ANOTHER MORAL VICTORY FOR ROSLI DAHLAN

Another Moral Victory for Rosli Dahlan yet vindication remains uncertain
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By Din Merican


I was in Court on December 23, 2009 (Day 3 of Lawyer Rosli Dahlan’s trial) when the Sessions Court ruled that Rosli’s counsel can pursue the line of questions that would disclose whether DPP Kevin Anthony Morais had acted in bad faith (mala fide) when he issued the s. 32 Notices against Rosli.

After making that ruling on Day 3, the trial was aborted because Kevin had to fly off to England for his Christmas holidays. Little did Kevin Morais realise that he was in for a very tough time when he comes back from his Christmas holidays, as that ruling opened up the floodgates for Dato’ Kumaraendran to pose very piercing questions when the trial resumed again. That was exactly what happened to Kevin Morais, who is also the MACC’s Deputy Director of Legal and Prosecution Division, when the trial resumed on Day 4 and Day 5 ( January 5 and 6, 2010).

Under cross-examination from Dato’ Kumaraendran, Kevin readily admitted that Rosli was just a witness who could help in the investigation and was never a suspect himself. Therefore, one wonders what was the reason for the mistreatment and public humiliation that Rosli received at the hands of the MACC (then ACA) when he was roughed up and hastily charged just one day before Hari Raya Aidilfitri of 2007. The trauma that his family suffered is evident every time I saw his wife and three children during Rosli’s trial.

Kevin also became increasingly evasive when it was shown that Rosli had fully
co-operated with the MACC (then ACA), that Rosli had filed a Statement Under Oath as required, and that he also had politely asked for certain clarifications which Kevin arrogantly turned down. The grueling cross–examination then showed that despite the investigations against Dato’ Ramli Yusuff were incomplete, Kevin had issued a s. 32(1)(a) Notice against Dato’ Ramli which was the fait accompli that the MACC needed to cause Dato’ Ramli to be interdicted, charged and excluded from the succession line in PDRM to be the IGP. That is how IGP Musa Hassan makes himself appear indispensable such that his service must be extended because none in the present echelon are suitable or ready to be IGP after him.

Under intense cross examination by Dato’ Kumaraendran, Kevin made several startling revelations that the investigation against Dato’ Ramli was based on an MACC initiated report R/No. 098/2007 which in turn relied on several other “cover” reports namely R/Nos. 075/2007; 072/2007 and 065/2007 which did not at all implicate Dato’ Ramli but instead only implicated Dato’ Johari Baharom, the former Deputy Minister of Home Security.

It is public knowledge that in 2007, Dato Johari had an open feud with IGP Musa Hassan. Johari accused Musa Hassan of receiving bribes of RM2 million for releasing some underworld detainees, whereas an anonymous blog, linked to Musa Hassan and CP Christopher Wan, accused Johari of receiving RM 4 million. Both were hastily cleared by the ACA although neither were served with a s. 32 Notice to declare their assets. It appears that Dato’ Ramli has been made the scapegoat.

Kevin was also shown to have lied about the documents and information that he had before him when he claimed to have conducted an objective assessment as to whether there was sufficient grounds to hold that there was “reasonable grounds to believe that an offence had been committed”.

That was what I posted in Day 5: Mudslinging and Perjury at Rosli Dahlan’s Trial. So far all my postings on the Rosli Dahlan’s trial received star rating as being the top 100 in WordPress.The reason for this is that Malaysians are interested in the case since MACC is using its power to intimidate a citizen for standing his ground on principle. The pro- Government mainstream media refused to report on the trial.

On Day 6: The trial was again aborted

It seems that the MACC is throwing all the tricks in the book to frustrate Rosli in his effort to seek speedy vindication. After his disruptive behavior during Dato’ Kumaraendran’s cross examination of Kevin, DPP Zulqarnain then tried to force his Prosecution witness 3, En Adenan Ismail, to give testimony in court based on a previous statement recorded by the MACC.

Adenan’s testimony was disrupted when DPP Zulqarnain was unhappy with his answers. Adenan is the solicitor who prepared the Sale and Purchase Agreement for Bonus Circle which Kevin had lied about as having been handled by Rosli. That Kevin had lied about this is already widely known in the legal profession because it is public knowledge that Rosli Dahlan is a litigation lawyer, and not a conveyancer.

Why Kevin would lie about Rosli handling conveyancing matters only displayed Kevin’s haste and recklessness in framing the case against Rosli? When Adenan gave DPP Zulqarnain a series of answers that the DPP did not like, a veiled threat was made against Adenan that his evidence is inconsistent with the statement he previously gave to the MACC. DPP Zulqarnain then tried to force Adenan to look at his previous statement to the MACC( then ACA).

It is startling that the MACC would even intimidate its own witnesses in the witness box! This caused another round of legal arguments and the proceedings was disrupted yet again.

This morning (January 11), I met Rosli again in court when the Sessions Judge, Tuan Abu Bakar Katar, delivered his decision that the MACC could not force a witness to refer to a statement that the witness had previously given to the MACC. It was obvious to me at least that the veiled threat by the MACC DPP to force Adenan to toe the line by producing and adopting that pre-recorded statement into his testimony in court has not found favour with this apparently independent minded Judge. Today, Rosli Dahlan won yet another moral victory!

What struck me, however, was the sadness in Rosli’s eyes when I approached him to congratulate him on this ruling in his favour. I expected jubilation and pride from a professional who had just won his second moral victory. Instead, Rosli said to me: “Nobody has won today. It is a sad day when we have men trained in the law, like Tuan Kevin and DPP Zulqarnain, behaved the way they did in court in the last few days. That is not what I wanted my daughter, who is in her 2nd year law studies, to see. There is nothing to congratulate me about.” His remarks were of a man of strong professional and religious convictions.

He expressed his disappointment with some of his friends in the A-G Chambers and with the justice system. He seemed resigned that he would come to the end of his legal career at the Bar. Rosli then quoted to me the last two verses of Surah Al Zalzalah or The Convulsion 99: 8 Al Qur’an – “Then shall anyone who has done an atom’s weight of good, see it. And anyone who has done and atom’s weight of evil, shall see it !”

This was very sobering from a man much younger than me. I hardly know this man, except in having attended his trial, but I felt I should hug him to console him that God is observing from a distance. If En Rosli Dahlan’s family were to read this, I want them to know that they have my prayers, and I am sure all Malaysians will join me in making prayers for him that he will get his full vindication, if not from the courts of law then from the Court of Public Opinion.