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Media Statement
by Parliamentary Opposition Leader,
DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjong, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling
Jaya
on Sunday, September 12, 1999:

Instead of prejudging and making prejudicial statements about Anwars
arsenic poisoning, Mahathir should take measures to ensure that there
would be full public confidence in the outcome of investigation as in
establishing a Royal Commission of Inquiry

======================================================================

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, has shocked
Malaysians by his cynical reaction to Anwar Ibrahims arsenic
poisoning, when he insinuated that Anwar could have faked the medical
test.

Mahathir remarked that the specimen of Anwars urine sent to Australia
for testing under an assumed name and which was found to contain
arsenic 77 times the normal level was "Probably someones elses urine".

Mahathir said it was not part of Malaysias culture to kill people
because of their political leanings.

Mahathir's statement that Anwars urine analysis on arsenic poisoning
could have been faked is as in terribly bad taste, unbelievable and
preposterous as his statement last September that Anwars infamous
"black eye" might have been self-inflicted.

Mahathir is not serving his own cause when he is again prejudging and
making prejudicial statements about Anwars arsenic poisoning, when his
earlier prejudicial statements about Anwars "black eye" being
"self-inflicted" have been proven to be completely baseless and a
Royal Commission of Inquiry vindicated Anwar and established that it
was the Prime Minister who was trying to "politicise" events instead
of getting to the truth.

When Anwar was brought to court on Sept. 29 last year with his
infamous "black eye" and bruised arm, Mahathir told a televised news
conference the next day that Anwar would "receive much mileage if he
can show that he had been tortured by police."

As Prime Minister and Home Minister at the time, Mahathir should not
have speculated about the various possibilities of Anwar's injuries,
as for instance stating that "there was a possibility that Anwar
provoked the police, who then had to use force to stop him", but to
account to Malaysians and the world as to the injuries suffered by
Anwar while in police custody.

It was shocking that Mahathir made such wild allegations after Anwar
had told the court that his injuries were the result of being beaten
by police when he was handcuffed and blindfolded until he lost
consciousness on the night of his arrest on September 20!

Mahathir has not learnt anything from his most unwarranted and
uncalled-for insinuation that Anwars "black eye" injuries were
self-inflicted, and is now making the allegation that Anwars urine
test of arsenic poisoning was faked. Instead of prejudging and making
prejudicial statements about Anwars arsenic poisoning, Mahathir should
take measures to ensure that there would be full public confidence in
the outcome of the investigation as in the establishing a second
Royal Commission of Inquiry.
Mahathir should be forewarned that there would be very little public
credibility in the outcome of any other form of examination or
investigation, as public confidence in the independence,
professionalism and integrity of institutions of government in
politically-motivated investigations had never fallen so low in the
42-year history of the nation.

Mahathir may not be completely right when he said that it is not part
of Malaysias culture to kill people because of their political
leanings, as there had been such killings - whether the case of the
murder of the Speaker of the Negri Sembilan State Assembly, Datuk Taha
for which an UMNO Cabinet Minister was convicted and sentenced though
subsequently pardoned and released, or the 1983 cold-blooded murder of
the Assistant General Manager of Bumiputra Malaysia Finance (BMF),
Jalil Ibrahim in connection with investigations into the RM2.5 billion
BMF scandal.

Malaysian political culture seems to have undergone considerable
change in recent years, and for the worse. For instance, it was not
part of Malaysian political culture to send political opponents to
jail as a criminal, as in the case of Lim Guan Eng, or to assault a
political opponent to an inch of his life, as happened to Anwar
Ibrahim when he was first arrested and detained in Bukit Aman last
September.

This is why Mahathir should agree to the establishment of a Royal
Commission of Inquiry which can command public confidence, both
nationally and internationally, into Anwars arsenic poisoning to
establish that Malaysia is not developing the unhealthy political
culture of physically getting rid of political opponents.

Kenyataan Lim Kit Siang terdahulu

Kenyataan Tian Chua

Kenyataan Syed Husin Ali

Kenyataan Kak Wan mengapa 14 hari

Kenyataan KakWan tentang Anwar diracun

Laporan Polis Anwar berkenaan diracun
 

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