The three-man Haidar Panel to determine the authenticity of the Lingam Tape has come out with a shock decision to submit three separate reports to the government.
This is the explanation given by the Panel Chairman Tan Sri Haidar Mohd Noor for this extraordinary turn of events: “In view of the time constraints, it would not be fair to load one member with the task of preparing the report. That is why we have decided to submit separate reports instead.”
Even a school-child can see that Haidar is not telling the truth, and that the real reason is that the three-man panel cannot reach agreement on its finding and recommendation.
As no witness had appeared before the Haidar Panel, which had only the report of the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA to go by, what is the heavy task about preparing the report which Haidar is talking about? It must be the easiest report in the nation’s 50 year history for any inquiry committee to write, as there is very little to say — since all that is required of the Panel is to determine whether the Lingam Tape is authentic or not.
There are only three possible answers to the very narrow and restricted terms of reference of the Haidar Panel, that the Lingam Tape is authentic, not authentic or no way to establish either way.
If all the three members are agreed that the Lingam Tape agreed on anyone of these three answers, and that is all they want to say, then there is no need for three separate reports.
It is only when there is disagreement among the three members that there is need for three separate reports.
I can envisage the following scenarios to warrant the writing of three separate reports:
Scenario One — The three-man Panel divided into two camps, whether two-one or one-two, with one camp holding a position on these three variations different from that of another.
Scenario Two — The panel divided into two camps — one holding that although the Panel cannot determine whether the tape is authentic, the government should nonetheless, in view of overriding national interests, establish a Royal Commission of Inquiry into it and the serious allegations of perversion of the course of justice on fixing of judicial appointments, particularly in view of the recent proceedings of the 14th Law Conference and the opening speech by the former Lord President and Perak Sultan Azlan Shah calling for return of the judiciary to its former golden days. The other camp objecting to such a recommendation.
It is possible that there is a member of the Haidar Panel who felt that the panel should not be used to justify any government “cover up” of the Lingam Tape scandal, so as not to probe the shocking disclosures about the perversion of the course of justice which had done so much harm in undermining public confidence in the independence, integrity and quality of the judiciary.
It is ridiculous that those in authority are insisting on getting the original copy of the Lingam Tape. Why isn’t a copy of the tape adequate for the purpose? When Osama bin Laden occasionally emerged from his hideout to issue dire warnings to the United States government in his videotapes, no one from the White House, FBI or CIA would take the position that unless Osama or some witness surface to vouch for their authenticity, or unless the original tape is produced, the tapes concerned would be regarded as fakes!
As the MP for Bukit Glugor Karpal Singh had pointed out in this House, a copy of the Vijandran tape was adequate in the past and a Japanese expert could testify in court as to its authenticity.
In determining the authenticity of a tape, there should not only be forensic investigation on voice and image matching, but also content analysis as to whether it is consistent or reveals contradictions or anomalies to show doctoring and tampering. Why was this not done with the Lingam Tape? A content-analysis of the Lingam Tape will show that they were consistent with the facts, whether with regard to Fairuz’s promotion to Court of Appeal President and later Chief Justice of Malaysia or his being conferred as a Tan Sri.
Why didn’t the Haider Panel undertake a content-analysis, including calling up the witnesses including the senior lawyer involved, V.T. Lingam?
Questions have been raised whether the Lingam Tape revealed by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim really lasted 14 minutes, with six minutes not yet made public, or whether there were only eight minutes.
I can vouch the existence of another six-minute sequel to the eight minutes of Lingam Tape released by Anwar Ibrahim is true as I have seen it.
In the six minutes, Lingam had finished the telephone conversation and it recorded a conversation between Lingam and another person who asked who was Lingam who he was speaking to on the phone, and Lingam distinctly answered that he was talking to Ahmad Fairuz, at the time Chief Judge Malaya.
In the six-minute tape, Lingam mentioned that former Chief Justice, Tun Dzaiddin had wanted Justice Abdul Malek Ahmad (who died on 31st May 2007 as Court of Appeal President) to be the Chief Judge of Malaya but this was averted in a “power play” which resulted in Ahmad Fairuz being appointed the Chief Judge of Malaya instead.
Justice Abdul Malek was five years senior to Ahmad Fairuz in the judiciary, as he was appointed High Court judge in January 1985 while Ahmad Fairuz was appointed High Court judge only in August 1990.
In the second segment, Anwar’s name was mentioned.
The government should be reminded that it should not proscrastinate any further and establish a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Lingam Tape and the crisis of confidence in the judiciary, or a judicial crisis will become a crisis of confidence of the entire government.
(Speech on Prime Minister’s Department’s during committee stage debate on the 2008 Budget in Parliament on Tuesday, 6th November 2007)
Kit:
Now that you have said that you have seen the 6 minute sequel, the ACA will be knocking on your door to get you to divulge where you saw it, who you saw it with, and where the videoclip is for the sequel. If you don’t cooperate, they will threaten you with legal action.
Since Lingam was on a mobile phone, why wasn’t there any effort to find out if there is a match between Lingam’s phone record and Ahmad Fairuz’s phone numbers ? Too scared to find the truth ?
we are watching a very very slow motion ancient movie lah , not vijayans type of action one !
2 months watching 15 minutes video still havent reach ending ah ?
no wonder vienam overtook us already !
I just returned from Hanoi – No they have not overtaken us yet but I reckon in 12 to 15 years time.
The people there are hard-working and it is only a question of time…
Meanwhile here is a light-hearted view of the 3-man panel.
http://malaysiawatch3.blogspot.com/2007/11/waiting-for-vanna-white.html
If three guys cannot sit at a table and produce one Report, that too on an important matter, I don’t think they are serious about their responsibilities to King and Country. I think Haidar is trying to hoodwink everybody. Whatever their individual Reports contain should be thrown out and a PROPER ROYAL COMMISION should be set up. YAB PM, PLEASE DON’T TAKE US MALAYSIANS TO BE ‘FOOLS’.
When the education minister waved the traditional Malay dagger in a clear warning to Malaysia’s minority communities last year, he was roundly applauded by party delegates. His name continues to be thrown around as a future candidate for prime minister. …leadership in the Abdullah era has placed ever more emphasis on appearance over substance. The administration’s anti-corruption drive finds cops wearing “I am against corruption” pins, but by many accounts corruption is as rampant as it has ever been. Key institutions like the judiciary, police force and print media are all still badly in need of reform.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/IK07Ae01.html
I believe Anwar is waiting for the clowns to declare the recording faked and then comes the full recording to prove them wrong.
If I were the panel member, I would declare it to be authentic. You think Awar can go and ask Bollywood actor to impersonate Lingam aah?
It is not easy lo!
It would be a fool who only declare the tape was faked!!!
I am speculating that all 3 find it impossible to authenticate the videoclip as genuine, but that one of the three believes that there are other means of determining whether such a conversation took place.
Then the den of thieves would run around like headless chickens to figure out how to determine if a conversation did take place between Lingam and Fairuz.
….and how to cover-up if records indicate a conversation of similar length between Lingam and Fairuz did indeed take place.
Whatever the case may be, the legal fraternity should be grateful to the Haidar (or “hide-away”) panel for introducing a new legal defense i.e. the “haidar” defense which can be summarised simply as “when something looks like a duck, moves like a duck and makes noise like a duck” it is a tape.
“As the MP for Bukit Glugor Karpal Singh had pointed out in this House, a copy of the Vijandran tape was adequate in the past and a Japanese expert could testify in court as to its authenticity.†KIT
May I suggest a way out of the impasse if that is not too late. Why not we measure the circumference of Lingam’s waist and count the hairs he has in his moustache? We don’t need experts to testify in court as to whether it is V.K. Lingam we see on that tape. But if it comes to that, what is there to prevent both sides bringing their experts and have the experts slug it out in court so to speak. Knowing the cost of expert opinion these days, I’m sure the experts don’t mind.
But first we need to charge V.K. Lingam for interfering with the administration of justice. Jeffrey QC can look up the Penal Code and tell us which offence Lingam has committed – if he has committed anything. I suspect it’s not going to stick. But the purpose is not so much in making the charge stick (as I presume V.K. Lingam is not the main focus here but the former CJ) but like in many defamation lawsuits, the purpose from the point of view of the party being sued is to get the aggrieved party to provide as much evidence in rebuttal that would implicate their witnesses – so that fresh charges could be filed against them. If Lingam is charged in court for some such offence, it is difficult to see how he could avoid taking the stand and testify in his own behalf. He does not have to but, in my opinion, he’d need to.
As for the Vijayan tape, I have seen the recording many times in the company of females who were just as excited to see if politicians knew something about methodology that they don’t already know. Needless to say they came out disappointed. But strange to say nobody among them claimed that it was not Vijayan on that tape. Do they know something I don’t??
“Why didn’t the Haider Panel undertake a content-analysis, including calling up the witnesses including the senior lawyer involved, V.T. Lingam?†KIT
V.K. Lingam as a witness?
If there is a reasonable suspicion that a crime has been committed, police investigation is initiated by the taking of witness statements as required under our Criminal Procedure Code. I believe V.K. Lingam has given his statement to the ACA.
Calling V.K. as a witness to appear before the Panel – without immunity from prosecution first being agreed – would be a waste of time because he has the right not to answer questions if by answering he would incriminate himself. The common law right against self-incrimination comes into play putting needless to say an abrupt end to the Panel’s fishing expedition.
Time is better spent counting hairs in his moustache!
Let us not count hairs while other enlightened ones are grappling with the beast.
And yes, it is a beast I am talking about. If the promotions in the judiciary can be fixed, if cases can be fixed to rob an incumbent Member of Parliament of his seat that was justly won, something is amiss. And that something is not hairs! It is the beast.
Let us do something to that beast lest it destroys us like Frankenstein destroyed his maker.
Haider: The tape is a not genuine. This is the answer UMNO wants.
LLT: I am confused and undecided. This is MCA’s request.
Mahadev: I am inclined to believe the tape is genuine. This is neither MIC’s nor PPP’s request as they are in conflict and they don’t care a damn.
SIL challenging Nov 10 event clearly indicate the PM’s clear refusal to have a Royal Commission. The hypocrite SIL calling on lawyers to contest election when he has not even gone up against anyone, clearly indicate willingness to bend rules to keep the Royal Comssion out of the picture.
No the PM is too afraid to have a Royal Commission. How do you challenge the fear of the man of the highest office in the land with unquestioning power i.e., the elected Sultan?
Mr Lim,
Kindly keep up the heat on this tape scandal.
This guy on the recording got away from his holidays with a former CJ in NZ.
Let us hope that this rime around, make sure he is nailed!
Many of people must have been unfairly judged by those stupid judges due to favour given to this crook!!!
they want to see the other part so that they can work on the counter strategy to make this go away. as long as they don’t know what is there, they are not able to cover up. Thus the delay and the need for the whole tape, it is not to find out the truth.
Have you not seen a picture of three monkeys: one see not, one hear not, and one say not?
Well, “When the going gets tough”, it is not “the tough gets going” – but beware of operation lalang II.
See what’s happening in Pakistan? Sama sama.
Yeah, this matter must be pursued to the end no matter what it takes. We can not let them sweep this under the carpet and expect everyone to forget and that in time everything’s business as usual again.
Let’s call a spade a spade. From time immemorial, shit has always smelled like shit no matter who shits!
Bluntly, if the 3-members of Haidar’s Panel had just a morsel, just a wee bit of integrity, they would not have accepted their appointments under such ‘impossible’ terms of reference.
Verdict: This is a wayang kulit! A sandiwara. If u can trust Najib at all, you must believe that Malaysia is also at the forefront of space research and have joined the league of nations into space! He can con people who are ‘kataks’ and the illiterate kampung folks but surely, he can’t waste yr time and mine.
maybe saving to be reviewed after GE 13