The International Movement for a Just World hopes that Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim will be given a fair and just trial in accordance with the highest standards of judicial conduct.

    In this regard, it is a pity that while he has been charged in Court for a number of offences related to sodomy and abuse of power, he remains a detainee under the Internal Security Act (ISA) which denies him an open trial. There is no reason to continue to detain him under the ISA. The authorities have argued that he is being detained under the ISA because of the demonstration that took place on 20 September 1998. For initiating and organising an illegal assembly, a person should be arrested under the Police Act, not detained under the ISA. Now that Anwar has been charged in Court for offences which are not even remotely connected to ISA, it is obvious that his continued detention under the ISA is largely political. It is to prevent him from moving around the country and mobilising the people against the leadership of Dr. Mahathir Mohamad. In a democracy, a political challenger should not be deprived of his right to organise and mobilise public opinion in a peaceful manner through a dastardly undemocratic law such as the ISA.

    His detention under the ISA aside, the charges against Anwar have raised some eyebrows. Two of the persons he is alleged to have sodomised have already appealed to the High Court against their earlier conviction for sodomy. A third person had denied he had a homosexual relationship with Anwar in a sworn statement dated 10 August 1998 while a fourth alleged victim is someone from whom a police officer had attempted to extort a statement that he once had a homosexual relationship with Anwar.

    Most of the cases of abuse of power are also related to the investigations connected with the charges of sodomy and other such matters. One would have thought, given the massive media build-up against Anwar, that some monumental evidence of abuse of power and corruption would be revealed in Court. In the end, it was a classic case of the mountain that gave birth to a mouse.

    The Malaysian public is also wondering what had happened to all the other wild allegations against Anwar -- ranging from the 60 million ringgit he is supposed to have received from Dato Nallakaruppan to the official secrets he is supposed to have leaked to the enemy to his alleged role as a CIA agent. The police which produced an affidavit containing some of these allegations and the mainstream media which dramatised these allegations on their front pages or through the radio and television news bulletins, stand totally discredited. The only way in which the Malaysian media and the police can restore a bit of their credibility is by ensuring that Anwar is given a fair trial. The media should join hands with the tens of thousands of decent Malaysians and others in every part of the world, in demanding that the Anwar trial accords with international standards of judicial inquiry. The police can assist the judiciary by observing accepted rules and conventions in the treatment of the accused and of the witnesses who will be produced in Court once the trial begins.

    By giving Anwar a fair trial we would be showing the world that we are still capable -- in spite of all the abuses of power of the last few weeks -- of that minimum decency that characterises a civilised society.
 

Dr. Chandra Muzaffar President International Movement for a Just World

30 September 1998