[Institusi kehakiman sudah lama tertidur sejak Mahathir merusakkannya. Tetapi tuhan maha kaya, ia kini seperti sudah bangkit dari tidur yang amat lena secara tiba-tiba di saat rakyat amat memerlukannya. Jika tidak akan semakin ranaplah harapan untuk keadilan itu bersinar semula.

Mahathir seorang yang kuat berpura-pura oleh itu sebarang tindak-tanduknya yang sedikit ganjil sekarang tidak sepatutnya membuat kita terpedaya. Banyak skandal seperti kes Perwaja dan BMF masih belum selesai kerana itu kerja banjingan Umno. Apa yang berlaku sekarang jangan sampai membuat kita melupai kisah lama.

Itu termasuk hujah Datuk Shafei, bekas pengarah BPR bahawa Mahathir telah mengarahkan agar siasatan ke atas Ali Abul Hasan dihentikan selepas ditemui beribu-ribu wang di dalam lacinya. Mengapa kenyataan itu tidak berani dipertikaikan sesiapa sampai sekarang dan mengapa Mahathir tidak didakwa kerana itu satu kesalahan yang amat terang benderang.
- Editor]

http://asia.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/ southeast/07/17/mahathir.critics/index.html

Justice and democracy suffer under Mahathir, say critics

By CNN's Nic Hopkins

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (CNN) -- He may have created a robust economy, but he has widened the gap between rich and poor.

He is a successful leader, but he has undermined democracy and the judicial system.

Critics of Malaysia's Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad have a lot to say about the man who has ruled them for two decades. Not much of it is complimentary.

They say Mahathir today resembles something of an elected autocrat, and the fundamental elements of society that are vital to democracy have been swept aside by his blunt instrument tactics.

"Like no other leader before him, Mahathir has emasculated the leading institutions of democratic governance, including the judiciary, the media and the universities," says Dr Chandra Muzzafar, a political scientist and deputy president of Malaysia's opposition National Justice Party.

"All those things are crucial to the growth of the democratic process."

A noted academic before he turned his hand to politics, Muzzafar says there is evidence that this year the judicial system is beginning to resist the will of the Mahathir administration.

"It's a very long, dark night we have had for the judicial system," he says.

Emerging changes

"We can see that through a handful of decisions in the past three months that warmed the c0ckles of the hearts of those who embrace democracy."

One involved the setting free of two people detained under the controversial Internal Security Act, which allows the government to detain people indefinitely without trial.

Another was a decision to overrule a contempt of court decision against a lawyer acting for jailed former deputy leader Anwar Ibrahim.

"Something is happening in the judiciary. I don't know if you can call it a trend but those recent decisions seem to indicate that the judges are becoming more conscious of their role," says Muzzafar.

Professor P. Ramasamy, a political science lecturer at Malaysia's National University, says the Malaysian courts have not maintained a system of checks and balances for more than a decade.

"This is simply because the executive powers of the office of the prime minister have grown and at the same time the other bodies, such as the legislature and the judicial system, have been overtaken," he says.

'Authoritarian, draconian'

"Right now, the Malay political system is very authoritarian, right down to the draconian Internal Security Act."

Muzzafar says opposition political groups such as his also struggle to spread their messages today compared with the days before Mahathir was voted into power.

"But political groups have much less freedom than they did in the 60s or 70s; they now find it much more difficult to hold public meetings, distribute pamphlets, sell their newsletters. There are many more encumbrances today," he says.

Meanwhile, one academic who asked not to be named says Mahathir has won no friends within the universities by restricting their study pursuits and cracking down on political activism.

"There is less academic freedom, academics are more or less on a leash," he says.

Observers say the event that turned many people against Mahathir was the sacking of his popular deputy and emerging political rival Anwar Ibrahim in 1998.

Found guilty of corruption and s#d#my and now languishing in jail, Anwar has become something of an icon for the anti-Mahathir movement.

"The activism has long been very small, but that began to change after the Anwar crisis, which is the reason the government is now beginning to come down on activism," says the academic.

Anwar's case crystallized fears that the judicial system was not acting of its own accord.

But Shahrir Samad, a straight-talking member of Mahathir's ruling party United Malays National Organization (UMNO), says democracy and the judicial system in Malaysia have improved markedly in the two years since Anwar's trial.

"It's better now than a year ago, and much better than two years ago," says Samad.

"There are still a lot more changes that are required, in my view, and it is not in as good a state as it was when Dr Mahathir came to power, but it is satisfactory for now."

No pressure

Samad says there is a strong argument that after 20 years in power it might be time for Mahathir to move on, but adds there is no immediate pressure from within the party to push him from power.

"We will let him make the decision of when it's appropriate to go," he says. That contentment, however, appears to have a time limit.

"For the next few months at least, I am satisfied. There are changes that need to be made in Malaysia, regarding corporate governance and good government, and if at the end of the year nothing has been done then the position might change."

Muzzafar, in opposition to Mahathir, is unsurprisingly less patient.

"If you look at the overall record, I would say it's time for him to go and hand the baton of leadership on to someone else," he says.

"I would like to see this change, but I don't think it's going to happen.

"The demand for change has to come from within Mahathir's own party. That kind of pressure I don't think he'll be able to resist."

"One of the enduring lessons of history is that you won't be able to hold on to power forever in the face of resistance. You end up being the victim."