Arrest Mahathir for breach of OSA?

Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang added a few missiles of his own into the Mahathir WMD attack. He asked foreign minister Syed Hamid whether the former PM had breached the Official Secrets Act (OSA) in revealing correspondence and various negotiating issues on the scenic bridge in his 7-page open letter to Kelab Maya UMNO?

If so, he asked whether the Malaysian government intend to arrest and trial the ole man? I am sure many would like to see that, especially Anwar Ibrahim.

I wouldn’t be surprised if there are those who would say, “Hey, he had a dose of his own medicine of being blacked out by the media; why not go the full hog and put him behind bars.”

But Dr Mahathir isn’t your ordinary bloke, with probably a considerable segment of support in UMNO. Besides, what he has revealed thus far, while self-serving or serving the (international) legal grounds for the bridge construction, point towards the usual cabinet misinformation to the public.

In democracy, it’s called misleading the public which calls for political sepukku (honourable suicide, or in political terms, resignation). Unfortunately in Malaysian politics, there’s no honour!

Then Lim said that if Dr Mahathir won’t be prosecuted for breach of the OSA, the entire range of documents relating to the negotiations should be declassified.

According to Malaysiakini, an embattled Lt Kolonel Syed Hamid - Lt Kolonel for his smart 'belakang pusing' (about turn) in the bridge affair - promptly dodged a reply by attacking Lim instead:

“From the start, I knew you had malicious intent. I don’t think Tun Mahathir had any (such) intentions (when he raised the issue). It’s an opinion. We just have different opinions. You have always been against the OSA, but now you want to use the OSA ...?”

Yeah, but what about Dr Mahathir's release of hitherto classified cabinet papers? Can they be declassified and released to public scrutiny?

Syed Hamid then said wonderful stuff about Dr Mahathir blah blah blah, and took what he thought would be the high road by adding:

“(Don’t) try to attack someone who is no longer a parliamentarian and who is unable to rebut your allegations here.”

Now, we all know Dr Mahathir has a weakness which is his soft spot for bodek-ing (sycophantic coo-ings). Syed Hamid’s sterling performance may yet win him a pat or two from the Tun.

Earlier, Syed Hamid had virtually lobbed the ball into PM Abdullah Badawi’s court on the abandonment of the bridge by stating:

“This is not a personal decision of any cabinet member, but a decision of the government. So whether a person is responsible or not should not arise.”

Bullshit! Someone or the entire cabinet has to be responsible. But that's the whole problem with the Malaysian government. No one in government is ever responsible. Especially not the cabinet!

And just to be sure he distributed his bodek-ing evenly, he declared:

“This was a very brave decision although it was difficult. It was a brave (decision).”