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Arsenic And Anwar: Facts Do Not Cease To Exist Because They Are Ignored

It should have been a straight forward test to find out if the former deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, has been poisoned with arsenic. Mr Justice Ariffin Jaka, trying him for sodomy, ordered the test after his counsel, Mr Karpal Singh, told a shocked court that he was, based on a test made by a Melbourne laboratory. The Hospital Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia found no arsenic poisoning in what appears to be sound proof methods of testing, and that he is fit to stand trial. The seeming erudition of its report is now "proof" to all and sundry that Dato' Seri Anwar was lying to his teeth. The full report was not read in court, nor released, so its contents remain hidden. But no one contacted Gribbles Laboratory in Melbourne for its comments, not were samples sent there. Dato' Seri Anwar's claim of persistent hair loss, weakness, loss of apetite and other unusual maladies is not addressed. Instead, he is accused by the government, in unnecessarily confrontational terms, as a liar, traitor and worse. The seeming advantage the government gained in the HUKM report that the samples it tested contained no arsenic quickly dissipated.

Is this proof then that Dato' Seri Anwar does not have arsenic in his body? No. It is possible the hair and nail samples were taken too early for it to register. Arsenic disappears from the urine nine days after ingestion, and when no arsenic is ingested after that. In other words, the integrity of the samples is in question. What about initial reports from HUKM sources shortly after he was admitted of not 77 times but 78.226 times more arsenic in his urine than normal? About a fortnight later, it was down to acceptable levels. There is doubt placed on the integrity of the urine sample sent to Gribbles in Melbourne. It was sent under an assumed name; this is taken to mean the results cannot be trusted. By this token, is there incontrovertible proof the HUKM samples sent for testing are indeed Dato' Seri Anwar's? Contentious questions would continue to be asked when the government cares not what happens to Dato' Seri Anwar, but only want to destroy him at any cost. The court had ordered him to HUKM for tests; he remains a member of parliament and is entitled to first class treatment; but the Prime Minister cannot understand why. His eagerness to see Dato' Seri Anwar irrevocably damned makes official statements disbelieveable.

The government would have us believe that a HUKM report would override any private laboratory report in Melbourne. But HUKM made no attempt to contact Gribbles Laboratory, did its tests in isolation, and reported he has "no acute or chronic" arsenic poisoning and, to impress upon us its professionalism, a whole list of extraneous diseases. It did not consider or attempt to diagnose his unexpectedly falling hair, lack of apetite, unexplained weight loss and other classic symptoms of arsenic poisoning. The HUKM report does not rule out the symptoms he complains of, nor if it attempted to cure or alleviate them. Arseninc poisoning is not easily detectable. One agricultural officer could not, more than a decade ago, understand his sudden loss of hair, weight, apetite -- as Dato' Seri Anwar now complains of -- and tests the government agency he worked for had done on him in laboratories all over the world could not detect what it was, until a poisons laboratory in the United States found it was due to arsenic poisoning. By then it was too late: the poisoning was too advanced for the antidote to work. He deteriorated swiftly, is, in his fifties, bedridden, with no sensation from the neck down, still alert, works on his computer by draggin his arms about, waiting for death. He worked with sodium arsenite, a powerful weedkiller widely used in plantations at that time. If Dato' Seri Anwar lied about his arsenic, after a well-regarded laboratory had said he suffered from acute poisoning, does it mean he lied? Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.

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