Judicial delays have encouraged the criminalization of politics, and indeed of all society. To curb it, the Supreme Court cannot depend on its two latest judgments. Rather, it must devise and enforce procedures for quick justice
Every party in power misuses the police to harass opponents while protecting its own goons. Instead of justice and clean politics, we have rising criminalization and rising mud-slinging, without accountability for either the criminals or mud-slingers.Seen in this light, the rise of criminalized politics is not simply due to politicians becoming more crooked. It is also that endless judicial delays have created huge inducements for criminals to enter politics, and to succeed over law-abiding rivals. Many judges have condemned criminalized politics, amidst much public cheering, but need to acknowledge their own culpability in this mess.
We cannot truly reform politics until we reform the justice system. A land without justice in a reasonable period will necessarily be a land in which lawbreakers will beat law-abiders. This will be true not only in politics but in business, the professions, and everything else.
A majority of the police personnel are not breaking into a sweat over the setting up of the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC), says retired Kuala Lumpur criminal investigation department chief Mat Zain Ibrahim.
Mat Zain said most of them are not even aware of the existence of the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC) or what this organisation is all about, or its functions.
“I can say the men in blue fear the police discipline branch more than even the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission. So whether the IPCMC is formed or not does not really make any difference to most of them,” he said…
Then-prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad instructed New Straits Times to “do away with” his former deputy Anwar Ibrahim following his sacking in 1998, said the daily’s former group editor-in-chief A Kadir Jasin.
“His (Mahathir’s) feeling was that we should try to do away with Anwar. Maybe we should try to erase the memory of Anwar,” Kadir said.
We cannot truly reform politics until we reform the justice system. A land without justice in a reasonable period will necessarily be a land in which lawbreakers will beat law-abiders. This will be true not only in politics but in business, the professions, and everything else.
Kadir (left) said he had responded that this was nearly impossible because the daily had developed Anwar, for the past 16 years, as Mahathir’s successor on the PM’s instructions.
It would be impossible to change tack overnight, so Kadir said he proposed to simply ignore Anwar as a public figure.
“Of course, this could not be accepted because in Umno, they believe that you have to use all your might and your power to destroy Anwar. I think it did not quite work out,” he said.
He was speaking at a seminar at Universiti Islam Antarabangsa (UIA) Malaysia today on the role of the media in elections.
Kadir, who served as New Straits Times group editor and New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd group editor-in-chief between 1988 and 2000, said this when illustrating his point that Media Prima, which now owns the New Straits Times group, is answerable only to the Umno president.
Therefore, he said, people should not expect the mainstream media to change following the 13th general election, since this would require the Umno president’s consent.
“If you are answerable to the party in general, then you are answerable to a lot more people.
“Maybe some people in the Umno supreme council may want changes, but in the case of the Media Prima Group, it is answerable only to the (Umno president),” he said.
However in view of Umno’s improved electoral performance, he said, this was unlikely.
“Just after May 5 (polling day), the attitude among the practitioners of the mainstream media was this: Why should we change? We did not lose.
“As far as Umno is concerned, it had done better. So why should we change? If we did not do badly this time, we could be doing better next time… so there is no reason to change,” Kadir said.
Citing examples of regime changes in South Korea, Thailand, and Indonesia, he said the only way the mainstream media would change is in the event of a change in government, because the media would be forced to follow suit.
Pointing to The Star, Kadir said the daily has already toned down its pro-BN stance because its owner, MCA, had performed badly.
In the last general election, Umno increased its holdings in parliament from 79 seats to 88 seats, while MCA declined from 15 seats to seven.
‘Hard to remain balanced’
Another speaker, Sin Chew Daily deputy editor-in-chief Tay Tian Yan, said it was increasingly difficult for newspapers in the mainstream media to remain balanced.
Tay (left) said, “I think that we are quite balanced and fair. However, to be fair and balanced in the Malaysian media context is not an easy task, in fact it is quite difficult.”
He said the media was constantly being attacked from both sides of the political divide.
“On the other side, Pakatan Rakyat supporters think that to be balanced is not enough, the media has to agree with their aspirations and stand on their side.”
Tay said an internal study had found that Sin Chew had been balanced in covering both BN and Pakatan Rakyat, which concurred with the findings that a Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia researcher presented at this seminar yesterday.
However, as if proving his point that no one is satisfied, Kadir later said, “Sin Chew Daily has always been seen, from my point of view, even then (as group editor-in-chief of NST), as anti-establishment.”
Meanwhile, another speaker, Malaysiakini editor-in-chief Steven Gan, when answering a question about the falling revenue of the print media, questioned how long Sin Chew’s increasing circulation would last as a result of its political stance.
“It will be untenable. When you have 80 percent of the Chinese voting for the opposition, will they continue to read Sin Chew?”
‘No longer setting the agenda’
Asked whether the mainstream media would continue to be relevant in setting the news agenda, Kadir said that the answer was both “yes and no”.
“Yes, the mainstream media is still important. A lot of people still read, listen and watch, just not necessarily believing them.
“And no, because assuming all the mainstream media is biased towards the government – in fact during the election period they had to be nothing more than the mouthpiece of the ruling party – then the outcome of the May 5 election would suggest that more than half of the voters did not listen to the mainstream media.
“However, despite not getting the majority votes, the mainstream media still has lots of influence among the rural votes, among the Malays,” Kadir said.
Gan (right) agreed that despite the growth of online media, the mainstream media still had a powerful role in setting the agenda.
He said, “The mainstream media is still very much a formidable force. You cannot to rule them out in the near future.”
The real cost of a bribe
If, in 2002, a traffic cop in the fairy-tale townbazaar, NATO troops could have left Pakistan by 2003, Iraq might have escaped NATO’s invasion, Barack Obama would probably be an unknown Senator from Chicago and George Bush Junior’s presidential library in Texas would certainly have something to cheer about. But, according to Maryam, her husband Ibrahim al-Kuwaiti “quickly settled the matter”, and the bribed Swat cop never realized he had just let Osama bin Laden escape. Maryam was giving evidence before the Justice Javed Iqbal commission, set up to enquire into the events of 2 May 2011, when US Navy Seals flew three hours into Pak territory, found and killed Osama. Nothing works on our great subcontinent better than instant cash. Al-Kuwati, Osama’s most trust aide, knew that. This is the kind of authentic detail which makes a fabulous story so entirely believable.
Which bit of this enquiry report, spread over 336 pages, garnered from 201 witnesses, is beyond doubt, which is useful, and how many witnesses have spun out little gossamer tales hide truth in a silken web?
Trivia, as indicated, deserves its place in the footnotes of history. Osama, according to a wife, wore a cowboy hat to protect himself from aerial surveillance. Well: where do you buy a 10-gallon Texan hat in Abbottabad? Can’t bring it in the luggage from a Bora Bora battlefield, either. Perhaps she confused it with a baseball cap. We also learn that Osama sometimes shaved his signature beard as part of a disguise. True, this would be perfect deception, but how long would it take to get that beard back to its original majestic length? Presumably no one in that band of brothers and wives had the courage to click a mobile picture of Osama in transition, not even a young consort in a playful mood.
In 2005, after pit stops in five Pakistan cities, the Osama entourage settled into this military garrison town, in a house so visible that no one could see it. The property was bought with a fake ID; perhaps the traffic cop principle was operational again. Four electricity and gas meters were installed in that house; no one asked why. This might have a proper explanation. No one checks electricity meters in Pakistan, so why make an exception in Abbottabad?
The high wall surrounding the house collapsed in the 2005 earthquake, and rubble lay around for months, but no one bothered to enquire, or even see, who lived inside. If you want to raise one eyebrow, reserve your second for the next story. An official survey area listed this home as “be-chiragh” or uninhabited. The Iqbal commission knows the answer: it acknowledges something “more sinister”. In 2005, Pak intelligence “closed the book” on Osama bin Laden; there was “grave complicity (at an) undetermined level”.
That level was obviously former dictator Pervez Musharraf, for this is how decisions are made during army rule. There was no incompetence. There was complicity. Take just one fact: CIA gave ISI certain phone numbers to monitor; it did not. At each turn, Islamabad manufactured and sold a lie to the world. In the beginning came Musharraf’s repeated denials, often accompanied by the hearty laugh reminiscent of retired colonels in the old British army. At the end, when Washington declared Osama dead, a chorus of spokespeople was paraded before media, not least Indian television, to nudge-wink the suggestion that Osama’s capture was a joint US-Pak operation. America had long stopped trusting Pakistan on Osama. Justice Iqbal and his brave colleagues refused to seal a lie with interpretative approval, and deserve our unstinted praise. The episode, they say, indicates not just incompetence or irresponsibility, but something “worse”.
The commission touched one significant nerve when it analyzed the complete failure of Pakistan’s military defences on its western frontier, breached totally by America on that historic night of May 2. The Pakistan air force apparently learnt about Operation Neptune Spear only when it saw media reports. “In the premier intelligence institution,” the report notes, referring to ISI, “religiosity replaced accountability.” The meaning is not complicated. India is the only enemy.
Pakistan’s security regime defines sovereignty in what might be called Indian terms. This is not new; it claims Kashmir but calmly hands over a part under its control to China. America does not respect Pakistani sovereignty over its skies, and uses drones where and when it wants. Protest from Islamabad is token, if not hypocritical. Accommodation with China or America is justified by realpolitik, but any effort at adjustment with India, even along the Cease Fire Line, internationally acknowledged as the acceptable dividing line, is dismissed as “capitulation”.
The people and most politicians of Pakistan have inched away from anti-India obsession, but the military-religious pincer is so strong that even elected governments feel locked in, helpless. Peace between India and Pakistan is blocked not by ground reality, but by ghosts in the mind. In the meantime, worry about the cost of a bribe.
