THE LIES AND DECEIT BY THE NST: SUE THE BASTARDS, ROSLI!
by Din Merican
On January 14,, I reported about The Star newspaper publishing an unusual public apology to Lawyer Rosli Dahlan for defaming him. Unusual because it was the longest public apology that I have ever read being given by a mainstream national newspaper to an individual. The Star also paid damages and cost to Rosli. Unusual also, because other than posting that apology in their newspaper, The Star did not report anything about the trial.
The Star had to eat the humble pie by admitting that the story posted in 2007 by their editor Dato’ Lourdes Charles was a fabrication and a smear campaign against Lawyer Rosli Dahlan who was then defending Dato’ Ramli Yusuff who was facing a trumped up charge by AG Gani Patail, then IGP Musa Hassan and the MACC .
Yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised to read that Dato Ramli Yusuff has finally filed a legal suit against former IGP Musa Hassan for defamation. Musa had recently surfaced to reinvent his image as a crime crusader. He wanted to be a Batman whereas we all know that he is actually a Badman, the baddest IGP Malaysia ever had.
Musa was the IGP who brought total disrepute to the Polis DiRaja Malaysia. The IGP who was linked to the underworld and who brought criminal charges against 6 junior officers because they discovered his links with the triads. The IGP who made a false anonymous blog against Deputy Minister Dato Johari Baharom in order to ward off investigations against himself. And when that failed, Musa suspended and charged the Director of CCID, Dato’ Ramli Yusuff so that his underworld link, the Chinaman known as Tengku Goh can be released.
I was also pleasantly surprised to receive in my mailbox a cd. When I sat down with my wife to watch the cd, I realised it was a recording of the court proceedings that has been going on since Tuesday and ended yesterday. It was the court proceedings where Lawyer Rosli Dahlan is suing The NST, its editors and the MACC and its editors. This has been going on for three days and not a single mainstream newspaper reported it.
As I continued watching the cd, I understood why there was no news report about this trial. The evidence against the NST and the MACC was so compelling damning. It showed the NST blaming the MACC for giving them false information to publish the “RM 27 Million Cop Story” which then became the RM 27 Million Lawyer story posted on 12th October 2007. It also showed the MACC trying to exculpate itself by claiming that the story the MACC posted on their official website was actually based on the excerpt of the NST news report. Gosh! Instead of defending the case together, they were actually blaming each other!
That is what thieves and liars do. They steal together and when they get caught, they blame each other. That was the comical scene you can watch in this cd and more, of how the lawyers for the NST and the MACC fumbled through their way in this court case.
In this court proceeding, you see that Rosli Dahlan is represented by just one lawyer, Chetan Jethwani, while the NST have 2 lawyers from an UMNO law firm and the MACC have 4 senior government lawyers from the AG Chambers. You will see how the leader of the government team of lawyers is led by a shorty counsel, a goateed and bearded Tuan Haji Azizan, with a shrill shouting voice. You will see how disrespectful this Shorty Tuan Haji Azizan behaved towards Rosli’s counsel and witnesses.
You will see how badly Shorty Tuan Haji Azizan’s spoken English is that one shudders to think how worse is his written English. With such bad English, it is no wonder why the AGC loses cases badly. But it is more worrisome to think that because of such bad English, these government lawyers may not have understood what they read in the law books and the statutes. Could they have misunderstood who is the good guy and who is the bad guy?
Was that why they brutally arrested Lawyer Rosli Dahlan who was just needed as a witness in this case but did not arrest Tan Sri Tajudin Ramli in the MAS case when Rosli was acting for MAS to recover the multi-billion losses caused by Tajudin to MAS? Was that why they kept Rosli under continued detention in the MACC dungeon in this case but were so eager to release that criminal Tengku Goh from Restricted Residence exile?
There was also the comical scene of Shorty Tuan Hj Azizan scolding Rosli’s witness, Dato Hj Hasanudin who is the Chairman of Masjid AlGhufran. Shorty Tuan Hj Azizan’s English was so bad that he can’t even be understood in his scolding. Usually, scolding or shouting expletives in English is so easy to do. I find it easier to F…someone in English than in Malay, if you know what I mean.
Shorty Tuan Hj Azizan was also very rude to another witness, Amir Hussin, who was merely telling his version of things which was not to Shorty’s liking. It was gratifying that in one part, witness Amir Hussin testified that while he initially believed The NST and the other mainstream newspapers, he began to distrust their reports after reading Din Merican’s Blog which presented facts and news in a more balanced way. Hearing this from a witness in a court proceeding is very motivating that my writings have achieved its purpose – the promotion of truth and justice.
The A-GC team should have just been led by Puan Siti Badariah and Puan Mastura who appeared in the cd well behaved and composed. In the end, bad behaviour like the one shown by Shorty Tuan Hj Azizan only lends discredit to the A-GC and the government. Having seen this cd and my own personal observation in the Borders case where bookstore manager Nik Raina is being prosecuted by aggressive A-GC prosecutors, I can now understand why things go badly wrong for the government.
So, now we know that whenever the mainstream press is dragged through in a court room for telling lies in their newspapers, there will be suppression of that news. The same mainstream press that shouts out aloud about freedom of the press; about qualified privilege; about justification and fair reporting; practices the total opposite when treating individuals like Rosli Dahlan who is seeking to clear his name for the lies that had almost destroyed his career and life. They will bury his story. They will not give him his full vindication unless he sues them and make them accountable for their lies and deceit.
Now I understand why lawyers are fond of that phrase: Sue The Bastards!
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