It is by now accepted practice that organs of the governments would not discuss what it wants to do,
preferring knee-jerk reactions to thought.  Even if the Malaysian Medical Council could work expeditiously, it could still be months before the temporary practicing certificate is issued.  One highly-paid Malaysian general surgeon in the United Kingdom decided to return.  He had friends in high
places and it took him only two months -- instead of the promised one month -- before he was allowed to practice.  He is now on a three-year bond.  But another waited for six months, and because of the silence inquired about his application.  They had a query, which they would only tell him when he enquired.  The selection of medical practicers from overseas seems to me to be a clerical than an
adjudicatory function.  It is not therefore surprising that many who are finally admitted to local practice wait for their three-year compulsory service to up stakes and move to Singapore.

When the authorities would not mind delays -- and in Dato' Seri Anwar's case, it would not -- the delay would be interminably longer than the rules.  As those who have to deal with governments would tell you, nothing works to schedule.  You go through several bottlenecks, often with a suitable exchange of baksheesh, before you finally get what you went to get.  Shakespeare's "Many a slip betwixt the cup
and the lip" is standard in Malaysia.  Dato' Seri Anwar's family's concerns about his deteriorating health is real. Recently, a prisoner, not Dato' Seri Anwar, had a to undergo a medical procedure at the Selayang hospital.  He was chained to the metal cot.  Luckily a visiting specialist saw it and ordered the chains removed;  otherwise he would have been fried crisp.  The authorities blame a senior doctor at the Hospital Kuala Lumpur, a long-standing friend of Dato' Seri Anwar, for the relatively better treatment he gets, and is to transfer him to Ipoh.

I believed once Dato' Seri Anwar could have got the medical attention he needed here.  Not any more.  His medical treatment is now clouded within a political agenda, one in which he could not expect decent treatment.  The nitpicking that goes on reduces the government's position to utmost harrassment.  Yes, the man is convicted on corruption and sodomy charges.  Yes, he would spend the next 15 years in jail.  Yes, he should serve his sentences.  But how his trials were conducted suggest a deliberate attempt to convict, as happened.  The Attorney-General's Chambers did
not blink when it revised the charge sheet as its prosecution fumbled.  None of his appeals are over.  Common decency would demand a more humane treatment, if only because the man three years was deputy prime minister.  But everyone now wants to stick a knife into him.  UMNO is frightened he would be let out to cause nightmares;  even more so if he remains in prison.

But should the government play havoc with his life? The deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, wanted him returned to his cell in Sungei Buloh post haste even as he was in intense pain at the Hospital Kuala Lumpur. Even the Prime Minister now does not repeat the old canard he is a sodomist.  He made no mention of that -- he was convicted by the prosecution changing the goal post to insist he is convicted.  The point is he remains far more popular politically than almost any UMNO politician.  I am told his illness is so severe that it could be life threatening.  Now, if UMNO and the National Front wants to know what dread is, that should come to pass.  Meanwhile, under the conditions under which his German endoscopic specialist may examine him, he might just as well not come.

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@mgg.pc.my