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Back Pain And Bad Faith Amidst Black Eyes

My latest column in Harakah

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Harakah

01-15 May 01

COLUMN

Back Pain And Bad Faith Amidst Black Eyes

M.G.G. Pillai

The health minister, Dato' Chua Jui Meng, lies in Parliament about the jailed former foreign minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim. The foreign minister, Dato' Seri Syed Hamid Albar, meets European Union ambassadors individually over two days, after he meets ASEAN and other envoys after the Keadilan president, Datin Seri Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, meets them over her husband's medical problems. The government arrests eight under the Internal Security Act to yet destroy the likes of what makes it nervous. Its nervousness is reflected in the deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's remark when he told police after the arrests that "one black eye is enought" and did not want two or three more.

The government harps on special facilities it provides Anwar in prison and in hospital, without mentioning that this is the norm with politicians, policemen and others who could be in danger if let loose on the prison hoi polloi. And erases his contribution to the growth of the International Islamic University on its official opening. As if this is not enough, the courts have awarded the Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, RM85,000 in costs against Anwar for a failed libel action.

Why it is nervous is in no doubt: despite three horrendous years to make Dato' Seri Anwar a non-person, he is large as life in politics, so prominent that his shadow stalks every move in government. He all but destroys the reputation of the Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, whose every move is to wrest clear of his unseen, dominating presence. But in so doing, he ensures the Anwar affair is kept alive. Dr Wan Azizh meets a few diplomats, and the foreign minister loses his head.

The most serious issue now is Anwar's health. He now wears a neck collar, a sure sign the lumbar pain he complains of, and needs surgery to correct, worsens. It is politics, not medical nor surgical, that prevents it done. Chua politicises his treatment, spreading lies and calumny to justify it. He says Anwar is to blame if he refuses treatment; that the Hospital Kuala Lumpur is international recognised and does 48,000 operations a year. But he fails to add it has done no endoscopic microsurgery he wants, nor has it the facilities or anaesthetists with experience of that procedure.

The government put incredible conditions for the specialist from Munich, Dr Thomas Hoogland, before he came here to examine Anwar. He was told bluntly that an operating theatre could be set up, with him bringing those instruments and machinery it does not have. In all this, the government is intent of Anwar spending as much as he can be made to. Dr Hoogland's fees are between US$5,000 and US$25,000 (or RM20,000 and RM100,000); if he were to operate here, he must bring in most of the equipment, and that would set Anwar back at least RM600,000.

The aim it appears is to bankrupt Anwar. He is almost there. His legal defence is possible because almost all work is pro bono. He owes bills and obligations of hundreds of thousands of ringgit, to which must be added the RM85,000. Why Dr Mahathir's lawyers persists in getting costs is inexplicable. Now it throws the ball back at his feet. If he forces Anwar into bankruptcy over it, his vindictiveness, calumny, pettiness in dealing with him will enhance; if he does not, he would have lost yet another round in this David-and-Goliath political struggle.

And lose further if Anwar's lumbar conditions confines him to a wheelchair and a vegetable. Chua can claim that Anwar is responsible if he does not opt for surgery in Malaysia. Not so. His condition is so far gone that conventional surgery could damage him further. Which is why he close the "minimally invasive" endoscopic microsurgery, and chose Dr Hoogland after the German Embassy in Kuala Lumpur confirmed his eminence in his field. Ideally, the operation should be under local anaesthesia. The whole operation could take no more than two hours, and the patient is up and about within days.

Wan Azizah is prepared to request the German government to have her husband on a plane within days of surgery if that would make the government relent. It would not. Dr Mahathir says if Anwar is sent overseas, he would not return. That is nonsense. He is more frightened he would. Anwar could easily draw hundreds of thousands of people to welcome him as he cannot thousands.

Chua questions Anwar's "lack of faith" in local medical experts. But, as usual, he misses the point. Given that the Inspector-General beat him to a pulp in detention, his fear of irreversible surgical problem caused by ill-intent is real. This has nothing to do with how competent local surgeons or operation room staff are. And it must be allowed.

He is in the first class ward and unshackled for two reasons: one, the prisons staff cannot guarantee his security in an open third class ward, or even in a separate prison ward; two, handcuffing a man with back pain only worsens his condition, especially the severity of it is worse as in Anwar's case. What Chua also does not reveal is the view of local neurosurgeons and specialists, any surgery should not be under general anaesthesia, and this is why Anwar chose microsurgery.

The Prisons Act has only one section on sickness and medical treatment, and provides for treatment in government hospitals. It did not envisage a case where the prisoner is prepared to pay for surgery overseas. Curiously, the Act forbids Anwar to have his surgery done in a local hospital, but not overseas. The government is caught by this, and finds creative ways to scupper it. Dr Hoogland was allowed to come in because endoscopic microsurgery or EMS is not available in Malaysia.

Chua, and the government, mounts a campaign to suggest Anwar's loyalty to Malaysia is in doubt because he does not have faith in local institutions and procedures. It is a stupid irrelevant argument. If we take this to its logical conclusion, what about Proton which insists on shodding its cars with Thai-made tyres and Indonesian exhaust pipes, ignoring the local product with the same arguments Anwar puts forth.

What is at stake is something else: ultimate wellbeing. Would he accuse his cabinet colleagues, and indeed the Yang Dipertuan Agung, of lack of faith in local medical facilities because they had cardiac bypass surgery overseas; or if Malaysians who buy their shirts in boutiques overseas? I cannot understand why he, and the government, descends into the gutter to not prove a point.

So, what we have now is a standoff. Both Anwar and the government agree EMS is the best way to handle Anwar's medical problem. What is at dispute is the venue. The government holds firm it has to be in Malaysia, and Anwar holds justs as firmly it has to be overseas. Anwar wins either way. If he goes overseas, it is one black eye to the government; if he does not, it gets another. Anwar has nothing to lose but his life; the government everything. Yet, the man was once deputy prime minister. Surely, he deserves better.

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@mgg.pc.my