Tuesday, 16-Oct-2001 3:37 PM

How to finish off a political opponent, Malaysian-style
Get him convicted - then disqualify him from public office

On Monday, 8 October 2001, Ezam Mohd Nor, the National Justice Party Youth Leader, was brought before the Kuala Lumpur Magistrates' Court to face trial on a charge of illegal assembly. In the dock together with him were thirty other opposition leaders and Reformasi political activists that included four more ISA detainees - Lokman Noor Adam, Tian Chua, Hishamuddin Rais, and Dr Badrulamin Bahron.

On Tuesday, 9 October 2001, Ezam was, again, supposed to appear in the Kuala Lumpur Magistrates' Court to face trial on another charge of illegal assembly. However, the day before that, he was sent back to the Kamunting Detention Camp and was instead brought to the Alor Setar High Court, 500 kilometers away, for another case that was originally scheduled for later this month.

Ezam’s lawyer was not informed about this change until the eleventh hour, and no explanation was offered as to why this sudden change and what was going to happen to the illegal assembly trial in Kuala Lumpur.

Quite unexpectedly, the charge of illegal assembly was dropped and Ezam was acquitted without his defence being called. The Alor Setar High Court, however, quashed the Kulim Magistrates' Court's verdict and declared that the police have every right to lock Ezam up whenever he is transferred out of the Kamunting Detention Camp to attend trial.

The Alor Setar High Court's decision is quite unusual and demonstrates the extent the government is prepared to go to demoralise the ISA detainees. In an earlier court sitting, Ezam had protested that, whenever he was brought from the Kamunting Detention Camp to attend any of his many trials (and he has thirteen of them), they do so one or two days earlier and lock him up in the police lockup. Ezam argued that he is not a convicted criminal - as detention under the ISA does not make him a criminal considering he has never been charged or convicted for any crime - therefore they should not lock him up.

The Kulim Magistrate seemed to agree with this argument and added that since the court is but a mere 45 minutes away from the Kamunting Detention Camp why do they need to transfer him out a day or two earlier and lock him up in the police lockup? Ezam could easily be transferred out that very same morning and still have ample time to make the trial.

The Kulim Magistrate then ruled that Ezam should not be locked up, as he is not a convicted criminal, and he need not be transferred days ahead. The fact that, whenever the trials are held on a Monday, he is transferred out on the Saturday before - thus his family would be denied their family visits on Sunday - made this even worse.

The prosecutor was clearly upset that the government was not being allowed to treat Ezam the way it liked and was being told to treat him more humanely so they appealed this decision. The Alor Setar High Court subsequently overturned the Kulim Magistrates' Court's decision. The government may, after all, lock Ezam up like a common criminal though he has never been convicted or sentenced of any crime.

Ezam was originally arrested on 13 April 2000 in a nationwide swoop when opposition leaders and Reformasi supporters were rounded up all over the country. The crackdown was to thwart the "Black 14" demonstration planned for the following day, 14 April 2000 – the anniversary of Anwar Ibrahim’s sentencing on the first charge of corruption.

And what was Ezam's crime? That he is a threat to national security and was involved in a conspiracy to create chaos on the streets of Kuala Lumpur. All the others were eventually released while Ezam was charged - but the charge was not what he and the others were arrested for.

The authorities must have realised that this flimsy and frivolous charge could not stick for Ezam was arrested not for a crime he had committed, but for what they alleged as a crime he intended to commit. If tried, Ezam would most certainly be discharged and he would walk out of court a free man.

One year later, on 10 April 2001, Ezam was again arrested, but this time under the Internal Security Act. And what was his crime this time? The same as the one the year before - that he is a "threat to national security and intended to create chaos on the streets of Kuala Lumpur".

Now that the government has him under indefinite detention, and the fact they need not bring him to court to face any formal charges or be put on trial, they can afford to drop the illegal assembly charges - a case they would never win anyway. The government now need no longer go through the motions of a trial - an exercise that would reveal how little they have against Ezam and which would most certainly turn out most embarrassing for the government.

Ezam has always said, if he is guilty, put him on trial, and Ezam had hoped that the impending trial would prove his innocence. Now that the charges have been dropped and there will no longer be any trial, Ezam is not able to prove his innocence and the government can hold him for as long as it likes under the ISA.

But the government would eventually have to release him, if not now, later, and the most the government can hold him for would be six years or so. Once out, Ezam can again be a threat to the ruling party. To ensure Ezam has to retire from politics, even if he is eventually released, the government needs to declare him a criminal. And they would do this by pressing ahead with the ongoing Official Secrets Act trial.

Ezam can easily escape all the other cases the government has against him - illegal assembly, sedition, and many more - but the OSA rap would be more difficult to beat. In the OSA trial, all the government has to do is prove that Ezam had in his possession official government secrets. Whether Ezam was justified in having these secrets on him, and whether the "secrets" are actually criminal acts and wrong doings of Malaysian government ministers, is irrelevant. The only thing relevant is that they are government secrets - and it is up to the government to declare what constitutes a secret.

Once convicted under the OSA charge, the government can then "safely" release Ezam from ISA detention. He would then serve the rest of his time in a proper jail and, once free, would not be allowed to contest in the general elections.

That would be the end of Ezam's political career, a very efficient way of ending it indeed. Come to think of it, isn't this exactly what they are doing to Anwar Ibrahim?