Whether lawyer P. Wathya Moorthy, former minister and current president of the Malaysian Action Party, has presented a strong enough case for the court to disqualify Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim from serving as the Member of Parliament for Tambun remains to be seen.
Ultimately, it is for the court to determine the validity of the arguments put forward by Wathya Moorthy.
He contends that although Anwar received a royal pardon in 2018, the pardon did not exempt him from the five-year restriction on contesting in general elections. According to Wathya Moorthy, the exemption period was not applicable to Anwar.
Anwar’s supporters argue that the application to disqualify him is time-barred, frivolous, and politically motivated due to Wathya Moorthy’s close association with Bersatu, a member of the PN opposition coalition.
Some critics have also questioned the legitimacy of Anwar’s pardon itself, alleging that the proper procedures were not followed — including claims that the Pardons Board never convened to recommend the pardon to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong in 2018.
Regardless, there is no reason to condemn Wathya Moorthy for bringing the matter before the courts. The judiciary will decide whether Anwar met the pardon criteria that would exempt him from the five-year election ban.
If Wathya Moorthy’s challenge succeeds, Anwar would have to resign as MP for Tambun — a development that would make his position as prime minister untenable.
Detractors and loyalists alike can voice their opinions, but the rule of law must prevail. If the facts support Anwar, he has nothing to fear. Still, even if the case is ultimately dismissed as time-barred, the question of whether he should have contested the 2022 general election will linger. On that point, Anwar bears a moral responsibility to consider relinquishing both his parliamentary seat and the prime ministership.
Subscribe Below:
Upon further examination, the following observation merits consideration: Proponents of Anwar assert that the motion to disqualify him is time-barred, vexatious, and driven by political machinations, given Wathya Moorthy’s affiliations with Bersatu, a constituent of the Perikatan Nasional opposition coalition.
This assertion, however, constitutes not a defense but an implicit concession on Anwar's part. (Would be interesting to know who his lawyers are in this matter). It neither refutes the substance of the allegations nor contests the validity of the charge. Instead, it proffers a rationale that sidesteps substantive legal rebuttal, effectively amounting to a tacit admission on Anwar’s part.
Such maneuvering is emblematic of the Malaysian legal fraternity’s intricacies.
Notably, the applicant, Waytha Moorthy, has a documented history of submitting woefully inadequate, embarassing and frivolous legal arguments, as evidenced by his ill-fated drafting and representation of Malaysia’s indentured laborers and their descendants before a British court for compensation.
The outcome of that case serves as a stark testament to Moorthy’s legal acumen, (or lack thereof). As the Texan adage aptly puts it, he is “all hat and no cattle.”.
If the Malaysian courts, its election commission and more importantly its legal fraternity and courts have all overlooked Anwar's disqualification and legal disability under the constitution, so be it. It is not as if there is anyone of any repute within Malaysia's legal fraternity incluing its judges and lawyers who can now properly advise the Agong about retrospectively correcting the defect and the disability. It is a power the Agong has to exercise at his discretion.
Regardless of how the Courts there decide in this case, the Malaysian Legal Fraternity who were once so pro Anwar before they turned on him, would not know the difference of rght from wrong or the issues that arise in Anwar's eligibility to enter parlaiment as a respresentative of any constituecy. And neither would Waythamurthi. His pleadings in the Indian claim against the British were awful, embarrassing, disgraceful and an exhibition of all thats wrong with the Malaysian legal fraterity and people like him.