On 10 February, Anwar's lawyers were told the specialist had to examine him within 14 days, but the Malaysian Medical Council decrees he needs a temporary practicing certificate for which he must apply a month before he does.  But the MMC cannot act without a dossier from him which must include much irrelevant information from the time he left high school to now, besides his professional attainments.

The Malaysian authorities assume a busy foreign medical practitioner must drop everything and rush to Kuala Lumpur because they want him to.  As it is, the specialist in question, a Dutchman who practices in Germany, is on holiday.  And it would take quite a few days, perhaps weeks, to assemble the dossier.  It raises the ante for no reason but to harrass.

This is on top of the five conditions imposed on Anwar by the Hospital Kuala Lumpur, some acceptable and some not.  Anwar's wife, Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, declares them unreasonable, oppressive, unjust and politically motivated.  Chua Jui Meng rubbishes Wan Azizah's claims and praises Malaysia's hospital facilities.  Abdullah does his bit by having his private and political secretaries visit Sungei Buloh prison to ensure Anwar is even more inconvenienced.

All this in the name of compassion.  Chua gets into an unnecessary debate about the quality of Malaysian healthcare.  This is not the issue.  Nor that the Prime Minister and others in the cabinet had their cardiac bypass operations locally.  Now that we do have excellent cardiac units in private and government hospitals.

The Prime Minister had a heart attack in the middle of the night in 1989, and had to have it done here.  After that, no cabinet minister could have gone overseas without questions raised.  We have more than adequate cardiact bypass facilities.  But we have no specialist in treating spine problems as faced by Anwar.

If the government was clear in its collective minds how it would handle the jailed Anwar, this irrelevant confrontation would not have happened.  But it is unsure and uncertain how to.

As usual, the impasse happens because none in government studies the political fallout from this.  And stumbles. The aim is nor more than harrass the family and any reprieve or concession granted grudgingly.  It is therefore caught in a political maelstrom that centres on his imprisonment and how
is treated there and in hospital, and strives, often wrongly, to put him back into his prison cell and treated like an ordinary criminal.

But ordinary criminal he is not.  The focus of the Malay unity talks next week centres, willy nilly, on his wellbeing and freedom.  Any agreement UMNO and PAS make must include his future.  And if that future is still in his prison cell in Sungei Buloh, not just UMNO but PAS could well be marginalised.

Why does the cabinet have to decide if Anwar should be allowed the German spine specialist?  That neither the deputy prime minister and health minister would not take the decisions they should points to Anwar's jailed presence in Malaysian politics.  But neither wants to accept that, and thinks, wrongly, they could contain it by not thinking through what they want to do to him.

What should have been straight forward and acted upon by administrators of Hospital Kuala Lumpur and Sungei Buloh prison, and if need be the health and prisons departments, is now embroiled in political controversy.  The cabinet is involved, and the government gets yet another black eye.

One man's compassion is another's repression.  The government wants to put Anwar back into the prison straitjacket.  He shows no sign of wanting to.  From the start, the government miscalculated.  And continues to.  If it wants to retrieve some ground, Chua, if not Abdullah, should call in Dr Wan Azizah and Anwar's lawyers and discuss what is achievable and attainable and not frame it in political controversy as is now.

From what I gather, talking to those who have visited him, Anwar is in intense pain and is often heavily drugged to mask it.  It does not matter how his problems began but it certainly was not from the fall from the horse, as government sources allege.  It is more likely caused by falling backwards on to the cement floor when he has handcuffed behind his back and blindfolded when the convicted former Inspector General of Police, Tan Sri Rahim Noor, beat him to a pulp.

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