Azmin blasted PAS secretary-general Datuk Takiyuddin Hassan yesterday for questioning if Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim was fit to be Prime Minister given that he is a former convict.
Azmin implied that the royal pardon Anwar received amounted to a testimony of innocence by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong that completely overrode a guilty verdict the federal court read to Anwar in 2014.
However, the Federal Constitution of Malaysia makes no such claim.
PETALING JAYA: Dato’ Seri Azmin Ali seems to have a very flawed perception of what a royal pardon means and what it entails and appears to be rewriting history as he sees fit.
Yesterday, the PKR deputy president blasted PAS secretary-general Datuk Takiyuddin Hassan for questioning if Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim was fit to be Prime Minister given that he is a former convict.
According to Azmin, Takiyuddin was being unfair, as not only did Anwar receive a royal pardon, people were ‘aware’ that the charge against the PKR president “was politically motivated.”
“We may have different political views but we must stick to the facts, and the fact is that this crisis was well resolved in the interest of the nation,” Azmin was quoted as saying.
This isn’t just misleading, it’s dangerous.
Given that these claims were made as a matter-of-factly, Azmin is implying that the royal pardon Anwar received amounted to a testimony of innocence by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong that completely overrode a guilty verdict the federal court read to Anwar in 2014.
More specifically, it implies:
1. that the Yang di-Pertuan Agong agrees that the Malaysian courts were forced by the previous Barisan Nasional administration to put Anwar behind bars, and
2. that the Malaysian courts were being manoeuvred by hidden political hands.
Azmin should be held accountable for all these claims.
He should also be made aware of Article 42 (1) of the Federal Constitution of Malaysia, which reads:
“The yang di-pertuan Agong has power to grant pardons, reprieves and respites in respect of all offences which have been tried by court-martial and all offences committed in the Federal territories of Kuala Lumpur, Labuan and putrajaya; and the Ruler or yang di-pertua negeri of a State has power to grant pardons, reprieves and respites in respect of all other offences committed in his State.”
Note, that similar or parallel powers are given to the Rulers of the nine Malay States and the Yang di Pertua Negeri of Penang, Malacca, Sabah and Sarawak.
Article 42 then goes on to set the composition of the Pardons Board, the duty of the Board to meet in the presence of the Ruler who “shall preside over it,” and the duty of the Board to tender its advice to the Ruler after considering “any written opinion” on the matter by the Attorney-General.
Nowhere is it stated that a royal pardon has the effect of overturning convictions or rendering them null and void.
That effectively makes a royal pardon “an act of clemency that forgives a wrongdoer for an offence committed and restores his (or her) civil rights as they may have been deprived due to a conviction by the court of law.”
In other words, Anwar is and will continue to remain a former convict, and, by definition, an ex sodomite, given that his conviction was for the offence of performing “carnal intercourse against the order of nature” on his former aide, Mohammad Saiful Bukhari Azlan.
THE THIRD FORCE
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