The ridiculous persecution of Tommy Thomas under Anwar Ibrahim

Doesn’t the government have anything better to do?

I was recently informed that human rights lawyer Siti Kassim, who spoke at Dr Lim Teck Ghee and my book launch on 17th September 2022, has been called up by the Classified Crime Investigation Unit.

Siti spoke alongside former attorney general Tommy Thomas at the book launch. The police are on a fishing expedition to find any hearsay evidence of sedition to tarnish Tommy Thomas’ reputation.

This all appears to be at the bequest of UMNO rednecks, who are seeking revenge over the work Tommy Thomas did in an attempt to bring alleged corrupt UMNO politicians to justice.

UMNO youth chief Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki went even further to suggest those freed by the court system, on investigations and charges Tommy conducted against them, jointly take legal action against Tommy Thomas. As they were ‘Crown cases’ the government would have to be the prime defendant.

Law reform minister Azalina Othman Said announced yesterday that the cabinet had agreed to set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry to look into a number of claims made by Tommy Thomas’ in his book “Justice in the Wilderness’.

The RCI will be based on a terms of reference divided into four categories:

1.      Allegations levelled against the judiciary,

2.      Exposing government secrets,

3.      Abuse of power and professional negligence, and

4.      Seditious statements.

This UMNO madness aimed at rehabilitating deputy prime minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi is occurring under the watch of Anwar Ibrahim. According to Azalina, the go ahead on setting up the RCI to investigate Tommy Thomas was agreed by cabinet, which Anwar presided over. This implies Anwar has signed off on this with full agreement.

Anwar was also critical of Tommy Thomas’ book last year when Ismail Sabri investigated statements made in the book.

With the nation facing a number of urgent challenges, why does the Anwar government have time and money to spend on a politically motivated inquiry?

Announcing the RCI happened at a time when Zahid is trying to prop himself up to hold the UMNO presidency in May. He appears to be using every method he knows to prevent a challenge from Khairy Jamaluddin. Khairy is charging that this suppression of an election for the top two positions in UMNO, which is destroying the principle of democracy within UMNO itself.

This is revenge politics which Anwar appears to be condoning. Deeply Machiavellian, when Malaysians hoped those days would be over. The last government led by Ismail Sabri Yaakob, was replaced by a new government led by Anwar Ibrahim. It is looking more like this new government is just doing exactly the same things the old government was doing.

Anwar’s only defence is that he is a captive prime minister obligated towards too many people. UMNO is after their pound of flesh, as are elements of the rulers, political funders, and corporate monopolies. Anwar is very quickly finding being prime minister is a very lonely place.

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