When Anwar Ibrahim is tried for sodomy — with impunity, I might add — for the second time after the Federal Court overruled the previous sodomy conviction, we are all on trial. We are on trial as ‘innocent’ bystanders who were standing by as the Opposition Leader of the nation is being persecuted again for his stand against corruption and injustice.

I know it’s presumptious to imply that all of us are guilty for allowing this treachery to persist. Indeed, many of the 28 million are children who are just too young to know the difference between Anwar and Najib, much less the meaning of politics and power.

Nevertheless, for those of us who were around (read, “demonstrating on the streets”) when the first conspiracy against Anwar Ibrahim took place, it is incumbent upon us so-called reform activists (or Reformists) to return from our comfortable zones and fight the war for Justice and Freedom.
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I find it rather ironic that on the day chosen to celebrate human rights in Malaysia, we hear of news that the police have used live bullets to disperse people who have gone to attend a ceramah in Kuala Terengganu. (As expected, the mainstream media have distorted the news. For a more balanced report, see Malaysiakini’s coverage.)

When I heard this news yesterday, I was at a Suhakam conference in Kuala Lumpur. The conference was entitled “Human Rights & Election”. The ceramah in Kuala Terengganu was organised by Bersih, a coalition for clean and fair elections, on 8 September – the eve of the Malaysian Human Rights Day.
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I was reading Malaysiakini the past couple of days and kept seeing reports about the judiciary – about the judicial rot and what needs to be done. In my honest and humble opinion, Mr. Param Cumaraswamy’s suggestion of a “stocktaking” exercise is not going to do the judiciary any good at all.

Come on, we all know where the rot starts from – the Umno hegemony of our political system. And that hegemony has spread its tentacles to the judicial system, the economic system and anything else that can help Umno stay in power and continue raking in the rakyat’s money.
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It is sad that the law in Malaysia has become what it is today.

One of the worst things about it is that the judiciary is no longer a counterbalance in the so-called doctrine of separation of powers. I say “so-called” because this doctrine does not apply in our beloved country.

As far as I’m concerned, the recent trial-by-media of Justice Gopal Sri Ram to be an insidious meddling of the judiciary by the invisible but powerful hand of certain quarters. I believe any intelligent Malaysian who knows a thing or two about the personalities involved in the case will know what I am talking about. And as far as I can tell, Justice Gopal Sri Ram is an excellent judge, although sometimes he may be a bit difficult to handle in court.
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