Monday, 15-Dec-2003 10:23 PM

SERUAN KEADILAN EDITORIAL

Read my lips: Anwar is fine

“Read my lips, Anwar is fine,” said the now disgraced and discharged police chief, Rahim Noor, as Anwar Ibrahim lay bruised and unconscious on the lockup floor. And this has been dubbed as the Mata Lebam (black eye) affair that cost the ruling coalition dearly in the November 1999 General Election. As they say, history always repeats itself, and indeed it has. Today, it is the Health Minister, Chua Jui Meng, who is saying, “Read my lips, Anwar is fine”. But now the shit has hit the fan. Anwar is far from fine. In fact, he is lingering with the promised medical attention still nowhere in sight.

The Malaysian government had the gall to tell the International Parliamentarian Union (IPU) that Anwar is being allowed the exclusive use of a large air-conditioned gymnasium adjacent to his cell with adequate equipment to carry out his prescribed physiotherapy exercises at his own convenience. However, in reality, Anwar is only provided with an exercise bed and two dumbbells placed in a tiny adjacent room.

On 10 May 2001, after Anwar was discharged from hospital, Chua Jui Meng, and the government consultant physician, Dr S. Jeyaindran, promised him access to a fully equipped gymnasium. This, however, was never fulfilled but the Health Minister told the nation that Anwar was receiving the “most unprecedented treatment for a slipped disc in the entire history of medical services in this country”.

The IPU was further told that, between October 1999 and June 2003, Anwar was taken for routine medical treatment to Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL). However, between October 1999 and June 2003, Anwar was taken to hospital only twice -- once on 19 December 2002 to treat his pneumonia, and the second time to meet Dr Jeyaindran who wanted to convince Anwar to accept a titanium disc replacement.

The IPU has since been told that the Malaysian government lied and it will now demand an explanation from Malaysia’s Parliament as to who is responsible for this misinformation. This is certainly a serious act of misinformation which can undermine the integrity of Parliament, especially since the misinformation was perpetrated by the Minister of Health with the connivance of certain Members of Parliament. In fact, a commission of inquiry should be set up to get to the bottom of this whole episode. And heads should roll.

Dr Jeyaindran had in fact briefed senior government officials that Anwar is fine and that his complaints of pain are bogus. At the same time, Dr Jeyaindran continuously pressured Anwar to undergo local conventional spinal surgery, which of course Anwar refused as he had been advised. If Anwar really is faking, why then the need to insist he undergoes spinal surgery or a disc replacement? Certainly a fake ailment requires no surgery!

All this could have been avoided if the authorities had acted timely when Anwar first experienced back pain a couple of years ago. Instead, they chose to ignore Anwar’s complaints and gave him mere painkillers for months on end until a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scan conclusively diagnosed that he, in fact, had a slipped disc.

The IPU representative, Ingeborg Schwarz, said the matter would be referred to the Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians at its next session on 15 January 2004. Schwarz also assured Anwar that the IPU would seek an explanation from the Malaysian Parliament.

Is this going to be dubbed the second “Black Eye” Anwar is receiving at the hands of the powers-that-be? If the Opposition were to skilfully inform the voters about the real state of affairs -- instead of spending all that time squabbling with each other over petty matters -- they may yet swing some sympathy votes or retain those who are already in sympathy come to the next election.