Anwar Ibrahim

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• Saiful’s Alleged Affair: Possibility of Sodomy II Mistrial
• Penjawat Awam Wajib Menunaikan Amanah Yang Dipertanggungjawabkan
• Obama’s Failure in Burma
• Business Council Mum Over Rosmah Ad

Saiful’s Alleged Affair: Possibility of Sodomy II Mistrial Posted: 24 Jul 2010 06:31 PM PDT From Malaysia Chronicle By Wong Choon Mei, As  public misgivings grow, there are calls for the sodomy trial against Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim to be suspended until a probe has been completed on allegations that Saiful Bukhari Azlan’s neutrality as the key witness has been compromised because of a sexual affair with a member of the prosecuting team. "We are looking at a possible mistrial if the allegations are true. I think everyone was shocked when the news came out, but let's get it right. From the beginning, by the fact of their status in the case, this was never a personal affair between two people," Anwar's lawyer Sivarasa Rasiah told Malaysia Chronicle. "If true, there is a fundamental and serious conflict of interest. And this is why it is important that the court orders a probe as soon as possible." Investigation papers He was not sure if the defense would make an application to the court or wait until August 2, when the trial, popularly known as Sodomy II, is due to resume. According to Siva, his team would discuss the matter and try to gather as much information as possible. Anwar, the 62-year-old PKR adviser, was accused of sodomizing Saiful at Unit 11-5-1 of the Desa Damansara Condominium in Jalan Setiakasih, Bukit Damansara, Kuala Lumpur, between 3.01pm and 4.30pm on June 26, 2008. He has denied the charges and accused Prime Minister Najib Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor of collaborating with Saiful to frame him and derail his political comeback. "Details like when did Saiful start his relationship with the lady prosecutor are important as they indicate how much access he had to the prosecution's Investigation Papers. Remember, he is the complainant against Anwar and his reason for the trial is to punish Anwar," Siva said. "So, if he has privy to the information in the Investigation Papers because of this relationship, then he would have unfair knowledge of what is likely to be asked in court and how to plan his answers accordingly. So if true, the trial which is already questionable and should never have begun in the first place would be even more of a mistrial." Gag order Indeed, the Najib administration has been sharply rebuked for pushing through the case against Anwar although two government hospital reports have stated there was no evidence of penetration in Saiful's anus. The prosecution has also refused to allow the defense to access key information including chemists' reports, sparking speculation that Najib might use DNA samples obtained from Anwar in 1998. Then, Anwar – the deputy prime minister – had been similarly incarcerated by former premier Mahathir Mohamad. It was only after Mahathir resigned that Anwar was acquitted in 2004 after spending 6 years in jail on what he has always maintained were trumped-up charges. Hence, the tag Sodomy II for the current trial. Apart from Siva, there are other leaders who have urged for a thorough investigation, including by the Islamic religious authorities. as both Saiful and the lady are Muslims. "Out of fairness, the court should immediately suspend the case and do a thorough probe. The religious authorities should also investigate whether Saiful and his friend have breached boundaries acceptable in Islam," PAS vice president toldMalaysia Chronicle. So far, neither Saiful nor his alleged lover have responded to the accusations although Solicitor-General 2 Mohd Yusof Zainal Abiden, has tried to downplay the news, which could potentially upset his case against Anwar. "Can you trust Raja Petra in the first place? He's always spreading rumors," Yusof said. He was referring to top blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin, who first broke the news on his Malaysia Today blog. Raja Petra has also named the lady and there is speculation that he may possess further details including photos or even a video. "We hope that the government will not exert any political pressure to gag or stop any authority – whether civil or Islamic – from probing the allegations for the sake of transparency and justice," PKR strategic director Tian Chua told Malaysia Chronicle.

Penjawat Awam Wajib Menunaikan Amanah Yang Dipertanggungjawabkan Posted: 24 Jul 2010 06:25 PM PDT Prinsip asas pentadbiran awam adalah jelas: ketaatan kepada ‘government of the day’. Dan prinsip ini digunapakai di seluruh dunia. Dalam erti kata lain,biar pemerintah datang dan pergi, penjawat awam harus terus mencurahkan khidmat bakti kepada negara dan rakyat. Sikap Pegawai Pembangunan Negeri Pulau Pinang, Nik Ali Wan Yunus nyata sangat mendukacitakan. Meskipun Nik Ali merupakan pegawai lantikan persekutuan,tetapi memandangkan beliau merupakan penjawat awam yang berkhidmat di Pulau Pinang,maka keakuran beliau kepada Kerajaan Negeri harus diletakkan sebagai prioriti. Biarpun ada kecenderungan politik, penjawat awam harus kekal neutral dan telus,demi menjunjung integriti dan akauntabiliti perkhidmatan awam.Asal saja sesiapa yang memerintah,maka taat setia penjawat awam harus diberi. Prinsip ini sewajarnya digunapakai di negeri-negeri Pakatan Rakyat.Penjawat awam harus kekal menjadi tiang seri. Kenyataan Ketua Setiausaha Negara juga tampak mengecewakan,apabila melihat tidak ada keperluan Nik Ali untuk dipersalahkan,malah punya hak untuk mempertahankan diri dan dipertahankan. Kononnya Nik Ali dimalukan. Prinsip ini tidak pula digunakan apabila Nazri Aziz menyerang pegawai Kementerian pembangunan Usahawan dan Koperasi apabila timbul isu permit teksi satu masa dulu.Sewaktu Tukiman Nail dihadiahi penyapu oleh Khir Toyo,tidak juga dipertahan sedemikian rupa.Apakah kerana yang menyerang penjawat awam ini politikus Umno maka mereka perlu senyap? Penjawat awam merupakan nadi kepada pembangunan negara. Malah merekalah tunjang kepada kestabilan sesebuah kerajaan. Justeru jangan dicemar profesionalisme mereka. ANWAR IBRAHIM

Obama’s Failure in Burma Posted: 23 Jul 2010 08:23 PM PDT By Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro Friday, July 23, 2010 With Secretary of State Hillary Clinton attending the ASEAN Regional Forum this week, it is an opportune moment to examine U.S. efforts to engage with Burma (also known as Myanmar). When President Obama was inaugurated, many in the international community were particularly enthusiastic about a return to U.S. multilateralism to address global problems. Nowhere was this more necessary than in the case of Burma, where a brutal military dictatorship has for decades both oppressed its people and failed to yield power, despite losing democratic elections in a landslide in 1990. Many observers of the nascent administration, myself included, applauded Clinton’s announcement in early 2009 of a full review of U.S. policy towards Burma. I understood that some creative thinking would be valuable, having spent eight years as the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, trying to address the problems created by the junta. Yet since those early days, the Obama administration has made a series of inexplicable missteps. First, the administration took some eight months to develop its new policy. As the junta increased its repression in the run-up to elections it scheduled for this year, the United States was absent in the global debate on how to respond. Not only did Washington fail to communicate its intentions, but this silence left many diplomats confused. This disengagement resulted in reduced pressure on the Burmese junta as other countries awaited the results of the U.S. review. When a new policy was announced last fall, it was remarkably uninspiring and uninspired: keep sanctions and increase engagement. Why it took eight months to develop such an obvious result is unclear. Second, the administration has left unfilled the congressionally mandated position of special coordinator on Burma policy. While Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell has all the qualities necessary to lead the State Department’s engagement with the junta, he is also responsible for all U.S. policy relating to Asia, so he has limited time to focus on Burma, and the lack of sustained focus has been lamentable. Finally, when the United States got around to engaging directly with the junta, it took a surprisingly unilateral approach. I do not understand why the administration would think it would have any leverage with this regime without bringing partners to the dialogue. The Burmese junta knows it has support from China and Russia in the U.N. Security Council. It is making billions of dollars annually from its natural resources. And the United States will get no leverage from existing sanctions against Burma until it exercises its leadership to bring into the process others whose views do matter to the regime. If the United States wants to influence the junta, it must immediately change its entire approach. Beyond appointing an envoy, it must make Burma policy a high-level priority. The junta has the upper hand. Without the kind of pressure the United States can bring to bear multilaterally, the junta will have no incentive to come to the table, let alone change its behavior. Specifically, the United States should reach out to its allies, beginning at the ASEAN Regional Forum, to ensure that most nations will reject the results from Burma’s upcoming “elections,” which by every indication will be neither free nor fair. It should publicly embrace the call of my successor, Tomás Ojea Quintana, to create a commission of inquiry through the United Nations to investigate crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by the junta, and then work multilaterally to make this inquiry happen. It should fully enforce existing U.S. sanctions and target Singaporean and Dubai banks that do business with the regime. It should work to impose a global arms embargo on Burma. And it should take full advantage of being one of three countries to lead the cross-examination of Burma’s human rights record in the Universal Periodic Review process taking place in the U.N. Human Rights Council early next year. Some will say it is unrealistic to expect the United States to put in this kind of concerted diplomatic effort, particularly given its other foreign policy priorities. I have dealt with the Burmese junta and understand better than most how hard it is to influence the generals. I am certain that if the United States actually wants to affect this regime, its efforts must be strategic, focused and unrelenting. Given the forthcoming “elections” in Burma, President Obama and Secretary Clinton have limited time to turn around their policy. As a start, they need to take Burma and this situation seriously. Then they need to show the world that the United States means what it says. The writer, an adjunct professor of international relations at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies, was the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar from 2000 to 2008.

Business Council Mum Over Rosmah Ad Posted: 23 Jul 2010 08:21 PM PDT From The Nutt Graph By Jacqueline Ann Surin and Koh Lay Chin The Business Council for International Understanding (BCIU), which conferred the prime minister's wife an award in New York in April, has remained mum about whether it was the party which placed a congratulatory advertisement in the New York Times (NYT) for her. BCIU president Peter J Tichansky did not respond to e-mail queries to confirm that the council paid for the NYT ad that congratulated Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor for receiving the inaugural and little-known International Peace and Harmony Award. The Nut Graph sent two e-mail enquiries to Tichansky to ask him to confirm who had actually paid for the award. The first e-mail was sent on 2 June after Tichansky wrote to us to express regret that a "well-intended gesture of welcome and congratulations honoring Malaysia's First Lady" as the award recipient may have become a "political issue". The second e-mail to Tichansky was sent on 15 June after Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced in Parliament on that day that BCIU was the organisation that placed the ad. Najib's statement in Parliament was the first time the government publicly denied that it had paid for the ad. Throughout The Nut Graph's reporting of the issue, the Prime Minister's Office did not respond to our queries despite being given several opportunities to comment over a period of one month. The NYT had originally told The Nut Graph that the ad, signed off "from family and friends in USA and Malaysia" was placed by "an ad agency on behalf of the Malaysian government." Eighteen days later, the NYT said it had made a mistake. But it would not reveal who actually took out the ad nor clarify how executive director for community affairs and media relations, Diane McNulty, could have made such a mistake. Instead, NYT's director of public relations, Abbe Serphos, repeated that the ad was signed by "Family and friends in the USA and Malaysia". Only when pressed did she reply: "In our internal systems the ad was reserved as a Government of Malaysia ad, but in fact the ad was not placed by the Government of Malaysia." Tichansky has not responded to either e-mail from The Nut Graph. In addition, Tichansky also did not respond to questions about when the award was conceived and by whom, what criteria were used in conceptualising the award, who the other nominees for the award were, and how Rosmah qualified for it. In his first and only e-mail to us on 2 June, Tichansky had reiterated BCIU's "respect for [Rosmah's] humanitarian and charity work", saying she was a "deserving recipient of BCIU's award". Tichansky (source: BCIU.org) After Najib's statement in Parliament, Tichansky did not answer why the BCIU would sign off the ad as "family and friends [of Rosmah] in USA and Malaysia" instead of representing itself in the ad. He also did not answer the question as to how the BCIU could represent Rosmah's family and friends. The NYT has declined to disclose how much the ad cost. However, according to some estimates, full-page ads taken out in the NYT suggests that the cost of such advertisements ranges from US$180,000 to US$230,000. This amounts to between RM580,000 and RM740,000 for a one-page ad. The congratulatory ad for Rosmah which appeared on 16 April 2010 was a two-page colour spread that would have cost far more. It remains unclear why a US-based business council would pay for such an ad. "Joh", the receptionist Apart from the BCIU, another party that is apparently involved in the ad has also remained mum about unanswered questions arising from the ad and the NYT's retraction. Henry Thomas Jones of Laurus Group DC, a "small public relations firm", sent an e-mail on 7 June accusing The Nut Graph of blowing up a "trivial matter" and being unprofessional. The Nut Graph had written to Jones on 3 June to ask what his involvement in the award and the ad was after he had surprisingly copied us on an e-mail to Tichansky. In that e-mail, sent on 1 June, Jones had responded to Tichansky's e-mail to us which defended Rosmah as the award recipient. Jones told Tichansky: "This is great. Thank you! Please send, and I'll forward to Joh." Obama meets Najib (© Pete Souza, The White House | Flickr) The Nut Graph then wrote to Jones, who is known to have worked in a powerful lobbying company and is a seasoned political campaigner, to ask him if Laurus Group, DC was the one that ordered and paid for the ad congratulating Rosmah. We also asked if he was involved in lobbying for Najib's meeting with President Barack Obama and for Rosmah to be conferred an award. Additionally, we asked him who "Joh" was, and whether it was a particular individual whose name has been circulating among the New York-based media, and among local business and political circles. Jones did not reply. However, after our 7 June report on the NYT's mistake, Jones's apparent involvement, and the mysterious "Joh", Jones wrote a scathing e-mail that said: "'Joh' … is my receptionist, Jo. When typing on the iPhone, it is not uncommon for me to misspell words. In this instance, I added an 'h'. My firm provides occasional PRO BONO services to the Business Council for International Understanding. "It is unfortunate that such a trivial matter, a misspelling in an internal communication, gives rise for your publication to generate unsubstantiated allegations, and then to publish the same. From an American perspective, I find The Nut Graph's standards for publication to be less than professional." Despite being asked to clarify in an e-mail we sent on 8 June, Jones did not reveal his receptionist's full name and contact details. He also did not explain why a receptionist in his firm would need to be copied on a correspondence between him and his client. He did not specify what about The Nut Graph's reporting on 7 June constituted "unsubstantiated allegations". New York party Robert De Niro (© Petr Novák| Wiki Commons) Apart from the NYT ad, Rosmah and Najib were also feted on 16 April at the five-star St Regis Hotel in New York where the award ceremony was held. The star-studded event was emceed by Oscar-winning actor Jamie Foxx and attended by Hollywood glitterati including Oscar-winning Robert De Niro and Charlize Theron, and Emmy Rossum. Performances by Grammy-award nominee Leona Lewis, and the Harlem Boys Choir were also held. A rendition of We Are the World led by Foxx and sung by De Niro, Theron and others ended the night. Various blog postings and Tweets on the event talk about how well Foxx warmed the party up. One blogger, who attended the event, wrote that Foxx performed a "flirty" karaoke version of You've Got a Friend with Rosmah, and danced with Najib. CBS News reporter Kaylee Hartung also tweeted and posted photos of the event saying: "When has a foreign dignitary been honored in this way? Amazing. Jamie Foxx has [the] whole room on their feet." According to one Twitter posting by a DJ, known as DJ Irie, who parties with Hollywood stars, Foxx and Rosmah rehearsed for their duet before the party. According to online reports, the party was co-hosted by BCIU and the United States Sports Academy. No information was available about how much the entire event cost.

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