Lingamgate: Blame the whistleblower October 3, 2007
Posted by elizabethwong in Current Affairs, Democracy, Huh?!, Human Rights, Malaysia, Note2Self, Politics, Southeast Asia.trackback
Instead of getting the crooks featured in the Lingam Tape, everyone, from the ‘Independent’ Panel to the ACA is playing the game of ‘catch the whistleblower’.
Not that this is unexpected. Anyone caught with their pants down would be pointing left, right and centre while trying to cover themselves.
But this is pushing a little too far, reverse psychology and all:-
“Somebody out there (has) the original video. Does he have the responsibility (to come forward)? There may have been others who were there (during the incident). Have they got the responsibility?
“If you don’t come, don’t complain, because at the end of the day, our report is based on the material made available to us,” said panel member Datuk Mahadev Shankar. (The Sun)
Since they have taken up the job to authenticate the Lingam tape, then the first thing that comes to mind is to get technical expertise. They should just bundle the tape together with DNA sample to FBI. Save courier costs, wrap up panel and save public funds.
The whistleblower’s gift to the nation has been to record an act most scandalous and hand it to the public domain. His/her job is done. Now the government has to do the rest. Shouldn’t the panel be calling all those named in the tape to be ‘responsible’?
On protection for voluntary witnesses, Mahadev said: “The truth is the best protection…” (The Sun)
Actually no.
Royal Commission on the beating on Anwar Ibrahim, immunity was explicit. Ditto for the Royal Commission on the Police. It is quite likely that truth can be one’s best protection in a nice, democratic, accountable state.
But here, one may well find themselves receiving a shiner by a (former) Inspector-General of Police, or transformed into a tidy heap of dust, thanks to some C4 explosives taken out from a police station (unlogged) by the Unit Tindakan Khas. The police are in cohorts with the politicians who are in cohorts with some members of the judiciary, and other state functionaries. Nice six-degrees-of-separation we’ve got going on here.
A bit of news: – At 7 pm, 3 October, R. Sivarasa and TT Sim, who had already given their accounts to the ACA, received a second notice to reappear before them the next day. The ACA, no doubt, are still keen to find out who gave KeADILan the tape.
Amer Hamzah Arshad said, “Nothing short of a Royal Commission of Inquiry will not suffice.”
We may be chanting in due time, “Save the whistleblower”, next to “Save the Judiciary”, if this is allowed to go on.
elizabeth wong 
To prove the veracity of the tape, the best technical experts in the field cam be hired from overseas. The three incredible stooges in this farce are there just to confuse the focus on the issue. Not only in this instance alone but in many instances in the past, the truth of the matter was always made unimportant as compared to who were the whistleblowers. Truth, IOW, is irrelevant as with, e.g., protocol.
[…] Eli Wong would want you to believe that this is certainly not happening. In fact, I could safely say, that she implied that this is as good as digging your (whistleblower) own grave. And here’s where the argument then move towards the need for a Royal Commission (RC) – A mechanism that somehow bestows resistance against C4s and invulnerability against the malicious and violent semi-junta Government of Malaysia – say what? […]
“The truth is the best protector”…… bull shit, not in this country. Remember Lim Guan Eng spoke the TRUTH and he went to jail and the rapist was rewarded with a seat in the UMNO supreme council.
The panel is barking up the wrong tree………. to help Lingam and Fairuz.
By now, I think almost all Malaysians are disdainful of the biblical saying that “the truth will set you free”. In Malaysia, the truth will put you in trouble or land you in prison as the poor 16-year-old schoolgirl has belatedly learnt to her chagrin: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/10/4/nation/19069901&sec=nation
The Malaysian message is clear to all and sundry: The whistle-blower must be prepared to be treated with contempt by the authorities, ridiculed in public and ostracised from his family and acquaintances, and to bear the full brunt of public odium that follows a blotchy inquiry. In short, the whistle-blower must be a pariah and a martyr.
If you have tears like I have, please shed them for Malaysia.
i am a bit confused or is the 3 highly learned panelist confused? isnt it their job to verify the authenticity of the tape? shoudnt they first of all verify that the tape is not the product of a production house using actors and cgi?
then shouldnt they check with Lingam (as a courtesy call, since they “know” each other) that the correct correct correct fella is really him by asking him to say correct correct correct in a single gulp of air?
why are they so keen to ask the fler who tape the incident to come forward and say i tape it? if that fler really step forward and say .. oh yeah i taped it – does this means the 3 highly learned panelist will then conclude there and then that yes the tape is genuine?
highly learned panelist? pooh@
and yes, of course “the truth is the best protection” – with the caveat that it is dependence on which side this “truth” is coming from….i think the highly learned panelist must have left this bit out…
The way in which indoctrinated Bolehland philosophy makes of what’s truth in practise has long been dysmally and skeweredly perverting.
There are still plenty of unthinkingly conforming people out there who are largely bought by this dish water attitude ingrained earlier by hollow “education” . They inherently believe that truth is wholly teachable by rote by the establishment rather than realizeable by self. Mainly they think that conformism is the highest social virtue while ANY dissent is anti-social. The way of zoombies and predatory elites. And then they lament lost of competiveness after snuffing out individualism as something also wholly bad.
Dishonesty, conformism and self-servingness has banned the understanding of what’s truth and justice.
Video clip probe: Witnesses ‘must be bold & stupid enough’ to testify in a ”Saturday Night At the Movie Show“!
KUALA LUMPUR: The Special Independent Panel (Take a SIP, while you are at it) investigating the authenticity of a video clip allegedly detailing a conversation about judicial appointments has no legal power but with plenty of jingle-jangle talks and nothing else.
According to panel member Datuk Mahadev Shankar: “We have no legal power. We have no power to administer an oath. No power to compel witnesses to come to us. We have no power to commit anybody for contempt. Then, what else do you have? A piece of wilted stick?
“We have no immunity under the law either. If we are a public authority or a commission of inquiry, we will have statutory immunity for what we are doing. For what we are doing now, the only immunity we have is our conscience, our good faith and our honesty of purpose to do this as quick as possible.” Hello there, therein lies the Jingle-Jangle!
He, however, had a request: “Don’t throw stones at us until we have finished our inquiry.” Then, we give you some sticks, can or not?
Since the panel had no power to force anyone to do anything, Mahadev said those who had knowledge or information about the authenticity of the video clip would have to be bold & cranky enough to come forward to meet the big bully armed with a big bazooka.
“The truth is the best armour. Justice is the best protection. But you can’t pick that out of the air, you sure can stick that in your thick head though. Be bold-(click on the Font option) to come forward. If not for anything, do it for the sake of Malaysia.” Hello there, herein lies the Jingoism!
“If you want to come, come but just sit there and be quiet. But if you don’t come, we’ll be so happy because at the end of the day we’ve got nothing else to do and got paid for it. Ain’t that great to beat the Malaysian system?”
Those wishing to assist the panel would be required to give their names and particulars. And from that day onwards, you become paranoid schizophrenia- “Eh, is that guy following/watching me or what?”
Mahadev said the responsibility for a stable and orderly society was not the government’s alone and that every citizen had the same duty. There goes that Jingoism again! “Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You, But What You Can Do For Your Country” Very Kennedyish, don’t you think?
He added that the panel would work very closely with the ACA and the police. Weird, isn’t it? Wouldn’t it be better to leave it to the laws in the first place?
“Our terms of reference are to verify the authenticity of the video clip, it stops there.” Weirder still, wouldn’t it have saved some costs to leave it to the laws in the first place?
Well, let’s all spend “Saturday Night at the Movie Show” instead!
Magep’s comment
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