Where truth is more fantastic than fiction
Jay TeePublished: Jul 9, 2008 9:15 AM | Updated: Jul 9, 2008 9:42 AM
One statutory declaration containing explosive claims; then a sodomy investigation whose contours are reminiscent of a decade-old trauma; then another statutory declaration - this one containing claims of even higher voltage, followed, barely 24 hours later, by a retraction accompanied by the disappearance of the declarer and his family.
Parts of a novel by John le Carre? No, just another day's happenings in a country where the line between sulfurous fact and surreal fiction is blurred, beyond all hope of retrieval perhaps.
One statutory declaration containing explosive claims; then a sodomy investigation whose contours are reminiscent of a decade-old trauma; then another statutory declaration - this one containing claims of even higher voltage, followed, barely 24 hours later, by a retraction accompanied by the disappearance of the declarer and his family.
Parts of a novel by John le Carre? No, just another day's happenings in a country where the line between sulfurous fact and surreal fiction is blurred, beyond all hope of retrieval perhaps.
These days in Malaysia, the saying that truth can be more fantastic than fiction or that reality can be stranger than the imagination has a special resonance.
Little wonder that an addled public, like a drunk gathering himself after being rudely awakened from his stupor, is emitting signals of a short-fused patience.
"Come on, there's work to be done; get on with it", appears to be what an irate public is saying. Any chance this plaintive cry is heeded?
Afraid not. Why? Because the serum first introduced into our political bloodstream when Lord President Salleh Abas (right) was removed in May 1988 and potently enhanced through the politico-judicial extirpation of then deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim from the body politic in September 1998 has now become a bacillus infecting the whole.
The upshot: the country is now the walking wounded, barely able to conceal its torments as it stumbles from one judicial-cum-political affray to another.
Like a punch drunk boxer, it staggers from a beating, unable to be rescued by his seconds while the referee is either catatonic or blind.
Descent into judicial incoherence
Malaysia's descent into judicial incoherence, criminal justice foul-ups, and executive sclerosis, was an inevitable declension, we can now say with the benefit of hindsight.
If you wreak harm on a pillar of the criminal justice system, you kid yourself if you think you can immunise other parts from the havoc. The cascade of ill-effects cannot be contained or diverted. Like gangrene, amputation is called for or the whole is endangered.
We have, as it is said in Malay, to "balik kepangkal jalan". We have to get back to the headwaters and clean it up or flounder in the backwash. But how do we get back to base when so many in the upper reaches either connived or were complicit in the overall deformation?
Or, horror of horrors, when the ongoing deformation accelerated under a successive watch, the continuators, fazed perhaps by the enormity of the task of cleaning up, chose to play fast and loose with a still fluid situation, preferring the expedient over the principled, to extend career longevity.
The problem with this kind of approach is that, consequently, not just some pillars will wobble, but the whole roof will come crashing down. It may be a little late in the day but only drastic measures can save the country from its slow death dance.
Certifiably, the ones in power are the least equipped for this salvific task. A new government is required to do the job.
But the odds against that happening are considerable, though not insuperable. Alas, hope - the sort famously described as a good breakfast but lean supper - lies in that critical distinction.
JAY TEE is a political observer.
Parts of a novel by John le Carre? No, just another day's happenings in a country where the line between sulfurous fact and surreal fiction is blurred, beyond all hope of retrieval perhaps.
These days in Malaysia, the saying that truth can be more fantastic than fiction or that reality can be stranger than the imagination has a special resonance.
Little wonder that an addled public, like a drunk gathering himself after being rudely awakened from his stupor, is emitting signals of a short-fused patience.
"Come on, there's work to be done; get on with it", appears to be what an irate public is saying. Any chance this plaintive cry is heeded?
Afraid not. Why? Because the serum first introduced into our political bloodstream when Lord President Salleh Abas (right) was removed in May 1988 and potently enhanced through the politico-judicial extirpation of then deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim from the body politic in September 1998 has now become a bacillus infecting the whole.The upshot: the country is now the walking wounded, barely able to conceal its torments as it stumbles from one judicial-cum-political affray to another.
Like a punch drunk boxer, it staggers from a beating, unable to be rescued by his seconds while the referee is either catatonic or blind.
Descent into judicial incoherence
Malaysia's descent into judicial incoherence, criminal justice foul-ups, and executive sclerosis, was an inevitable declension, we can now say with the benefit of hindsight.
If you wreak harm on a pillar of the criminal justice system, you kid yourself if you think you can immunise other parts from the havoc. The cascade of ill-effects cannot be contained or diverted. Like gangrene, amputation is called for or the whole is endangered.
We have, as it is said in Malay, to "balik kepangkal jalan". We have to get back to the headwaters and clean it up or flounder in the backwash. But how do we get back to base when so many in the upper reaches either connived or were complicit in the overall deformation?
Or, horror of horrors, when the ongoing deformation accelerated under a successive watch, the continuators, fazed perhaps by the enormity of the task of cleaning up, chose to play fast and loose with a still fluid situation, preferring the expedient over the principled, to extend career longevity.
The problem with this kind of approach is that, consequently, not just some pillars will wobble, but the whole roof will come crashing down. It may be a little late in the day but only drastic measures can save the country from its slow death dance.
Certifiably, the ones in power are the least equipped for this salvific task. A new government is required to do the job.
But the odds against that happening are considerable, though not insuperable. Alas, hope - the sort famously described as a good breakfast but lean supper - lies in that critical distinction.
JAY TEE is a political observer.
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