Anwar's acquittal: An appeal would "smash to smithereens" Najib's credibility

Anwar's acquittal has bought for Najib his last but very short-lived chance to prove that he can walk the talk of a reformer and proponent of “1Malaysia. People First. Performance Now” slogan
Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's surprise acquittal of Sodomny 2 charge on Monday has bought for the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak his last but very short-lived chance to prove that he can walk the talk of a reformer and proponent of “1Malaysia. People First. Performance Now” slogan.
Nobody really believes the self-serving claims by Najib, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin and the Minister for Information, Communications and Culture Datuk Seri Dr. Rais Yatim that Anwar's acquittal was proof of the independence of the judiciary in Malaysia and would increase the confidence of Malaysians and international community in Najib's transformation promises.

Worst-ever 3 years
The 33 months of Najib's premiership since April 2009 were lost months for reform and transformation as there were only empty rhetorics not backed up with any political will to bring about fundamental changes in all aspects of national life.
There are, for instance, all sorts of 1Malaysia gimmicry in the past 33 months but Malaysia has never been so divided and polarised along ethnic and religious lines under Najib's premiership than under any Prime Minister in Malaysia history - all caused by the politics of desperation, hate and lies emanating from UMNO and its mouthpieces.
In fact, right from the very beginning, Najib's concept of 1Malaysia to create a nation where every Malaysian perceives himself or herself as Malaysian first, and by race, religion, geographic or socio-economic background second, was rubbished by none other than the Deputy Prime Minister who declared himself as Malay first and Malaysian second!
When Najib dared not bring his deputy into line to comply with the 1Malaysia policy, avoiding the issue completely when asked by the media what he thought of Muhyiddin's open repudiation of 1Malaysia policy, it was in fact a death-knell for any meaningful 1Malaysia policy apart from the 1Malaysia gimmicries.

Black eye for reform
Najib's reform and transformation programmes also suffered early death with the swift burial of the New Economic Model, in particular to break from the New Economic Policy (NEP) and introduce new affirmative actions based on need and merit which will consider all ethnic groups fairly and equally as long as they are in the low-income 40% of the households.
The year 2012 ended with Najib's National Transformation Programmes given two “black eyes”:
firstly, when Transparency International's (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2011 showed Malaysia in two-and-a-half years under Najib was more corrupt than 22 years under Tun Mahathir and five years under Tun Abdullah, with Malaysia registering the worst TI CPI ranking and score in 17 years – ranked No. 60 with score of 4.3; and
secondly, when not a single Malaysian university was included in the Times Higher Education (THE) 400 Top World University Ranking 2011/2012.

Last chance
Najib's last chance to “walk the talk” of a 1Malaysia reformer and transformer could be very short-lived indeed, as it could be smashed to smithereens in a matter of days if the growing pressure for the Attorney-General to appeal against Anwar's acquittal succeeds in the coming days.
The announcement by the Solicitor-General II Datuk Mohd Yusof Zainal Abiden over TV3 last night that the prosecution team will recommend to the Attorney-General that an appeal to be filed against Anwar's acquittal is most extraordinary and unprecedented, and must be the first case of its kind where any prosecution team goes public to lobby and pressure the Attorney-General to file any appeal.
Let there be no doubt that any appeal by the Attorney-General against Anwar's acquittal would smash to smithereens whatever little credibility and confidence the Najib administration has gained nationallly and internationally from Monday's High Court judgment in Anwar's Sodomy II trial – plunging Malaysia back into the maelstrom of gutter politics and further despoilation of institutional independence, integrity and legitimacy.

Lim Kit Siang is the DAP adviser and MP for Ipoh Timur