What's in a watch

A Swiss timepiece, they sometimes call it a chronometer sounding scientific, is a masterpiece of mechanics. It's only a watch but in political slander, it is enough to make it to prime time news, tainted newspapers taking it to town to run the story endlessly trying to make explicit innuendos and darn malicious accusations . It is all a farce and quite self deprecating, of course. This piece of time teller after being made out to be evidence of blazing thunder has gone out on a tiny whimper. This has belittled investigators, made our proud and much honourable police force the object of fun and ridicule and taken an ever sceptical public on a sham.

Coupled with baffling pronouncements by investigators who ought to know better on a much publicised video's genuineness, this piece of clock has run out of spinning time. The incredible story can't be spun anymore. Anyway the wristwatch was just an inanimate object which might just as well be a Petaling Street fake. The video as implied could well be smut made in Thailand, pardon the Thais for such Malaysian indulgence in lewd political overkills. Desperation has made insanity rule Malaysian media.

A watch tells the time. In the hands of normal, decent and innocent people, that is what it does. But scoundrels have other intentions and devious uses, intricate conspiracies, suggesting wicked insinuations and twisted stretched allusions. If only the Swiss masterpiece could speak up...but what's in a watch.

Vindictive "Toads"

My daughter overheard an interesting conversation while on a lift in First Avenue, a shopping mall in Penang. Three Malaysian Indians - 2 girls and a guy - were saying out loud, " What's this with all these sex videos". The guy said, " Pity the poor guy, Anwar Ibrahim". "They have been trying to get him all the time". One of the girls quipped, "Don't they know how his family feels? Don't they know how hurtful it is for them even though the whole thing is not true. All the Westerners are laughing at us now". The guy said, "We can't even do anything about it. There's one word for it - vindictive."

Malaysian mainstream news media are having a field day this time taunting Dr Wan Azizah. Even the questions fielded by reporters are getting rude and provocative but politely contained by Wan Azizah with calm but sharp ripostes. Editorials, opinion pieces and newspaper punchlines are trying to vilify and taint her reputation. Journalists have become lackeys and tools of a wicked and barmy political agenda. Cruel intentions and mala fide are obviously and lucidly portrayed in every title block, news item and even the choice of pictures used. Anything and everything is being unleashed to put down a truly good lady and a wonderful person for those who bother and care to know about the family.

Dr Wan Azizah was just a quiet doctor turned housewife to be with a husband who was once deputy prime minister. That was until her husband got sacked, dramatically arrested, beaten and pummelled in custody and then charged and harshly persecuted, imprisoned on dubious, slanderous and humiliating accusations. She had to stand in for her husband as the torch bearer of reform and that she did with excellence and beyond comprehension. At one of her earliest events in Kedah, she appeared meek and modest unable to speak impromptu even to a large and sympathetic public gathering. She has certainly improved much since then. She held the fledgling reformist political party in the worst of its moments. She stood tall although she was alone representing her party in Parliament after 2004 patiently parrying such abrasive behaviour from merciless fellow ruling party parliamentarians.

Whatever has Wan Azizah done to them?

The journalists may feel nothing wrong with all their persistent lying and deceit, twisting their tales, sensationalising circumstantial material and conjuring up any nook or cradle. Mainstream media has become heartless while seemingly forgetting that many Malaysians are not so. Their tactless and spineless editors have lost their habits of the heart. They are not listening and are not addressing to the conscience of the majority. They are not reporting real news and they are abdicating their moral responsibilities. They indulge in promoting mass ignorance and sheer foolishness. They shall leave their dirty marks on society, their writings are indelible, their TV shows are recorded and many shall curse them, in the end all of their work will be their bane.

They fit in like the toads in Parliament. First there are the political toads who jump party to party, clinging on to life and material support from the ruling party, of course. Then there the toads which are intellectuals with a grudge. These academicians sell themselves off as political hatchet men. All of them are held by a common trait as mentioned by the person in the First Avenue mall lift, "vindictiveness".

Wait se minit Minister!

Wait se minit Minister!

Hey, has the outspoken and abrasive minister done it again, flip flopping on the job! He has been too long on the job of being a political hatchet man instead of being an honest and fair representative of government. Are the tables being turned here? Suddenly they are in full reversal shying away from a commission of inquiry, rather relying on police investigations. Looks like the three stooges, oops , datuks are in for it now. However, it is still too early to tell looking at 13 years of conspiracies full of deviousness and vindictiveness.

Slander does not and will never work. Lying and deceiving to an educated and much informed Malaysian public is pretty dim witted and silly. In order to sustain such blatant lies, more incredible feats have to be created and perpetuated until the whole thing becomes bare, exposed, untenable and collapses on the liars themselves. What evil can they think of next to unleash unto Anwar and the ever wary and sceptical Malaysian.

Again, they forgot to take the late legendary artiste P Ramlee's advice in the Malay version of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, not to throw the dice thrice - trickery has its limits!

Dr Wan Azizah and family have weathered 13 years of brutal BN aggression in the form of persistent intimidation and character assassinations. Any other family would have been devastated but no, they withstood such scurrilous attacks on their husband and father that even the damning newspaper, The Star had to admit their family values were upheld high and acknowledged as a model.

Many Malaysians were always with them in their hearts albeit silent even in the darkest moments of tribulation. Malaysians of various arrays, hues, persuasions and beliefs stood with them, supporting them, wishing and praying for them. Many cried their tears in the middle of the night, unbeknown to others, while others slept, they were appealing to God to uplift themselves, save themselves but also to put in a supplication, to provide succour for Anwar and his family. All prayers and good wishes are meant for the just, the truthful, the honourable and the steadfast. No one shall wish any good to liars and deceivers. Those who make it their mission and living to hound, slander and terminate others shall have to fend for themselves here and the hereafter.

What is the lesson from all of these sometimes horrible and ever shameful experiences for the Malaysian public at large. We now know the extent of evil and who its purveyors are, who condones them, who are behind them, who collaborates, who sanctions, who does the dirty work for them; we recognise the criterion to distinguish the good and the bad. Instead of breaking us apart, Malaysians can now come together under the banner of truth and justice.

We surely know that things shall have to change.

That is why we say UBAH! UBAH! UBAH! Change Malaysia Change!

Satu kejahatan yang dibiarkan telah membuahkan kejahatan yang lain

Uskup Katolik kecam amalan moraliti selektif

Uskup Katolik (Bishop) Paul Tan Chee Ing membidas sebagai "kebejatan moral" dan "tidak dapat dipertahankan" sikap pasif pihak berkuasa sekular kerana tidak bertindak ke atas tayangan video yang didakwa mengaibkan Anwar Ibrahim dalam adegan dengan se orang wanita.

“Apabila pihak berkuasa sekular mengabaikan tanggungjawab mereka untuk bertindak ke atas orang-orang yang terlibat dengan penayangan video itu, maka kelambanan dan kegagalan mereka bertindak menghasilkan kejahatan lain,” kata ketua titular keuskupan (diocese) Malacca-Johor.

Dalam perkembangan terbaru, isteri dan anak-anak Anwar Ibrahim berkata mereka telah melihat klip selama dua minit melalui Youtube dan menegaskan secara terbuka bahawa orang yang dilihat di video terbabit bukan Anwar Ibrahim.

Mengulas tentang pengumuman ini, Bishop Tan, yang juga presiden Catholic Bishops' Conference, berkata: “Sekarang setelah orang ramai mendengar sendiri kenyataan daripada keluarga Anwar Ibrahim, adalah kewajipan pihak berkuasa untuk bertindak terhadap mereka yang menayangkan video tersebut. "

"Siapakah yang lebih mengenali diri Anwar kalau bukan isteri dan anak-anaknya?”

Bishop Tan menambah lagi: “Anda tidak boleh berdolak-dalih apabila berhadapan dengan satu kejahatan yang jelas melanggar undang-undang.”

“Adalah satu kebejatan moral untuk mereka yang diperkasakan dengan autoriti sivil untuk goyah terhuyung hayang apabila berdepan dengan kemungkaran yang nyata. "

“Kegoyahan mereka adalah tidak boleh diterima. Apabila autoriti sekular amat lemah untuk berdepan dengan kejahatan, maka adalah menjadi tugas autoriti agama untuk bersuara, kerana kalau tidak, masyarakat akan berada dalam bahaya moral akibat pencemaran dan kedurjanaan akhlak. "

“Saya telah mengatakan sebelum ini bahawa masyarakat kita dalam bahaya yang besar akibat kecuaian kita lebih lagi daripada kejahilan kita."

“Pihak berkuasa telah cuai apabila tidak mendakwa mereka yang terbabit menayangkan video ini sejak pada mulanya. Sekarang bibit-bibit babak video telah diisiarkan dalam internet. Satu kejahatan yang dibiarkan telah membuahkan kejahatan yang lain,” pemimpin katolik itu mengeluh.

Bishop Tan menegaskan video aib itu bukan isu politik.

“Pertamanya ia adalah isu moral sebelum kepada isu yang lain. Ada undang-undang yang jelas untuk menguruskannya. Tetapi mengabaikan penguatkuasaannya adalah seperti menjemput semacam kebingungan moral yang sukar untuk diselamatkan,” katanya.

Uskup Tan menyeru pihak berkuasa sivil supaya meninggalkan moraliti selektif kerana amalan ini akan menyemai dan membenihkan perangkap-perangkap etika ke atas masyarakat dan pemulihan akhlaknya akan "menelan harga" yang sangat tinggi.

disuiapadan dan diterjemahkan dari artikel Terence Netto, Malaysiakini, Apr 5, 2011

Bishop takes the higher moral ground

Bishop rails against selective morality

Catholic Bishop Paul Tan Chee Ing denounced as “morally squalid” and “indefensible” the inaction of the secular authorities over the screening of the video allegedly depicting Anwar Ibrahim in a sexual transaction with a woman.

“When the secular authorities abdicated their responsibility to deal with those responsible for the screening, their inaction beget further evil,” said the titular head of the Malacca-Johor diocese, in comments to Malaysiakini on the circulation of a two-minute clip purportedly from a video depicting the opposition leader having sex with a woman that was screened to a select audience two weeks ago.

In latest developments, the wife and children of Anwar Ibrahim said they have seen the two-minute clip and have publicly denied that the person depicted as having sex in the videotape is the PKR de facto leader.

Commenting on this, Bishop Tan, who is also president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference, said: “Now that the public has heard from the family, it is incumbent on the authorities to take action against those who screened the video.

"Who would know best if the man shown is Anwar or not except his wife and children?”

Elaborating, Tan asserted: “You cannot prevaricate in the face of an evil action that is so clear a violation of the laws.”

“It is morally squalid for people empowered with the civil authority to waffle in the face of transparent evil.

“Their dithering is indefensible. Where the secular authority is supinely weak in the face of evil, it is the duty of the religious authorities to speak up, as otherwise, society would be in mortal peril from the pollution to its morals.

“I have said before that our society is in greater danger from our negligence than from our ignorance,” he said.

“The authorities were negligent in not charging those who publicly purveyed the video in the first place. Now you have fragments from it circulating on the net. One evil leads to another,” lamented the Catholic leader.

Bishop Tan held that the sex video is not a political issue.

“It is first a moral issue before it is anything else. There are clear laws for dealing with it. To ignore the need for their enforcement is to invite the kind of moral confusion from which rescue would be difficult,” he said.

The bishop urged the civil authorities to eschew selective morality, which he said would only spawn “ethical quagmires from which society could only emerge at great cost”.

Terence Netto, Malaysiakini, Apr 5, 11 6:06pm

KENYATAAN MEDIA UNTUK SEBARAN SEGERA 5hb APRIL 2011

Semalam, video seks yang mula-mula disiarkan di Carcosa Seri Negara baru-baru ini telah ditayangkan sebahagiannya di laman web-laman web tukang sorak UMNO.

Keluarga kami telah diuji dengan pelbagai dugaan sejak 1998. Pelbagai fitnah dan tuduhan telah dilemparkan terhadap Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. Setiap tuduhan tersebut adalah sendirinya terlalu berat, tetapi Datuk Seri Anwar terpaksa melalui satu demi satu tuduhan yang busuk, jelek dan jijik.

Namun jika disenaraikan semua tuduhan tersebut, nyata sekali tidak masuk akal bagaimana Datuk Seri Anwar dapat melakukan kesemuanya yang bertentangan antara satu sama lain.

Dalam kes video terbaru ini, kami sekeluarga memutuskan untuk menonton sendiri rakaman tersebut.

Video tersebut adalah bukti paling kukuh bagi sesiapa yang benar-benar mengenali Datuk Seri Anwar bahawa tuduhan terbaru ini satu lagi fitnah zalim dan palsu.

Siapa lagi yang lebih mengenali beliau dengan begitu intim kalau bukan kami, keluarga terdekat beliau, yang telah bersama beliau dalam susah dan senang, khusus dari saat beliau berada di arus perdana kepimpinan negara hinggalah ke hari-hari beliau mulai pulih dari serangan apabila beliau dibebaskan daripada penjara.

Jelas kelihatan susuk tubuh badan pelaku dalam video tersebut amat berlainan daripada susuk badan Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. Hal ini diperkukuh lagi memandangkan sejak lebih setahun yang lalu, anak-anak Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim sering menemani beliau setiap kali beliau pergi melakukan aktiviti senaman dan fisioterapi selaku sebahagian daripada aktiviti pemuliharaan kesihatan tulang belakang.

Oleh itu, kami sekeluarga berpendirian bahawa keluarnya video ini adalah satu lagi contoh taktik politik lucah yang diangkat dan dijulang UMNO-Barisan Nasional. Kami menolak sekeras-kerasnya politik sebegini dan mengajak rakyat Malaysia dalam bersama menegakkan keadilan dan menolak politik kotor. Kembalikan agenda perjuangan menuntut reformasi menyeluruh dalam sistem politik, ekonomi dan sosial negara.

Kami ingat firman Allah s.w.t dalam surah Al-Buruj, ayat 10: “Sesungguhnya orang-orang yang memfitnah (membuat keburukan) kepada lelaki beriman dan perempuan beriman, kemudian (daripada kedurjanaan itu) mereka tidak bertaubat, maka bagi mereka azab neraka, dan bagi mereka azab yang membakar.”

Dalam menghadapi dugaan ini, kami yakin ada hikmah di sebaliknya. Pendedahan sedutan video ini dibuat pada 4 April 2011 – ulangtahun ke-12 Parti Keadilan Nasional yang lahir daripada kegawatan politik negara.

Fitnah dan tohmahan ini berpunca daripada ketamakan terhadap kuasa dan politik yang sudah hilang nilai moralnya. Kita sewajarnya berbincang secara kritis perbezaan pandangan kita, bukan dengan serangan peribadi yang kotor dan hina.

Kami berharap semua rakyat tidak terperangkap dengan permainan UMNO-Barisan Nasional ini, sebaliknya meneruskan usaha menegakkan keadilan dan memperjuangkan kebenaran.

DATUK SERI DR WAN AZIZAH WAN ISMAIL

Presiden Parti Keadilan Rakyat

NURUL IZZAH ANWAR

Naib Presiden Parti Keadilan Rakyat dan Ahli Parlimen Lembah Pantai

Ahli-ahli Keluarga Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim

Harussani: Saya tak membisu, saya kecam video aib Anwar

Tan Sri Harussani Zakaria menafikan tanggapan sesetengah pihak bahawa beliau hanya berdiam diri dan tidak bersuara berhubung pendedahan rakaman video yang didakwa melibatkan Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

Sebaliknya, Mufti Perak itu menegaskan, sejak rakaman video itu didedahkan awal minggu lalu beliau telah mengeluarkan kenyataan dengan menegaskan pendedahan itu telah mengaibkan Anwar yang juga Ketua Umum PKR kerana ia belum dibuktikan kebenarannya.

“Siapa kata saya tidak bersuara? Siapa kata saya tidak ada cakap apa? Sejak hari pertama lagi saya sudah bercakap mengenai perkara ini dan bagi saya rakaman video itu telah mengaibkan Anwar kerana tidak saksi yang boleh buktikan. “Saya ada bercakap dengan Utusan Malaysia tapi apa yang keluar sikit sahaja, mereka tidak keluarkan secara keseluruhan apa yang saya katakan... yang tertulis ia (video seks) hanya fitnah, itu sahaja... yang lain-lain tidak keluar,” katanya ketika dihubungi The Malaysian Insider.

Kata Harussani, rakaman video itu boleh dianggap sebagai fitnah dan dosa besar kerana hukuman telah dijatuhkan terlebih dahulu terhadap Anwar tanpa bukti yang sahih. “Kita buka rahsia orang ini adalah haram, benda yang tidak betul tapi didedahkan adalah satu fitnah, dosa besar dan tidak bermoral. “Rakaman video itu betulkah Anwar? Laporan juga belum dapat dipastikan lagi... ini adalah fitnah dan dosa besar,” katanya.

Awal minggu ini, Presiden PAS Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang menyifatkan pemimpin agama sebagai “syaitan bisu” kerana mengambil sikap berdiam diri dan tidak bersuara dalam isu fitnah moral terbaru yang ditujukan ke atas Anwar itu. Menurut Hadi, sikap pemimpin agama yang enggan memberikan sebarang respons terhadap pendedahan rakaman video oleh “Datuk T” awal minggu lalu amat dikesali.

Tiga Datuk T iaitu bekas ketua menteri Melaka Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Thamby Chik, ahli perniagaan Datuk Shazryl Eskay Abdullah dan Bendahari Perkasa Datuk Shuib Lazim — mengakui bertanggungjawab membuat pendedahan tersebut. Ketiga-tiga individu tersebut terlebih dahulu menayangkan rakaman video itu kepada media di Carcosa Seri Negara .

Menurut Harussani, rakaman video itu tidak boleh dijadikan sebagai bukti. Ini kerana, jelas beliau, menurut perundangan Islam mana-mana jenayah yang membabitkan seks perlu mempunyai empat orang adil yang menyaksikan peristiwa itu berlaku termasuk perbuatan zina.

“Yang dilihat dalam rakaman video itu tidak boleh pakai, ia tidak boleh dijadikan bukti kerana ia boleh diubah atau dimanipulasikan. “Kalau nak jatuhkan hukuman kita kena ada empat saksi yang benar-benar lihat dengan mata sendiri peristiwa itu berlaku bukan melalui gambar atau video. Kalau bawa ke mahkamah, video itu tetap tidak boleh dijadikan bukti kerana ia hanya rakaman dan menurut hukum syarak tetap kena ada empat saksi dan kalau tidak kita tidak boleh nak jatuhkan hukuman,” katanya.

Sementara itu, Mufti Perlis Dr Juanda Jaya tetap berpendirian Anwar tidak boleh dituduh terlibat pelakuan tersebut kerana tiada saksi yang menyaksikan ia berlaku. “Dalam soal jenayah seksual Islam menetapkan saksi empat mata dan rakaman tidak boleh dijadikan bukti, di sudut Islam kena ada empat saksi yang lihat peristiwa itu berlaku.

“Tetap kena ada empat saksi hidup yang tengok ia berlaku, kalau tiada atau tidak cukup sebagai contoh hanya tiga mereka kena hukum qazaf (tuduhan zina) kerana menuduh orang lain,” katanya. Menurut beliau, rakaman video yang didakwa milik “Datuk T” tidak boleh dijadikan bahan bukti.

“Rakaman sama sekali tidak boleh dalam jenayah seksual dalam Islam, tetap perlu ada empat saksi dan orang yang jadi saksi juga perlu individu yang berkredibiliti dan tidak akan menukar pandangan mereka. “Kita tidak boleh ikut rakaman sebab itu dalam Islam hukuman jenayah seksual ini berat dan syarat untuk jatuhkan hukuman juga berat,” katanya.

Tambah Juanda, individu yang membuat pendedahan rakaman video itu sepatutnya disiasat terlebih dahulu. “Yang pertama sebarkan benda lucah orang itu yang harus disiasat dulu, tiada undang-undang atau agama yang membenarkan ia dipertontonkan kepada khalayak. “Sepatutnya bila dapat rakaman itu mereka kena serahkan kepada polis bukan dedahkan kepada umum,” katanya. Beliau juga menggesa agar semua pihak termasuk parti politik agar menghentikan tuduhan yang bersifat peribadi. “Tuduhan seperti ini baik di pihak parti politik mana pun kena elakkan tuduh dalam jenayah seksual, tuduhan seperti ini patut dihentikan,” katanya.

Malaysian Insider, KUALA LUMPUR, 31 Mac