UMNO, yang baru sahaja kalah dalam PRU14 sejak 8 bulan yang lalu selepas berkuasa selama 61 tahun, mengatakan bahawa kelakuan Thomas dan Malanjum itu telah melanggar kod etika dan menimbulkan konflik kepentingan.
Namun demikan seperti skandal banglo di antara bekas Ketua Menteri Pulau Pinang Lim Guan Eng dan bekas Ketua Menteri Selangor Khir Toyo, terdapat perbezaan besar antara aksi menari yang ditunjukkan oleh Apandi Ali dan Tommy Thomas.
Pertamanya, AG. Thomas dan Ketua Hakim Malanjum tidaklah melanggar apa kod etika kerana mereka hanya berhibur dalam Majlis Makan Malam Pembukaan Tahun Undang-Undang 2019, anjuran Persatuan Undang-Undang Sabah di Magellan Sutera Resort di Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. Majlis ini adalah untuk komuniti peguam, bukan ahli politik, apatah lagi ia dilakukan di belakang pintu tertutup.
Sudah tentu adanya seorang ahli politik,Liew Vui Keong yang hadir dalam kapasitinya sebagai Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri yang menjaga undang2. Aktivis Ambiga dan Siti Kasim turut berada bersama kerana mereka juga merupakan peguam. Pendek kata, acara itu dihadiri oleh komuniti peguam,.
Dalam kes tarian bekas AG Apandi Ali pada tahun 2016, dia menari dengan lima orang menteri - Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar, Salleh Said Keruak, Maximus Ongkili, Azalina Othman Said dan Nancy Shukri - semuanya adalah ahli politik dan sebahagian daripada kerajaan Barisan Nasional . Acara itu adalah perarakan Hari Merdeka di Dataran Merdeka, jelas di udara terbuka dan tiada kaitan dengan peguam.
Kedua, apabila Tommy Thomas dan Richard Malanjum naik ke pentas untuk menari, Thomas memakai baju putih dan Ketua Hakim memakai sut guaman. Apa yang kena mengena dengan kod pakaian? Kod pakaian mereka bermakna mereka menghadiri majlis makan malam dengan formal dan ikhlas - bahkan secara profesional - untuk bersenang2 dengan niat memihak kepada parti politik tertentu.
Apandi Ali pula, sebaliknya didapati menyanyi dan menari memakai pakaian seragam yang sama dengan para Menteri 2 gomen di bawah pentadbiran Najib. Lazimnya bila memakai pakaian seragam bererti kita menggalakkan penjenamaan tertentu, bersetuju dengan sepenuh hati dengan produk serta menyokong institusi berkenaan.
Ketiga, bekas AG. Apandi Ali dengan gembira menari dengan sekumpulan Menteri yang terpalit dengan rasuah setelah AG Apandi Ali membersihkan nama PM Najib Razak dari sebarang kesalahan rasuah RM681 juta (RM2.6 bilion) dana 1MDB yang dimasukkan ke dalam akaun bank pribadi Najib. Bukan sahaja Apandi berbohong bahawa wang yang dicuri itu adalah derma dari keluarga diraja Saudi,tetapi buat2 bodoh dan enggan bekerjasama dengan kerajaan Switzerland dan pihak berkuasa AS dalam siasatan 1MDB.
Kelima, Tommy Thomas dan Richard Malanjum bukan anggota dari mana2 parti politik, oleh karena pendirian mereka yang berkecuali dan profesionalisme. Walau bagaimanapun, perkara yang sama tidak boleh dikatakan mengenai Apandi Ali, kerana dia mengakui keanggotaannya dalam UMNO dari tahun 1982 hingga 1991. Seperti yang diramalkan, selepas dia dipecat oleh PM Mahathir, Apandi dilantik sebagai ahli majlis tertinggi UMNO tahun lepas.
Najib telah pilih Apandi Ali sebagai AG untuk membersihkan namanya dalam kes 1MDB. Jadi nak menyamakan tarian joget Apandi dan tarian twist Thomas menunjukkan bagaimana bekas rejim Najib dan macai2 UMNO menggunakan sistem kehakiman secara terang-terangan untuk menutup amalan korupsi mereka. (Rencana ini adalah diadaptasi dan diterjemah dari artikal bertajuk "Attorney General Dinner Twist – Here’s Top-5 Difference Between Tommy Thomas and Apandi Ali Dance Drama" - FT) - T/Sekole
Hadi ada hati juga nak jadi PM...
Kenyataan-kenyataan pemimpin Pas menuduh DAP menganggu urusan agama Islam, sebagai api membakar kemarahan orang Pas. Walhal kalau ikut logik tuduhan itu diada-adakan dan tidak munasabah, ia juga seolah-olah melupai yang perlembagaan negara mengawal kedudukan dan keistimewaan agama Islam.
Betapa pun DAP ingin memusnahkan Islam (?) atau anti Islam, mereka tertakluk kepada sekatan dan larangan undang-undang. Hujah dan tuduhan itu ditolak oleh mereka yang memahami kuasa yang ada dalam perlembagaan.
Tetapi bagi yang tidak reti atau sengaja buat-buat tidak reti tentang bidang kuasa perlembagaan menerima hujah Pas itu secara bulat-bulat. Mereka pun turut bersubahat dengan Pas membenci DAP.
Maka bagi kita yang cerdik tercari-cari kenapa sebab Pas marah kepada DAP. Sebelum ini dapat berkerabat dan berpelukan dengan DAP, tiba-tiba dilihat DAP sebagai anjing dan babi oleh Pas.
Pendedahan dibuat Kit Siang bahawa parti itu pernah mengeceknya agar menerima Hadi Awang jadi PM, membuka maklumat baru kepada umum. Bahawa kenapa Pas marah kepada DAP ialah kerana Kit Siang enggan terima Hadi sebagai PM.
Kata Kit Siang, Pas cerdik ia tidak langsung menunjuk Hadi sebagai PM, tetapi menunjukkan Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, sebagai ganti Anwar. Saya ingin mengesahkan apa didedahkan Kit Siang itu benar. Bahawa dalam PRU ke 13 Pas mahukan Tengku Razaleigh jadi PM bukannya Anwar. Kenapa?
Ertinya kemarahan Pas kepada DAP kerana parti Cina itu tidak mahu menerima Hadi dicalonkan sebagai PM. Oh rupa-rupa Abdul Hadi pelahap juga untuk jadi PM? - MSO
Dancing with lawyers: Richard
and Tommy do the twist...
Some groups and individuals have gone into a song and dance about the gala dinner held in conjunction with what is known as the Opening of the Legal Year 2019 in Kota Kinabalu last Friday.
They are particularly unhappy that Chief Justice (CJ) Richard Malanjum and Attorney-General (AG) Tommy Thomas took to the stage to, as they say, join the party. Some party poopers are objecting to the two dancers dancing on stage, and some, a friend tells me, are objecting to their dance moves.
Reminds me of the old saw about some men objecting to fan dancers and others objecting to the fan. If you haven’t heard of a fan dancer, I’m afraid you may be too young.
Thomas and Malanjum are seen dancing to popular 60s rock ‘n roll tune “Let’s Twist Again” by Chubby Checker in a video clip of the event that has gone viral. Although they did not burn up the dance floor, their rendition of the twist has led to a burning debate.
The duo, together with, Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak David Wong Dak Wah and de facto law minister VK Liew, are seen dancing with lawyers such as Siti Kasim and Ambiga Sreenevasan at the function co-hosted by the Sabah Law Society and the Advocates Association of Sarawak.
The naysayers argue that by letting their hair down at the event together with a federal minister and some activist lawyers, Malanjum and Thomas had stepped out of line; that dancing with fellow members of the legal fraternity could give rise to a “negative perception” of the judicial and legal systems.
Umno Youth chief Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki described it as an embarrassment to the judicial and legal institutions and a violation of ethics.
Umno vice-president Ismail Sabri Yaacob, noting the two men had the right to dance if they so wished, quickly added that they were no mere individuals: they were also the CJ and AG. Therefore, people viewing the video clip of their dance on the stage would have a “negative perception” about them and this might give rise to a negative outlook of the judiciary.
Ismail, a minister under the previous Barisan Nasional regime, suggested that Malanjum and Thomas resign for this sacrilegious and dastardly act of dancing.
I suppose Malanjum and Thomas should be grateful that someone is asking for their resignation for actually dancing. Last March, Muhammad Ali Najafi, the mayor of Tehran, Iran, was forced to resign after Islamic hardliners went for his jugular for attending a ceremony at which primary school girls danced. Sometimes I think we are heading in that direction.
Not to be outdone, the Muslim Lawyers Association of Malaysia, I read, has called for the setting up of a tribunal to act against members of the judiciary if ethics had been breached by this deadly dance.
Its president Zainul Rijal Abu Bakar said there was nothing wrong with the trademark dancing at the event, only that Malanjum, Thomas, Wong, and Liew should have turned down the invitation to go up on stage.
I wonder: Would it have been all right if they had danced on the floor instead of on the stage? How so? A dance is a dance no matter where you dance.
While some naysayers simply want to lead us on a merry dance, others such as Ismail and Zainul Rijal have a point when they say those holding certain positions, such as that of chief justice, need to be more circumspect about what they do and when they do it. They, and we, don’t want a situation where the CJ or AG will dance to someone’s tune.
Nobody, for instance, complained when PKR president Anwar Ibrahim danced on stage with a Malaysian performer mimicking legendary Indian actor MG Ramachandran, better known as MGR, in September 2018. Anwar was campaigning for Halimey Abu Bakar who was then contesting in a by-election for the Seri Setia state seat.
Then again, the legal fraternity’s do is a once-a-year event, and the dance is part of the gala dinner tradition. So what’s the damage really? Isn’t this annual event aimed at fostering better relations between lawyers, judges and some in government in a, shall we say, controlled environment?
It is certainly better than the CJ or AG holding a clandestine meeting with, say, some lawyer overseas to fix cases or even judicial appointments. I think we all need to dance now and then. Give it a whirl. To get into the groove, I suggest you watch Shakira dance – you’ll find that her hips don’t lie.
Life, if you really look at it, is the dance of the cosmos. And anytime you are angry with someone, try dancing; anytime you are sad; try dancing; anytime you feel lethargic; try dancing. Dancing, in case you don’t know, isn’t just for fun; it can also be therapeutic. It is good for both body and mind.
Innumerable studies show that dancing is especially beneficial for older people as it wards off signs of ageing. One study, for instance, that was published in the Public Library of Science’s genetic journal in 2006, says our ability to dance is connected to our ability to survive.
Dancing, it suggests, gave our prehistoric ancestors an evolutionary advantage as they were able to bond and communicate through dance, especially during tough times.
Some studies suggest that early humans might have danced to attract mates and … I better stop here or else someone may claim the gala dinner and dance was nothing but a gathering of people looking for mates. I already notice some eyebrows going up in Kelantan.
Now, we don’t want to waltz into another round of debates do we? - A Kathirasen,fmt
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