Denials from the Inspector General of Police Ismail Omar and Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein that they were not involved in a two-minute snippet of the sex video implicating Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim found little traction with the Malaysian public and government critics.
Just days ago, Ismail had sparked suspicion when he suddenly declared that after forensic investigation, it was found that the 21-minute video had not been "doctored, but refused to say if the man filmed having sex with a prostitute was Anwar or merely a look-alike.
Three days later, on Monday, a snippet of the video - already surrendered to the police - was uploaded on YouTube and on pro-Umno blogs.
It paved the way for all the Umno-controlled newspapers including Utusan to front-page stills of scenes that showed the man resembling Anwar.
“Of course it (the video) did not come from us. That is illegal and immoral. How can I allow such a thing?” Ismail told a press conferece on Tuesday to defuse speculation that the police had conspired with the Umno elite to bring Anwar down.
But he failed to convince Malaysians, accustomed to Umno's penchant for hatching conspiracies to bring down political rivals.
It did not help that Home Minister Hishamuddin Hussein was also lined up to help deny government complicity in the plot.
“We don’t know where the video came from. Who uploaded it, we don’t know,” Hisham said.
Sad day for Malaysia
Yet the day before, Hisham - who is Prime Minister Najib Razak's cousin - had taken pains to stress that Umno, BN, his ministry and the police were all not involved in the video that has shocked the nation and sparked sharp rebuke from community leaders.
"This must be one of the saddest days in Malaysian history. A decent and respected family must watch pronographic clips conceived by leaders who are supposed to govern their country. They must watch the tape because their fatheir is defamed by unscrupluous rascals," PAS MP for Bukit Gantang Nizar Jamaluddin toldMalaysia Chronicle.
Nizar was referring to a press conference where Anwar's wife and family stated that they had watched the snippet on the Internet and found that the man was not Anwar due to his sharply different physique and size.
"It is clear that the body and physique of the actor in the video is extremely different from the body and physique of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. This is strengthened by the fact that for over a year now Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has been accompanied by his children whenever he exercises and undergoes physiotherapy as part of recuperative measures for his injured spine," Anwar's wife and PKR president Wan Azizah had said earlier on Tuesday.
Still no arrests despite committing a crime
Anwar himself is in Sarawak, busy leading the Pakatan Rakyat campaign to topple the BN government at polls due for balloting on April 16.
He has accused Najib and Hisham of being involved.
"Najib is involved. If not, how can they (the 'Datuk T' trio) get cleared? The criminals are clearly getting away with this. They don't care about the truth even after it is established. They just want to create a issue," Anwar told reporters on Monday night.
He was referring to the three men who called themselves the Datuk T trio - former Malacca mentri besar Rahim Thamby Chik, Perkasa treasurer Shuaib Lazim and businessman Shazryl Eskay, who have confessed to 'finding' the tape and screening it to a group of reporters, editors and select PKR leaders.
Despite committing a crime, none of the men have been arrested. They have surrendered the tape - which they claimed was the only one they possessed - to the police last month.
It is a crime to possess and screen pornographic material in Malaysia.
A recent opinion poll by Merdeka Centre found that 51 per cent of those surveyed did not believe Anwar was the man in the video. More than 39 per cent of respondents said BN had masterminded the video, more than twice the number who said the ruling coalition was not involved.
- Malaysia Chronicle
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