Malaysians elated Anwar doesn’t hold grudges against ex-judge who once jailed him

Malaysians elated Anwar doesn’t hold grudges against ex-judge who once jailed him





DURING his Hari Raya rounds, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had the opportunity to meet with former Chief Justice (CJ) Tun Arifin Zakaria, the man who famously described a five-year prison sentence imposed on Anwar for his sodomy conviction as “not too severe”.


Recall that the sentence was meted out against Anwar for the offence of assaulting his former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan.

The Federal Court which was the highest court in the land later upheld Anwar’s conviction and prison sentence after it was overturned by the Court of Appeal after considering the seriousness of the offence, according to Arifin who served as Malaysia’s seventh CJ from Sept 12, 2011 to March 31, 2017.


Anwar was subsequently pardoned on May 16, 2018 after the Pakatan Harapan (PH) won the 14th General Election (GE15) after having inflicted a historical defeat on UMNO-Barisan Nasional (BN) and the administration of sixth premier Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

By firmly sticking to letting bygone be bygone, Anwar has earned praises of netizens who are left impressed by his moral character of not being revengeful but instead being so forgiving even when he has to confront a man who can be deemed to have tarnished his image, ‘scarred’ his past and almost robbed him of his political future.

Netzien Spit it out (@EppyFizul) started a thread which a photo of Anwar using both his hands to greet (salam) Arifin – a gesture of which runs deep in meaning with a caption that is so profound in human value: “The greatness of PMX’s (Anwar) soul, he still can greet former judge Tun Arifin Zakaria who once dumped him in jail”.



The thread elicited excitement with Sir danial (@blackenedezra) stating that “people with a big heart would forgive others easily” while taking a jab at the opposition block. “(This) is different from others like the religious fanatics and staunch PAS supporters who only know how to criticise,” observed the netizen.



Twitter user NoOneYouKnow (@NightOwlGenY2) reckoned that Anwar who had spent long time in prison “would have spent much time to ponder, clam down and do self-reflection to be able to forgive others with ease”.

“Greeting with two hands as a mark of respect is such a magnanimous gesture,” added netizen Cik Farah (@cikfarahintan). – April 23, 2023