Tuesday, October 16, 2012

WHY NO ONE LODGES REPORT AGAINST SUARAM FOR CONTEMPT

Suaram and the opposition parties are aggressively shouting corruptions in the buying of scorpene submarines and they claimed the court in France has subpoena someone in Malaysia to testify. They even went to the extent of organizing briefings on the development of the case for members of the public who are interested to know the ‘goings on in the court in France.’ Taking the Malaysian public as ‘stupid and ignorant of the court processes around the world in particular in France’, Suaram and the opposition parties have in fact brought in their lawyers from France to strengthen the public’s trust in their case. What they did not tell the public or they want to hide from the public or they play dumb is that in France, those quarters or parties involved in cases being investigated are disallowed to discuss anything, even the case related to the scorpene issue when they brought the matter to the court in France. The strict laws in France stipulates that no comments would be made and clearly since the matter was brought to the court, SUARAM has just got to wait what is or are going to happen next. Or else action will be taken against SUARAM for contempt. Anwar Ibrahim, SUARAM and the opposition Pakatan seem to stubbornly ignore the French laws and continue to play up the scorpene issue despite their allegations been answered and denials made several times with proofs. It has been the opposition’s tactic to ‘play stupid’ when they are being proven wrong but instead have been aggressively using the name of the court in France to strengthen their case, saying that the case is being investigated and the court has purportedly found documents and transactions pointing to the existence of open corruption. They also claimed that the Prime Minister would be subpoena and dragged to court in France. Worse still they connect the alleged business transactions and corruption with the murder of a Mongolian model Altantuya Shaarribbu, giving the impression that the Prime Minister was involved in this case. The opposition seems to be holding on to the saying the bigger the lie, the more people will believe it, which is not true in that there are times the lies would backfire. The truth of the matter is that there were complaints of corruption in the buying of the scorpene submarines from DCNS by SUARAM to the court in France. And unlike Malaysia where the police or Anti-Corruption Commission are responsible for the investigation of such nature, in France it is the courts that will investigate on the directives of the courts. According to French Judges Roger Le Loire and Serge Tournaire who are responsible for the case, the parties involved are not allowed to make any comments and contempts of court can be made against them if they do so. And if the investigation needs statements from any quarters in Malaysia, only the Malaysian police will be authorized to take the statements in the presence of officers from the French courts. Thus, the question of subpoena for the Prime Minister or anybody from Malaysia to be present in the courts in France does not arise. If the judges find there is the need to bring the case for hearing or trial, the judges need to apply to higher courts because only the higher courts can determine whether the case should be heard or otherwise. It is clear that what SUARAM does at present, highlighting the purported or alleged proofs as well as making comments on the issue in open official media is an act of contempt against the courts in France. And officially anyone can lodge complaints against SUARAM for contempt of court if anybody wants to. If we follow the development of this case in France or anywhere else, we will find there is not a single comment from DCNS, as the official investigators because it is well-verse with the laws in France. Only SUARAM, the opposition in Malaysia goes every corner of the country claiming corruption exists between DCNS and Malaysia. And they do all this to pave the way for Anwar to be Prime Minister.

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