PERMATANG PAUH, Aug 25 With defeat staring them in the face in Permatang Pauh, Barisan Nasional politicians have been pulling out all the stops to damage Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim”s image.
Over the past 24 hours, several politicians on house-to-house visits in the by-election campaign have been talking about details of the sodomy charge against the Opposition icon, even pointing out that the stains on accuser Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan”s undergarments and body matched Anwar”s DNA.
And when faced with scepticism, some ruling coalition politicians have gone a step further providing details of DNA tests conducted by the Chemistry Department.
Read more HERE. Ah well, I’m just going to put the entire article here.
The Malaysian Insider understands that the tests were conducted on several samples from the underwear and body parts a few days after Saiful lodged a police report on June 28. The tests allegedly confirm that the DNA on the samples belonged to Saiful and Anwar.
In his police report, the former aide alleged that he was sodomised by Anwar in a condominium in Bukit Damansara on June 26. Anwar was charged with having carnal knowledge against the order of nature but he has asserted that this fresh sodomy allegation was part of a political conspiracy to stop him from becoming the prime minister of Malaysia.
Before nomination day on Aug 16, Barisan Nasional officials reached a consensus not to highlight the sodomy charge against Anwar, knowing that as many as six in 10 Malaysians did not believe the allegations and many Malays were uncomfortable discussing sexual issues in public.
Instead, the plan was to focus on the strengths of the local candidate, Datuk Arif Shah Omar Shah, a rotund politician with a common touch.
That plan was scratched a day before nomination day when Saiful swore on the Quran at the Federal Territory mosque that he was sodomised by Anwar.
From then on, the sodomy charge provided the backdrop of the by-election campaign with Umno politicians questioning Anwar”s reluctance to take an oath of innocence.
This strategy found some traction among Malay voters in the early days of the campaign but Pakatan Rakyat has since countered it effectively by getting spiritual heavyweights from Pas including Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat and Datuk Haron Din to speak at ceramahs in the constituency and question the validity of Saiful”s oath.
To make believers out of the unbelievers, some BN party officials have been contemplating giving voters nuggets of evidence and information about the sodomy case against Anwar, including results of laboratory tests.
But other senior officials have disagreed with this approach, saying that now that Anwar had been charged in court, evidence and witness accounts should only be presented during the trial and not during the by-election campaign.
But the hardliners won the day, arguing that the Opposition has been employing all kinds of tactics including releasing statutory declarations to damage BN leaders and cast aspersions on the government”s case against Anwar.
So for the last 24 hours, BN officials on house-to-house visits have been going into some detail on the sodomy charge against Anwar, fishing out a laboratory report where necessary to make the case that the samples taken from Saiful”s underpants and his body matched that of Anwar”s.
Is it going to be enough to turn defeat into victory? Unlikely. Is it going to turn droves of Malays against Anwar?
Unlikely. But these are desperate times for the BN.
The truest statement I’ve heard so far. These are indeed desperate times for the BN. So desperate, that they have gone into self-destruct mode.
Fishing lab results to get people to vote for them? DNA results?
How low can they go?
I’ve come across statements from other blogs, especially from those who are on the ground, that this is the dirtiest election campaign in Malaysian history. I don’t know the truth of that statement, but what I know is that the BN camp is very obviously under a lot of pressure, and are desperate for even that one extra vote.
What lab results are they fishing out of their bags? What DNA results are we talking about? I thought the government and the police were pressuring Anwar to give his DNA sample to them before this, with Anwar stoutly declining to do so every time? I thought they were exasperated because they needed that “last bit of evidence” to either prove that they had a case, or if they had none at all.
Where in the world did they get Anwar’s DNA to test and match? Wherever they got it from, it most certainly wasn’t legitimate. Because as far as I know, Anwar has not given them any new sample.
Or did they suddenly decide that whatever sample or DNA profile that they had from 1998 is now suddenly usable again? I thought it was “too old” and couldn’t be used? Did they compare the profile they got from Saiful’s underpants, and compare it to Anwar’s 10-year-old DNA profile?
This is nuts. I have to say this. This is about as low as they can ever go. There is simply not even an ounce of decency left in what they are doing, and the “material” that they are campaigning on.
I repeat. There are statements and comments on blogosphere that this is the dirtiest election campaign ever. And they are saying that from being on the ground. What I’m seeing and blogging about is only what I can get, through blogs and news portals, 8500km away.
If what I’m getting is only the tip of the iceberg, and already I can’t see past the murky water (It’s actually so murky that it’s now mud), then what is going on in Permatang Pauh itself is beyond even my wildest imagination.
*****
Good people of Permatang Pauh, this is my plea to you. Please go out and vote for Anwar Ibrahim. No matter what suspicions you have for Anwar, no matter how uneasy you feel about his past in UMNO, I plead for you to vote for him.
What the BN is showing now is that they are desperate. They are so desperate that they are willing to sink this low. This is not the future we want.
Our future is worth more than DNA samples on a guy’s underpants, and God knows how those “DNA samples” got there.
Our future is worth more than swearing on the Quran.
Our future is worth more than the need to feel “thankful” for being able to retain our non-Malay names.
Our future is worth more, much more than all that we have now.
We don’t have a lot that we can truly say is ours. But that one cross, on that one piece of ballot paper, is truly yours. Use that one right that we still have left. Cross wisely.
You are not only voting for a Member of Parliament. You are voting for the future of Malaysia.
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