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Is Dato' Seri Anwar Going Back To Prison?

When the government firmly decides on a course of action, it is not an act of finality as one would expect, but to find ways to vary it. It does not matter if it has to do the third brake-light on motor vehicles or the return of the jailed former deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, from his "luxurious" ward at the General Hospital to spartan quarters at Sungei Buloh prison. After he was brusquely told he would if he did not agree to a surgical option he rejects, the health minister, Dato' Chua Jui Meng, dilly dallies when asked when. "A detailed briefing has been given to diplomats, the Parliament and the media. The records are clear," he said airily and offhandedly. What, pray, has this to do with the ultimatum on his surgery Dato' Seri Anwar was given?

As usual, the government is caught in a conundrum of its own making. It could not get public support for its view that Dato' Seri Anwar fakes his illness. If it had, the mainstream would have outrageous letters about it. After allowing the Dutch endoscopic surgeon to examine him, it got cold feet, misrepresented what he had to say, and said if the surgery could be done locally, he could. But Dr Thomas Hoogland refuses to operate in strange conditions in makeshift operating theatres in a hostile political climate. Now, Dato' Seri Anwar is given options about his medical condition, and he rejects it. He is told he would be sent back to prison. The government now claims it has to study the matter further and has not decided upon its next move, says Dato' Chua.

The government drags its feet for two reasons: Dato' Seri Anwar is in a neck brace and if his back condition is untreated, he could be paralysed and worse. He is in a wheelchair. The infamous black eye, after the then Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Rahim Noor, confronted a shackled and blindfolded just arrested Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim with deadly karate chops, was bad enough. That he is brought in a neck brace and wheel chair to answer the remaining charges of sodomy and corruption against him throws more calumny on the Prime Minister more than the Prisoner. The second is the jailing last week of Tan Sri Rahim for two months. He is given special treatment, raising even more doubts about the government's role in it.

When his appeal was dismissed last week, Tan Sri Rahim was taken to an empty court room instead of the court lockup. He was not handcuffed, as rules required. At 2 pm, just before he was to be taken to prison in a Black Maria, he complained of chest pains and rushed not to the General Hospital but to Institiut Jantung Negara. But doctors there would not admit him and five hours later was sent to Kajang Prison. Why this special treatment for a man who blackened the police force he led, the government he served under, the eye of the man he beat up? He is treated with kid gloves while Dato' Seri Anwar is in intense pain, needs immediate surgical care but wants one of his choice, led up the garden path and then denied him. Dato' Chua should explain why the government allowed Dr Hoogland to examine him when it had no intention to allow him to go overseas for the operation? Why did he not make this clear at the outset, instead of tightening rules as he went along to step up the confrontation?

When the Prime Minister closed all options the day before the Prisoner was to decide, the matter became publicly and irrevocably political. Whether it likes it or not, the question of Dato' Seri Anwar's health is the government's responsibility. Not in the custodial sense it has over every prisoner, but in the court of public opinion. The government did not at any time have a plan how to contain the Anwar rebellion. It now spills over into every aspect of government policy and decision. Indeed, the government, and the Prime Minister's, survival depends now on how the Prisoner is handled. It forced Dato' Seri Anwar into a corner from which retreat destroys him and the movement he spawned.

He cannot back down -- politically, morally, personally, on principle -- except at unacceptable cost to himself. Dato' Seri Mahathir can accuse him of politicising his ailments. What does he and his government do? The underlying tension in Malaysian politics is this Prime Minister-Prisoner confrontation, which has brought the government to a standstill, and is breaking up from within. >From his prison cell, his principled opposition forces the government to concede much that it would not have even considered before 2 September 1998. Even worse for the Prime Minister, Dato' seri Anwar's allegation of a conspiracy against him, hotly denied, now seems to be true. More shocks are in the cards, not for Dato' Seri Anwar but for the Prime Minister. For the Prisoner, death is his release from his pain. For the Prime Minister, a living death.

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