Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah have you a hole in your soul?Realisation of what ails you is half the battle won; the rest is all about maintaining a firm control on life and balance within
Sometimes you do not realise you are in the midst of a vast silence till it is pierced through with sound. Often, you may not notice noise until it ends abruptly and silence prevails. You may not notice how dark it is till a light is flicked on. Sometimes you do not know how agitated you have been, till a caressing hand calms you. The absence of some people makes you realise the significance of their presence.
And then – sometimes you don’t know there’s a gaping hole in your soul till someone or something comes along to fill it and lift you to euphoric heights. My Facebook status for the last few days has been – ‘A hole in your soul? Let’s see, how can that be mended?’ It aroused interesting responses, both off and online. “But where is the soul nowadays?” asked a friend at a cocktail party. “Are you sure you don’t mean a hole in the sole of your shoe?” asked another. Some interesting solutions to m e n d the soul g a p we r e ‘spiritual evolution’ , ‘ karm a yoga ’, ‘striving to be my best self and to be considerate and compassionate,’ ‘by giving love’ and then ‘by the will power to heal and knowing when we last felt complete.’
Datuk Mat Zain Ibrahim has lodged a police report against Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah (pic), saying the Umno lawyer’s affidavit to the Court of Appeal contained inaccuracies, an offence under the law.
The former Kuala Lumpur Criminal Investigation Department director lodged the report at the Setapak police station this afternoon.
Shafee had filed the affidavit at the Court of Appeal last week in response to Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s second application to disqualify the lawyer from representing Putrajaya as deputy public prosecutor in the government’s appeal against Anwar’s acquittal on the second sodomy charge.
In his police report, Mat Zain claimed Shafee had committed at least two offences under the Penal Code, the first for making false statements in the affidavit.
He alleged that Shafee had also suppressed material evidence with the intention of deceiving the court.
He said that Shafee had received from him a set of documents on September 24, 2013.
“These were documents Shafee had asked from me after meeting Tun Dr Mahathir Muhamad at his residence last August 10, the third day of Hari Raya,” he said.
Shafee told reporters on Wednesday that he had filed an affidavit on what transpired in his legal firm and at the residence of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Shafee went on to say that Mat Zain had “slanted” what he had said in his October 7 statutory declaration (SD).
“My affidavit is supported by former (Commercial Crime Investigations Department director) Datuk Ramli Yusuff. I do not need to ask Matthias Chang to affirm it, and there is no need to trouble Tun (Dr Mahathir Mohamad),” Shafee said when asked to respond to the contents of the SD.
The SD by Mat Zain was prepared following a meeting in Dr Mahathir’s house, attended by, among others, Dr Mahathir’s former political secretary Matthias Chang, and Ramli, who had briefed the former premier over his run-ins with Attorney General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail.
Shafee had vowed to expose in court a link between Mat Zain and Anwar as the former had filed a defamation suit against the former prime minister, but was not serious about the case, resulting in the court striking out the matter.
Mat Zain had then shot back at Shafee, claiming the contents in the affidavit was “a load of rubbish”.
Anwar filed the application on December 6 using Mat Zain’s SD as grounds to disqualify Shafee, saying Shafee’s appointment to lead the prosecution team would deny him a fair trial.
The PKR de-facto leader said that Shafee knew of Gani’s illegal actions in the Pulau Batu Puteh territorial dispute between Malaysia and Singapore.readmorehttp://suarakeadilanmalaysia.wordpress.com/2013/12/04/dont-let-corrupted-attorney-general-tan-sri-abdul-gani-patail-go-unpunished/
Anwar said the SD also pointed to Gani and former inspector-general of police Tan Sri Musa Hassan’s involvement in fabricating evidence in the “black eye” incident of 1998.
The alleged fabrication took place when Gani was said to have brought in pathologist Dr Abdul Rahman Yusoff to accuse Anwar in court of self-inflicted injuries, contradicting medical reports.
A Royal Commission of Inquiry ended with an admission by former police chief Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Noor that he had beaten Anwar hours after his arrest on September 20, 1998.
Anwar had in 2008 filed a police report against Gani and Musa, who was involved in the first sodomy case brought against Anwar.
A three-member committee, comprising retired judges, formed by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), cleared the duo.
Shafee reportedly agreed during the meeting in Dr Mahathir’s house that the MACC committee was illegal.
On November 21, the Federal Court dismissed Anwar’s appeal, declaring that Gani could give a temporary licence to Shafee to lead the prosecution. Anwar then filed an application to dismiss Shafee on the grounds that the appointment was illegal.
Anwar, 66, was acquitted by the High Court on January 9 last year on a charge of sodomising his former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan at a Desa Damansara condominium unit in Bukit Damansara in 2008. -Regardless of its terms of reference, the people will have to contend with the independent panel to investigate violence during the Bersih 3.0 rally that has been handpicked by the government. And we may have to wait a little while before judging whether the panel is fair or biased, or simply redundant.
This is in view of the attorney-general’s pre-emptive moves in charging several people under the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012, as well as having advised the government to sue the Bersih steering committee for damages.
The investigations, or any other action pertaining to Bersih 3.0, should have been put on hold once the government announced the formation of the said independent panel. Similar action was taken during the black eye incident, when I was instructed to put investigations on hold the moment the cabinet announced the setting up of the RCI. Abdul Gani Patail is fully aware of this precedent.
Be as it may, the impartiality of the panel has been a subject of contention since its formation was announced, particularly the appointment of Hanif Omar as the chairperson. The test of their impartiality will be whether the panel is willing to raise the issue on the position of Gani Patail, to whom the panel’s findings will be submitted for a decision.
Where goes the panel report?
Although many will disagree, but if there is need for a panel to investigate Gani, then I suggest that both Hanif and retired Chief Justice of Borneo Steve Shim are the most appropriate persons to be in that panel. I am also of the view that Gani’s antics cannot get past these two distinguished gentlemen.
For the benefit of all, this is Steve Shim’s decision on Gani’s conduct in Zainur Zakaria vs PP [2001] 3 CLJ:
“In the circumstances, was he (referring to Anwar Ibrahim) not justified, on a prima facie basis, in complaining that the AG’s (Gani Patail’s) conduct at the meeting on 2 October 1998 was an attempt to get Nalla to fabricate evidence in order to perfect charges against him (Anwar) for other alleged sexual offences?”
The former CJ is expected to defend his decision on the above and he will certainly be backed by Hanif, who knows the truth of what exactly happened in 1998 and how the facts were manipulated and by whom. Particularly now, since the panel’s report will eventually be scrutinised by none other than Gani himself.
The government of the day, then and now, cannot deny being fully aware of Shim’s decision on Gani. The government must recognise the former CJ’s decision in the same manner Dr Mahathir takes cognisance of another Federal Court decision, as found in his memoir A Doctor in the House (page 695):
“Most Malaysians are ignorant of the contents of the judgment of the Federal Court, which acquitted Anwar on a technicality due to the error relating to the date of the incident. They are not aware that the majority of the Federal Court had held that in their judgment they found ‘…evidence to confirm that the appellants (Anwar and Sukma) were involved in homosexual activities and we are more inclined to believe that the alleged incident at Tivoli Villa did happen’…”
No one saw Anwar sodomise Sukma or anybody else, or having sex with any woman. The Federal Court came to that conclusion merely relying on evidence gathered or manufactured by Musa Hassan and presented before the judges by Gani and his prosecution team.
But where falsification and fabrication of evidence are concerned, several people saw what Gani did. Musa Hassan and Dr Rahman Yusof not only saw it but were parties to it, willingly or otherwise. Another pathologist from Hospital Kuala Lumpur testified in court that Anwar’s blood sample for DNA tests was stolen from the doctor’s custody on Oct 15, 1998.http://suarakeadilanmalaysia.wordpress.com/2013/11/26/attorney-general-acting-correctly-correct-correct-correct-charges-to-include-dr-mahathir-in-nfcorp/
Over and above that, I not only saw with my own eyes what Gani did, but I went to the extent of warning him of the complications that could be expected in the near future when he (Gani) is discovered, besides telling him of the stern instructions and warning from the prime minister himself, whom I briefed on Oct 8, 1998, that there should not be any cover-up in the investigations involving Anwar Ibrahim. Most importantly the products of the falsifications are available for all to see.
One important question immediately comes to mind: Which of the two Federal Court decisions cited above should be given more weight? It must be noted that Shim’s decision on Gani came first.
Does that mean that if the court decides against Anwar, then the decision is said to be correct or is in the right direction, but when a court decides in favour of Anwar, then the court is wrong or the judge has a political agenda or may be labelled as a communist sympathiser?
If Shim’s decision on Gani is not given its due weight nor respected by the government of the day, then Shim should not be allowed to remain on the panel. Should the government have some decency to accept a legitimate judicial decision of the highest court of the country, then Gani should henceforth be suspended and made to face the due process.
The government of the day must explain how on earth was Gani Patail, despite allegations of having a tainted resume, chosen to be the attorney-general in 2002 and how such conduct could have escaped the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s scrutiny.
Ulterior motives involved?
Either the government had ulterior motives or the government was simply negligent in exercising due care in vetting Gani’s suitability and competency before he was recommended to be appointed as the AG.
Either way ,the Agong was deceived into believing that Gani Patail was the most suitable and not encumbered with any criminal culpability if compared with at least two other candidates. The Agong would not have appointed Gani had he not been so deceived.
Former Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson was fired just four months after his appointment, for merely allowing two inaccuracies on his qualifications to appear in his biodata that was filed with the securities regulators – one in accounting and the other in computer science.
It was not about qualifications he didn’t have. It was all about honesty. If a CEO can cheat about his qualifications, then he can cheat about everything else pertaining to the affairs of the company.
Similarly, if the EC chairperson and his deputy can deceive the Conference of Rulers and the Agong with no feelings of remorse, then they can cheat on everything and anything concerning the electoral roll.
If our government copied the American model of gerrymandering, then it should also adopt their model of testing the honesty of the EC chairperson, as the Americans did with the former Yahoo CEO.
One must also not forget that Musa Hassan was reported to have committed perjury during a trial in 1998 by claiming to have a qualification that he did not, just like Scott Thomson. The only difference between them is that Thompson was caught once and given the boot, while Musa was caught three times in all and yet cleared of any wrongdoing.
If Gani Patail, who has a damning decision on his head and a preponderance of evidence in several other allegations of wrongdoings, can still be allowed to remain in office and carry on with his illegitimate ways of doing things;
If both the EC chairperson and the deputy are said to have secured their positions through fraud and misrepresentations and by concealing their present or previously held membership in a political party and yet are allowed to remain as custodians of the electoral roll;
If the prime minister himself, who could be proven to have affirmed false affidavits in September 2011 and knowingly filing the same in a High Court to avoid having to give his testimony before the said court and yet nothing was done by the appropriate authorities, then;
Are we not in a state of lawlessness already? No?
What indeed is a hole in the soul? It is a feeling of inadequacy, of something vital missing from life. Very often a realisation of this gap causes a great restlessness till we figure out how to mend it. And yes, different things work for different people. All holes are not the same size and dimension, and each needs a different solution to fix it. Each of us has our own compulsions, our dreams, our purpose and goals; some things that make us wildly happy. A realisation of this and walking the path towards these is the only way to start feeling peaceful, calm and purposeful.
But the first step, of course, is the realisation of the void before we set out to bridge it. The realisation may not always come in a peaceful, friendly manner. It could be a jolt of awareness, a bolt from the blue. A jolt is often what you need to shake you out of a complacent, somnambulant state. And so, sometimes if someone or something comes along to shake us up, it is important to understand that Nature, God or your own supreme consciousness wants you disturbed for some good reason. This is the hard nudge you need to remind yourself that you are procrastinating, biding your time in a happy bubble, refusing to, or forgetting to move on and complete your life’s purpose. Sometimes bad experiences help you understand your own inadequacy faster; hence the talk we hear of being grateful to and forgiving those who are bad to us and who painfully teach us a lesson or two. But what is supremely important is to be aware and alert all the time – to be in full control of and responsible for oneself.
Thinking of this, I was surfing the television when I was brought up short by the very dialogue echoing in my mind – a brilliant coincidence. A man trying to persuade his wife to help him bring down a powerful, independent girl to her knees, says, “Anyone is bound to fall when you take away his or her support. But for that, you have to first get the person accustomed to the support, before removing it.” And the only way to do so is to attack them through their emotions. It is a game with some to bring down the more assured, the confident who seem to be walking their path unaided, all by themselves. Weakness despises strength; the insecure cannot stand the secure. You may find your inner peace, but the most important thing is to be able to defend it against those who are eager to disturb it.
There are plenty of hooks out there to latch onto – you have to choose which one you will allow to engage your mind. Rather than your life being dependent on incidents, accidents and circumstances, you have to engineer these to suit you and take charge of your own life. If firmly in the saddle, sometimes you may even allow yourself to be touched by something that is obviously potentially dangerous. Controlled damage may help the creative purpose you aspire for and help add value in other spheres of your life; it may help you know and understand yourself, your strengths and weaknesses better. Any experience is fine – so long as you emerge richer and stronger from it.
We are often not consciously aware of the need to maintain balance. If we are aware and alert, nobody can harm us or try and take away power or santulan, our sense of balance from us. If you look at and understand everything as part of a pattern that has to be unravelled, life becomes beautiful and exciting. If we view everything that is placed before us as a clue to unravel and understand life, we are better able to accept whatever life doles out to us.
