The tyranny of BN and the malice of Ummi

In 1998, Dr Mahathir's tyrannous regime infamously tried Anwar Ibrahim on trumped-up sodomy charges. In the great tradition of authoritarian rulers everywhere, Mahathir used a corrupt police force and biased judiciary to put Anwar away.

So outrageous was the conduct of Augustine Paul,the presiding judge in Anwar's trial, that it would be not be extreme to compare him to the notorious Nazi kangaroo court judge, Roland Freisler.

Anwar rallied the people and put up a tremendous fight, but to no avail. Brute force had prevailed over the voices of countless people who took to the streets and to cyberspace resolved to end the unjust rule of the Umno-led Barisan Nasional (BN) government.

Free Anwar became the rallying call of liberal and progressive Malaysia, and Anwar's fate became tied up with the hopes of a nation. And so the nation was thrilled when the Anwar-led opposition coalition won 5 states and 82 parliamentary seats in the last general election.

Since then the BN government has tried every possible underhand ploy at its disposal in order to undermine the opposition coalition. This included fabricating another sodomy case against Anwar who is rightly regarded by the government as its chiefest foe.

His biggest sin in the eyes of the government is his unprecednted challenge to their divide and rule racial policies. This threatens the very existence of the BN, and consequently the vested interests of its leaders and their chief supporters.

Increasingly desperate, they have now conjured up Ummi Hafilda Ali, a faded and vaguely sinister figure from the first sodomy trial. At her press conference on 13th January, she exuded a great deal of malice, but made very little sense.

She made the astonishing claim that the opposition gains in March 2008 were solely due to her absence from the electoral battlefield.

She threatened to sue Anwar and others for hundreds of millions, although there appears to be no legal cause of action known to our jurisprudence to support her ridiculous claim. Trotting out this foolish woman just as the general election looms closer is surely a new low even for the BN government.

It is significant that Ummi Hafilda has been dusted off the shelf just as Najib desperately seeks ways to avoid debating Anwar Ibrahim on the economy. Instead of engaging in an open and free discussion of national issues with the leader of the opposition, the BN chooses to respond by digging up the mouldering bones of an old and discredited slander.

Oppressive and dishonest, the BN advances its political agenda by engaging in sordid conspiracies against its political opponents. Unable and unwilling to engage in free political discourse, the BN constantly seeks to use State powers to criminalize and destroy its opponents.

This has ever been the way with tyrants. But like so many other tyrannies, this one too shall come to an end, and our nation will shake off the restraints imposed by BN and stride forward to meet its great destiny.

N Surendran is a PKR vice-president and a renowned human rights lawyer. Malaysia Chronicle