Dr Mahathir Mohamad refused to believe the sodomy allegations surrounding Anwar Ibrahim as he was blinded by the latter’s charisma and gift of the gab, a former minister claimed.
In a blog post, Zainuddin Maidin said that Mahathir’s trust in his former protege was so great, that even the police were afraid to inform the then prime minister about the claims. [...]
At a forum held a few days ago, Mahathir, who is Pakatan Harapan chairman, said that during the three years before Anwar’s arrest, police had been sending reports of his alleged misdeeds.
“I thought police were trying to undermine him and so I didn’t take action. Later, police gave me detailed reports and I still didn’t want to believe them.
“I wanted to interview these people who had allegedly been abused,” Mahathir told the forum when asked about the allegations which led to Anwar’s sacking from Umno and the government.
Mahathir said he only believed the claims after the people interviewed admitted that they were true.
Anwar was subsequently sacked as the deputy prime minister in 1998 and charged with corruption for allegedly interfering in police investigations into allegations of sexual misconduct made against him.
Anwar was sentenced to six years in prison for corruption on April 14, 1999, and nine years in prison for sodomy on Aug 8, 2000.
The best bull would always be those laced with half-truths. It was and has been known Mahathir at the height of his power was very tolerant of his 'kakis' even if they made mistakes or gross blunders - he probably considered those as sap sap suoi (chicken feed stuff).
Even Anwar admitted at one stage in his cabinet days, he made a socio-political 'mistakes' and was extremely worried about that, but said Mahathir consoled him with an advice not to worry about that error.
The more popular rumours regarding Anwar's sexual inclination was not so much Mahathir finally realising his deputy's salacious proclivity before turning ugly against Anwar, but rather ..... hang on wakakaka ... I am coming to that shortly.
None other than my idol, the late Karpal Singh, had warned Mahathir of Anwar's homosexual activities, but Mahathir ignored Karpal.
'Twas reported:
“Karpal admitted that he, as an opposition MP, did urge that Anwar (who was an Umno leader then) be investigated for sodomy after the complainant, Azizan Abu Bakar, had met him.” …
“Anwar was freed by the Federal Court of the charge against him involving Azizan Abu Bakar on Sept 2, 2004, and his conviction and sentence of six years imprisonment and two strokes of the rotan were set aside.”
“Zahrain’s** ignorance is clearly exposed,” said Karpal “I would advise Zahrain in future to be sure of his facts before making public statements. He should think before speaking.”
The late Karpal was one person who abide by that axiom of thinking before speaking.
From many incidents, allegations and reports as the one above, we could with reasonableness assume Mahathir was in his usual tolerant-to-orang-kita mode when he ignored Karapal Singh's warning plus 3 years of police reports. WTF was a few backside buggeration brouhaha.
'Twas only when Anwar became treacherous to his Tai-Koe in late 1998 that the Older Man turned feral. That's the difference - loyalty to Mahathir rather than morality (or a lack of if you were Muslim) was the critical factor.
Yes, nearly two decades ago, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was UMNO Youth Chief and the ally of (then DPM) Anwar Ibrahim.
Zahid was touted as the vanguard to oust Dr Mahathir out from the PM position well ahead of schedule (ie. Mahathir's planned but subsequently-abandoned plan to retire), by voicing allegations of the PM Mahathir’s cronyism and nepotism. The Anwar camp thought that might hasten the Old Man's departure.
On June 1998, The New York Times ( NYT ) reported in its World Business page:
In what was seen as a jab at Mr Mahathir’s 17-year leadership, the head of Umno’s youth wing, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, had called for an end to cronyism and nepotism during a speech to delegates.
“Why were big loans to big businessmen approved so easily when small guys had to wait so long to get a loan of RM50,000?” (US$12,500) Mr Ahmad Zahid asked.
“Why were big loans to big businessmen approved so easily when small guys had to wait so long to get a loan of RM50,000?” (US$12,500) Mr Ahmad Zahid asked.
The NYT also reported that Mahathir as PM-then responded to Zahid’s allegation the next day by posting hundreds of names of people who have won government projects in recent years, a list which included his accuser, Zahid, wakakaka.
That was the second mighty schism in UMNO, after the Mahathir-Razaleigh's Team A versus Team B split. The consequences for Anwar Ibrahim was swift and horrendous and of a lengthy period.
Subsequently, Zahid’s superior survival skills [wakakaka] had him confessing in an UMNO assembly that Anwar was the person who instructed him to attack Dr Mahathir with allegations of cronyism and nepotism.
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'twas anwar, not innocent me wakakaka |
The New Straits Times (June 19, 1999) informed us that Zahid finished his confessional by apologising to Mahathir and, with a flamboyant flourish, acknowledging the then-PM’s rebuke of him as a father-to-son advice, wakakaka - pandai carma.
But that was the REAL reason Mahathir sacked (or got rid of) Anwar in 1998.
C'mon lah, 3 years of regular police reports on Anwar's sexual proclivity plus Bhai's warning and no action taken by Mahathir because he was blinded by the latter’s [Anwar's] charisma and gift of the gab?
I suspect Zainuddin Maidin might be painting Mahathir as someone who liked Anwar (which he then did) and was extremely reluctant to remove his DPM from his anointment as heir-apparent.
Maybe Goebbel-speak is for the benefit of Pakatan or PKR diehards who are still mad at Mahathir for his cruelty to Anwar?
I have never wavered from my conclusion that Sodomy 1 and Sodomy 2 were conspiracies by people at the highest levels of power in Malaysia and a grave injustice.
ReplyDelete1MDB is an opposite kind of conspiracy and injustice, in that people at the highest levels of power have ensured the case gets buried in the deepest reaches of the ocean.
For what it's worth, most of those who connived in Sodomy 1 had no good ending. The Attorney General who handled the case died suddenly, the highly biased trial judge died a long and very painful death from cancer, the case prosecutor got promoted to Attorney General but ended up himself being eaten alive by the corrupt power system.
Yes, Karma is a bitch...
u oso blinded by lks for 50 years, n blinded by mo1 for at least 8 years, whats the diff?
ReplyDelete