LUST for LIFE

More than 30 years back, a mysterious informer dubbed ‘Deep Throat’ leaked information about the involvement of US President Richard Nixon’s administration in a series of political scandals that came to be known as the Watergate scandal. Those who had followed the case will recall that there was tape recorded evidence of Nixon’s conversation, which revealed he’d obstructed the course of justice and attempted to cover up the scandals – the recorded conversation was referred to as the Smoking Gun.

Fast forward to Kuala Lumpur, 18 September 2007, our ex-DPM Anwar Ibrahim revealed the existence of a video clip of a prominent lawyer taking on the phone with a senior judge about, among other matters, how he could help him (the judge) to be appointed to a top judiciary post and how to fix the judgments of several cases.

The following day, opposition party, Parti Keadilan Rakyat handed over the evidence – a copy of a 8-minute video clip and a 1-minute audio recording – to the Federal Territory Anti-Corruption Agency office. (The original clip, probably recorded with a camera phone, is said to be 14 minutes in length and shot in 2002.)

The alleged scandal did not get front page treatment from the local newspapers. Even then, the editors exercised heavy self-censorship. No names were mentioned in their reports. However, Malaysiakini.tv gave a comprehensive coverage, including names and video clips. If you are not a subscriber, you can view them at Screenshots.

Surprisingly , Utusan Online, in a short news article published today, mentioned the name of the prominent lawyer said to be the person in the video clip.

If the contents in the video clip are indeed proven to be authentic, then the Malaysian Deep Throat should be commended for his courage to open the can of worms. We will then have our own version of the Watergate and Smoking Gun. And maybe, we will get to see a local movie version of ‘All the President’s Men’.