It Gets Curiouser and Curiouser

The last time Desi witnessed a drama in court, Lewis Caroll's Alice in Wonderland came to mind, and the above quote is extracted from that dainty children's fairy-tale.

We are back to deja vu with the latest courtroom drama on Monday, and the Bar Council has described it as "very unusual" and also the abrupt decision to change the prosecution team "had given rise to a lot of speculation. Desi thinks Ms S. Ambiga was being diplomatic.

I would say it's "fishy". Very fishy. I could smell the rotten "potential" curry fishhead all the way in Furong from the Shah Alam court because someone with a Big Head did not sprinkle enough fragrance or pesticide on the head. Whose head, you ask? Dare you! Desi dare not answer! I was once a cowherd LOST somewhere in Spain, trying to touch base with a young shepherd boy in Andalucia as we both shared a similar dream. But that's digressing too far away.


From The Star June 6, 2007, page N4:


Bar: Reason for change of prosecution is unusual

KUALA LUMPUR: The reason offered by Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail for the sudden change of DPPs in the Altantuya Shaariibuu murder case was “very unusual”.

Bar Council chairman S. Ambiga said that although Abdul Gani had the prerogative to choose his team, the nature of how the change was made – on the first day of the trial – had given rise to a lot of speculation.

She was referring to Abdul Gani’s statement on Monday that he had replaced the previous team of prosecutors with a new one to ensure a “fair trial” to all parties concerned.

“My interest is to ensure that the public knows exactly what happened and how the police investigated the case,” he had said.

The new team of prosecutors, however, admitted in court on Monday that they were not ready to handle the trial and sought a month-long postponement.

Queried by trial judge Justice Mohd Zaki Md Yasin, the new lead prosecutor Tun Abdul Majid Tun Hamzah said he was not privy to the reason for the change and that he had only received instructions to take over on Sunday afternoon.

Tun Abdul Majid also could not give an answer when the judge suggested that he should work with the previous team for the first few days since he was not familiar with the case.

Asked whether the remarks insinuated that the previous team might not be able to ensure a “fair trial”, Ambiga said: “I don’t know but we are looking into it. The circumstances are certainly unusual”.

She hoped that the A-G’s Chambers would clarify the matter as soon as possible to put an end to the speculations.

Tun Abdul Majid dropped a bombshell on Monday when he announced that his team had taken over the charge of prosecuting in the high profile case involving two policemen and political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda.

The change of DPPs caused the trial to be postponed to June 18.

C/Insp Azilah, 31, and Kpl Sirul Azhar Umar, 36, are charged with murdering Altantuya in Mukim Bukit Raja, Selangor, between 10pm on Oct 19 and 1am on Oct 20 last year. Abdul Razak, 47, is accused of abetting the two Unit Tindakan Khas (Special Action Force) personnel at the Bangunan Getah Asli in Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur, between 9.54am and 11.05am on Oct 18 last year.

The previous prosecutors, Salehuddin Saidin and Noorin Badaruddin, the same team who prosecuted in the Canny Ong murder trial that led to the conviction of Ahmad Najib Aris, had been handling the Altantuya case from the start.

DESI: All the highlights in the news report (THUS BOLDED) are Desi's.

A reprisal to jog thy memory, can? It's WedNURSEdae, slated by fairie folklore to be a DayOfWoe -- so Desi hopes you are KNOT a wednesday's childe, born to be alone! -- but let's enjoy some versifying, though it's this Scribe trumpeting his own -- whatelse? -- trumpet, taken out from June 1's entry flagging off that Anthology of Poems around Midnight when you sometimes hear strange Voices -- Unusual? YES. Fishy? No-lah! -- beckoning.

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Dr. Mahathir’s 22-year as helmsman of Malaysia has also seen the country through many good, and bad, and ugly, times. The most tumultuous event would, in my humble opinion, be the “sacking of Anwar Ibrahim” as the deputy premier and as deputy president of UMNO, which was followed by a series of “strange events” in the courts, and in the streets of Kuala Lumpur. For me as a journalist, these events amounted to what I’d term as “rude awakenings”; but there was not much room for putting down in words one’s feelings of bewilderment and outrage at these events. Most just watched with a sense of resignation at the unfolding drama; many termed it as “sandiwara” (Malay opera), but these “shows” at least stirred many Malaysians from their life-goes-on-as-usual life-style. For once, many became more politically conscious, if not active, and they asked questions, if not in public, at least at the teh-tarik stall or higher class coffee-house, or at their favourite water-hole. People began to wonder what’s happening, and where are we, as a nation, headed? Featured here is one poem composed during these interesting times, relating to the then unfolding, mainly political, events:

It Gets Curiouser and Curiouser

When I was young I was told
Spinning a story you must be bold
But it still must have a beginning
And an ending, and somethin’ in between

But lately my motherland
Gave birth to very strange events
The cycle was like a record
Being played out from the end

Remember Michael Jackson’s video clip
When uprooted trees regained their standing stature
Dried up safari land became green pastures
And elephant carcasses stood majestically alive again

It gets curiouser and curiouser
As was observed in Alice in Wonderland
And events in Malaysia the past decade
Closely mirror Lewis Carroll’s rich imaginings

The story purportedly started in September 1998
As many Anwarists would want you to believe
That Reformasi was galvanized
When the deputy PM was excised from the head

But my friends, be reminded
It was way back on a May Day in ‘88
When the court sat on a holy day
A panel of junior judges sacked their chief

Salleh Abas Lord President was dismissed in a jiffy
But then DPM Anwar Ibrahim held his tongue
A decade later with one fell swoop
Anwar became a lauded victim in the vicious loop

Refomrasi Anwar started, his loyalists proclaim
They forgot Salleh and his Brave Ones
Who stood their ground for justice
They indeed were the unheralded Originals

Reformation is not only taking to the streets
It’s changing of the mindset
What became of the Judiciary following Salleh?
It was downhill all the way…

It led the country’s leading judicious mind
The late Tun Suffian Hashim to lament in 2000:
"I wouldn’t like to be tried by today’s judges,
Especially if I am innocent.”*

*Quoted from a speech on March 10, 2000 that the former Lord President delivered at a Bar commemoration for the late Justice Tan Sri Wan Sulaiman.


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UPDATEd June 8, 2007...

From theSun, page 4:

Top lawyers split
over A-G's explanation

PETALING JAYA: Senior lawyers were split over the Attorney-General (A-G)'s explanation on his decision to replace the deputy public prosecutor (DPP) in the murder trial of Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu at the last minute.

While former Bar Council president Datuk Kuthubul Zaman Bukhari said Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail's decision was based on reasonable grounds, other lawyers had different views.

Kuthubul told theSun yesterday he was satisfied with the A-G's explanation over the replacement of DPP Salehuddin Saidin with Tun Abdul Majid Hamzah, a senior and experienced DPP.

Abdul Gani had said on Wednesday he made the change after he was informed that Salehuddin had been seen playing badminton with trial judge Datuk Mohd Zaki Md Yasin.

"To ensure fairness in a trial, justice must not only be done but also be seen to be done," Kuthubul said.

"If the DPP and judge have some kind of interest that would prejudice the issue, there is reasonable ground for the A-G's position."

On the first day of the high-profile case on Monday (June 4), Abdul Majid told the court he was only instructed to take over the case from Salehuddin the night before. As a result, the case had to be postponed to June 18.

Abdul Gani was later quoted as saying in an English daily he made the change "to ensure a fair trial" but did not elaborate.

This prompted several lawyers, including Kuthubul, and the Bar Council to urge Abdul Gani to explain himself to prevent speculation.

Bar Council president Ambiga Sreenavasan could not be reached for comment today.

On Noorin Badaruddin, the other prosecuting lawyer who was replaced, Kuthubul said it was up to the A-G to decide.

Kuthubul said while it was not necessary for the whole team to be dismissed if the lead prosecutor was replaced, he believed Abdul Gani had made the right decision.

"Maybe, some elements of influence could be there because they have been working together a number of times before this," he said.

Salehuddin is the head of the Classified Cases Unit, and Noorin is head of the General Crimes and Sexual Unit in the A-G's Chambers in Putrajaya.

They had been handling the Altantuya murder case from the time Chief Insp Azilah Hadri Azilah and Cpl Sirul Azhar Umar were charged on Nov 15.

The two officers were charged with committing the crime in Bukit Raja, Selangor, between 10pm on Oct 19 and 1am on Oct 20 last year. Political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda is also charged with abetting them.

In Penang, lawyer Datuk K. Kumaraendran said most lawyers and judges knew each other, some from their college days, so this should not be the reason to disqualify lawyers from a case.

He said it was common for lawyers and judges to know each other as most moved in the same social circles.

"Some of us even studied in the same colleges and universities," he said.

On Karpal Singh's appeal to disqualify Hazman Ahmad from representing one of the accused because Hazman's late wife was the judge's niece, Kumaraendran said this should not be grounds for disqualification.

Another senior lawyer, Datuk V. Sithambaram, said generally, it should not be a problem if a judge was distantly related to the lawyer.

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DESI:
I won't add any comment but still, I have my doubts about Gani Patail's being 100% forthright in telling the "truth of the matter".
Just an aside, what was his stance when a former Chief Justice was shown to be holidaying in New Zealnd with a lawyer (handling a high-rpofile case involving a tycoon) in the infamous expose code-named Bowman's Papers?