's supporters they wore bullet-proof vests under their clothes when they went to the mosque. Now some Muslim religious leaders want them to be prosecutd because it was improper to wear a bullet-proof vest in a mosque.
The police, of course, have investigatged the issue fully. They now claim that they have determined the identity of the man in the video and that they will reveal his identity when it is proper to do so. And so we wait.
I look forward to the exciting conlcusion of this story.
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