Zaid: Turning court into porn cinema 'foolish'

Despite his hostility toward PKR de factor leader Anwar Ibrahim, Parti Kesejahteraan Insan Tanah Air (Kita) chief Zaid Ibrahim slammed BN's attempts to pin Anwar as the man in the sex video as "foolish and clumsy".

He said that BN's inept handling of even "the simplest of issues" has favoured Anwar.

"The charge against Datuk T should have been dispensed with in the normal way without resorting to this song-and-dance routine.

"There was no need for the defence lawyer to call on the attorney-general to charge Anwar for false reporting, nor was there any need for the big speech about a 'mission accomplished'," said Zaid (right) in a posting on the Kita official website.

The posting is related to the trial of Datuk T trio - businessman Shazryl Eskay Abdullah, former Perkasa treasurer Shuib Lazim and former Malacca chief minister Rahim Thamby Chik, last Friday over the Seri Carcosa sex video scandal.

During the hearing, Shafee Abdullah, the counsel for Rahim, produced a report by professors Hany Farid and Lorenzo Torresani from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, to prove there is a 99.99 percent match of the male in the video clip to a known photo of Anwar based on facial recognition analysis.

Although the trio pleaded guilty and were slapped with a fine of up to RM3,000, the way the hearing was conducted, including screening of the video clip in court, could be seen as an abuse of the court process, with the intention to smear Anwar.

Public sentiment

Zaid pointed that the opposition parties namely DAP and PAS will continue denying that the person depicted in the video is Anwar if public sentiment continues to side with them.

"That's the tragedy of Malaysian politics. The hatred of Umno and the BN has coalesced and morphed into something equally dangerous. Merely for the sake of opposition, people are prepared to embrace a liar.

"People ignore evidence, or, better yet, they are prepared to accept new principles of evidence just to suit the opposition. Together, they are willing to plant and grow the seeds of conspiracy and to blame it all on the police and the courts, and so on," he said.

The former PKR leader compared Anwar (left) with a bankrupt, arguing that the former should be not allowed to contest in election.

"On a moral scale, how is a bankrupt less desirable than a leader of the opposition who knowingly tells lies to the public and refuses to acknowledge and accept his failings, but instead agitates the people against the government solely to protect himself?" he queried.

"If Anwar had the interests of the people at heart, even in the slightest way, he would have been honest. He would have spared his family from having to tell lies as well. It would have been unnecessary for him to lodge a false report (which can get him into more trouble), and it would have been unnecessary for a Court of Law to have been used as a pornographic cinema.

"It would not have been necessary for groups to distribute the videos to young and old, and to make us all look like a sex-obsessed nation," he said.

Zaid commented that the opposition has resort to lies and deceit to protect Anwar, following in the footsteps of BN.

"How can the opposition be better if basic standards of decency, honesty and truth can be ignored so easily?

"If Dr Mahathir Mohamad destroyed the judiciary for good, then his friend Anwar has likewise destroyed the credibility of the Opposition. Only the inept BN has allowed Anwar to remain a political force," he added.