The government is well aware that it has to tread carefully over the Anwar Ibrahim sodomy case as public perception is all important but the bungling way the case has been handled has done nothing to convince the public that he is being treated fairly.

On the contrary, recent events have served to convince the public more than ever that Anwar is again the victim of another vile conspiracy.

In fact, it appears that the leadership’s perception of the public’s intelligence is seriously out of sync with reality with all the dubious statements, comments and actions leading to a wide chasm of public disbelief in the fairness of the criminal process.

Gone are the days when the population consists of simple village folk who believed whatever their leaders told them. In modern Malaysia, the public may be forgiven for being angry that their intelligence is being insulted by their leaders.

In the first place, an outsider must think that sodomy is the biggest and worse crime ever in Malaysia with all the resources of the police focused on one case and top leaders from the PM downwards cheering the police on and castigating the accused for being uncooperative.

Arresting Anwar one hour before his dateline with a preponderance of force as if he is Osama bin Laden only helps to convince the public that Anwar is being victimised. What’s worse is that the home minister defended the police action instead of condemning it while PM as usual had nothing to say.

In any case, obtaining a warrant of arrest to obtain a statement from Anwar is an abuse of power. A judge has remarked in a previous case that the police should first summon the suspect and if he fails to show up they should go to his place, if this fails they should obtain a court order and only as a last resort should a warrant of arrest be obtained.

Proper investigation procedure was not followed by withholding the police report from Anwar. A major tenet of our criminal justice system is that one cannot be compelled to incriminate oneself. How is Anwar going to know if he is incriminating himself by giving statements to the police before he has sighted the police report against him?

Anwar could have chosen to remain silent but he nevertheless cooperated to give his detailed alibi to the police. He even consented to be stripped naked for a detailed medical examination of his body with the ignominy of having his private part measured. But he drew the line at giving a blood sample for fear that it may be used to fabricate evidence against him as what happened in 1998.

For a man who has not even been charged, this cooperation of the highest order. Yet he was slammed by the PM, the home minister and other BN leaders for being ‘uncooperative’.

Now we have the home minister wanting to rush through legislation in Parliament to compel suspects to give body fluids for DNA testing. This is like throwing oil onto the fire of public disquiet. If this isn’t specially targeted at Anwar, then why the urgency?

To the public at large, this insistence on a fresh sample for DNA testing is unnecessary as the police already have his DNA profile on record from the 1998 case. This pointless insistence raise grave doubts as to what the sample will be used for.

If indeed Anwar is forced to give a blood sample, it will come as no surprise when evidence is tendered in court that his DNA has been found on Saiful’s clothes or body parts.

Why such peculiar and unwarranted conduct on the part of the police? Are they out to prove to the world that Anwar is a victim of political conspiracy?

Looking from the side of the police, one can perhaps understand their predicament if we assume they are under pressure to fabricate evidence to support a conspiracy. It was either to chuck public opinion to the wind or come up with nothing.

Giving Anwar a copy of the police report would fix circumstances of the alleged offence such as date, time and location which would cause the case to shatter if Anwar comes up with an ironclad alibi.

Sending Anwar to the hospital for a detailed examination of his body seems superfluous unless the information is to be passed to his accuser for testimony in court. We note that the hospital director has come out to deny that Anwar was stripped naked which beggars the question of how the medical examination was done with his clothes on.

It appears that evidence against Anwar is so lacking that DNA matching will be the main evidence used to convict him although DNA should be corroborative evidence. The police case will literally fall apart without this all important DNA ‘evidence’ which is desperately needed.

The reason for holding Anwar overnight in a cell begins to make sense when it was revealed by PKR that a forensic team went in to sweep the cell after Anwar was released. Thus it was necessary to arrest him to ensure he spends a night as a guest of the police although it is still unclear why such an overkill of resources was used.

So it appears that the police are prisoners of circumstances. They cannot follow proper procedures and satisfy public opinion while at the same time fabricate evidence to obtain a conviction.

But why should the police subordinate themselves to be lackeys of politicians and demean themselves by lying, cheating and fabricating evidence for the benefit of morally bankrupt politicians?

They should take no sides in fights between politicians from opposing camps. They are the Royal Malaysian Police formed under the jurisdiction of the Yang Di Pertuan Agong to serve and protect the rakyat , not the politicians.

If the police refused to cooperate, this conspiracy against Anwar will stop at their doorstep but now their actions have dragged the country into a sordid political, social and economic mess.

I call upon all good men in the Royal Malaysian Police to uphold the honour and dignity of the force and refuse to cooperate in this sordid conspiracy which will drag the whole country through scandal and infamy.