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Editorial: Justice is universal
"In matters of truth and justice, there is no difference between large and small problems, for issues concerning the treatment of people are all the same,” said 1921 Nobel Prize laureate in Physics, Albert Einstein
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"In matters of truth and justice, there is no difference between large and small problems, for issues concerning the treatment of people are all the same,” said 1921 Nobel Prize laureate in Physics, Albert Einstein.
The famous quote by Einstein on the universal values and principles of justice and equality before the law was apparently, although perhaps unintentionally, the reason behind Kuala Lumpur High Court Judge Mohamad Zabidin Diah’s decision on Monday to acquit Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim of the second sodomy charges as filed by his former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan.
Judge Zabidin said while reading the verdict that there was no collaborating evidence to support Saiful’s testimony and that the court could not rely solely on his testimony. Anwar, 64, was earlier charged with sodomizing Saiful at Desa Damansara Condominium in Bukit Damansara in Kuala Lumpur on June 26, 2008.
We give a big thumb-up to Judge Zabidin for his independence and conscience in issuing the verdict. By doing so, the judge also set a good precedent that “truth and nothing, but the truth” is upheld in the case which is believed to have been highly political in its motives since the very beginning.
Anwar was once dubbed one of Asia’s fastest-rising political stars. He was tipped to take over from then prime minister Mahathir Mohamad. But in 1998, in the wake of a campaign in Malaysia to root out corruption following the Asian financial crisis, he was sacked by Mahathir from his posts as deputy prime minister and finance minister and later charged with corruption and the first sodomy charges, also filed by Saiful.
He was sentenced to six years in prison in 1999 for corruption and to nine years in prison in 2000 for sodomy, but the Malaysian High Court overturned the sodomy charges in 2004.
Anwar then quickly returned to politics as the head of a revitalized, multiethnic opposition whose strong showing in 2008’s elections deprived the ruling National Front of its traditional two-thirds majority in the parliament. Shortly after that election, Saiful filed the second criminal complaint accusing Anwar of sodomizing him.
Anwar’s acquittal has undoubtedly marked the return of the supremacy of justice in the neighboring Malaysia. Justice is universal — and it should be as it is.
