DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang questions the need for Umno and Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah to go on a road show to further attack Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim if they felt the people accepted the conviction last week. – The Malaysian Insider pic, February 20, 2015.Umno's road show to explain the judgment in the conviction of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is testimony that lead prosecutor Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah has lost in the court of public opinion despite winning the case, says DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang.Lim took a swipe at the deputy public prosecutor, saying that it was "pathetic" of Shafee to want to have a "second bite of the cherry" in prosecuting Anwar in the sodomy case."Yes, Shafee had won in the Federal Court on February 10 with a shocking 5-0 unanimous decision to dismiss Anwar’s appeal and to send him back to jail for five years, Anwar’s fourth incarceration," Lim said in a statement today."Although Anwar had lost in the court of the Malaysian judiciary, he had won in the court of public opinion in Malaysia and the court of international opinion, as it will not be easy to find another Federal Court judgment in the past two decades which had met with such instant universal condemnation, not only inside the country but also outside."Lim, who is the Gelang Patah MP, questioned if Shafee will also head a worldwide campaign to woo back the support of international governments, such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Germany and Switzerland, which declared that it would raise Anwar’s jailing at the next meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva."International legal, parliamentary and human rights organisations like the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, International Federation for Human Rights, Lawasia and the Law Council of Australia and international press like Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal and the Economist had all spoken up to condemn the Federal Court decision," he added.Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin had said that Barisan Nasional (BN) will be going on a nationwide road show, which will feature Shafee, to explain the Federal Court judgment on Anwar's sodomy case now that the judiciary process has ended.He said that the party has been accused and criticised for orchestrating a political conspiracy against Anwar since he was first charged in 2008, but it has kept silent all these years."We have kept silent for six years because the trial was in progress, fearing that we would be in contempt. We waited for the case to be over," he had said on Tuesday night at the first of such road show.Shafee was the deputy public prosecutor in the Anwar case, which ended last week after the Federal Court affirmed the appellate court's conviction in March last year, and sentenced Anwar to five years' jail, which he began serving since last week at the Sungai Buloh prison.Shafee has come under severe criticism following the conviction for going on a tirade against Anwar despite his incarceration, with many saying that such actions were unbecoming of a senior lawyer and that by doing so, he had clearly acted beyond his scope as prosecutor representing the Attorney-General's Chambers in the sodomy appeal.Former attorney-general Tan Sri Abu Talib Othman also hit out at Shafee, saying that he should have his deputy public prosecutor's licence revoked for his continued attacks on the opposition leader.Lim said that the Umno road show was not only unprecedented and questionable, but it also raises doubts about Shafee's role as prosecutor and a practicing lawyer as well as the Malaysian representative in the Asean Inter-Governmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR)."Will the ambit of his responsibility on the AICHR now be expanded to include convincing the other Asean governments, if not the people of other nations in the group, about Anwar’s guilt in the Sodomy II case," the DAP parliamentary leader questioned."Shafee, Umno and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak should think deep and hard whether such a nationwide road show for Shafee should proceed or be halted immediately, as it is setting many deplorable precedents affecting the administration of justice and ensuring clean, honest and healthy politics in Malaysia."De facto law minister Nancy Shukri had also noted that the roadshow would make Putrajaya "look bad" and suggested that Shafee, instead, have a public debate with one of his biggest critics, the Bar Council, to end his tirade against Anwar.Nancy said she is personally against Shafee's decision to go on the Umno organised road show, saying that the federal government should not "do it too much"."Let the people listen to them. Do it once and for all. Then Shafee does not have to go around any more. It looks bad (on the government and Shafee)," the minister in the Prime Minister's Department said yesterday. – February 20, 2015.
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