So, the police are once again investigating Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim on charges of sodomy. And again it comes at a crucial time for the ruling party, when Anwar is breathing down their collective necks once again. How convenient that another “victim” was found crying “sodomy!”  I didn’t think the powers that be would be that stupid to think a déjà vu would work again.

It is hard not to draw the conclusion that panicky old guard politicians are trying to “sodomize” Anwar politically again with such patently contrived allegations. It is a measure of how desperate they are, and how much they are still struggling to come to terms with the strong message that the electorate has given them that enough is enough!

The government insists that it has no part in this latest move against Anwar, that the police were acting independently and professionally. Let’s face it: our police have never had the reputation for acting independently or professionally. The perception is that they  are simply an instrument of UMNO.

The latest charges against Anwar will do enormous damage to our international standing. The last time such spurious charges were brought against him, our international reputation took a huge battering. We were viewed as a politically bankrupt, undemocratic nation whose leaders thought nothing about manipulating the law to sideline a political opponent. Perhaps no other single incident in our history has generated as much negative publicity for us as those sodomy charges. Our diplomatic missions went into overdrive to justify the charges and minimize the damage. They were unsuccessful. How does one justify the unjustifiable? Even the legal system in Malaysia had to finally exonerate Anwar.

The whole chicanery against Anwar deeply disturbed our nation and did much to undermine whatever trust and respect there was for our national institutions. The office of the attorney-general was exposed as an inept and conniving instrument of inquisition on behalf of the powers of the day. The judiciary lost its credibility and has yet to recover from it.  The politicians came to be seen as utterly corrupt and without integrity. And all of us in the civil service will forever have to hang our heads in shame for being a part of the machinery that railroaded an innocent man. It was Malaysia’s hour of shame. So much damage to the nation, and for what? For one man to hold on to power and to preserve his destructive legacy of corruption and mismanagement?

It is amazing that the same old guard politicians are now bringing those same scurrilous charges against the same man. I read with utter disbelief Dato’ Seri Najib’s claim that Azlan (the purported victim) turned up at his house asking for help. How very convenient! Only in Malaysia lah! Have they learned nothing? Don’t they care at all about the image of our nation? Shame on them. I say the whole lot of them should be brought to book for sodomizing the nation!

I am no fan of Anwar. I am not yet convinced that he is the kind of principled leader that our nation needs at this critical juncture of its history. He will need to do far more to demonstrate his democratic credentials to convince me but it offends me when my government thinks it can railroad an innocent man this way.