Report... Report, Report, Report, Report

Technorati tags: Humor, Politics, Law, Judiciary, Royal Commission of Inquiry, LingamGate

Well, unless you've been trapped under a rock for the past few days, or under a lot of rocks in Sichuan, anyone who's managed to get their daily dose of Internet browsing this past week, or read the newspapers, would have already known about the Report. Yes, that report.

Correct... Correct, Correct, Correct, Correct... a household joke these days, referring, of course to the alleged VK Lingam conversation, where the word was repeated umpteen zillion times. The Royal Comission of Inquiry (RCI), investigating the authenticity of the tape, released the report on May 9th, after which it was duly handed to the Agong, during a one-hour audience, as reported by Malaysiakini last Friday.

The RCI had recommended that the report be made public, and yesterday the Cabinet decided to do like Jean-Luc Picard, and make it so. The 186-page report, spanning 4 volumes, although the report proper is contained entirely within Volume 1, with the other three being supporting documentation, like testimony, statutory declarations and other supporting docs.

And hey... you too could be the proud owner of the RCI Lingam Report, if you have RM 541.60 to burn. The report will go on sale beginning Tuesday, May 20th.

• Main Report (Volume 1) - RM 161.40
• Notes of the proceedings (Volume 2) - RM 123.30
• Statutory Declarations (Volume 3) - RM 120.00
• List of exhibits (Volume 4) - RM 136.90
• The look of bewilderment and self-loathing on your face after throwing away half a grand of milk money - Priceless

For everything else, there's myAsylum, and the rest of the bloggerhood, where you can probably read all about the report and its repercussions for virtually free. And there's a lot more to the report than reading between the umpteen zillion "Correct"s... as the graphic above hints at.
(transparent opportunity lost, and more, in the full post)

Malaysiakini, as did the rest of the Malaysian media, posted a sumary of the report findings yesterday, which Walski further summarizes below:

• First and foremost, the clip has been deemed by the RCI to be authentic - it looks like Lingam, sounds like Lingam... you know the drill.
• There is sufficient grounds to believe that the unseen person on the other end of the phone conversation was former Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz
• The RCI has ascertained that Lingam was not intoxicated (on alcohol, at least) during the conversation
• Lingam was not bullshitting or bragging... and finally
• Conspiracy!

As head honcho blogger Rocky stated in his post yesterday, if the RCI report is to be believed, then we'd already had a de facto Judicial Appointment Commission, consisting of Lingam, Vincent Tan and Tengku Adnan. And in the process, implicating Tun Dr. Mahathir, plus a couple of other people (see graphic above).

And adding to the drama, The Star reports that a police report had been filed by the PM's Department against the news media in toto for releasing details of the report before they were made public...

How unnecessarily stupid can one PM's Department get? And the police, classifying this as an Official Secrets Act offence? Doesn't something have to be gazetted as an OSA document first? Might as well charge the entire nation under OSA, and detain all 27 million of us under the ISA... Oh, wait... we ARE already in prison. For Thoughtcrime. Or as the case may be, Future Thoughtcrime. Punish first, charge later.

But seriously, this is how out of touch with reality these BN/UMNO fucks are. Anything to show that they still weild the virtual keris, just like a sword of Democles, over the heads of every pitiful Malaysian soul... Another lost opportunity to show the Malaysian people how transparent the Government wants us to believe it is. Dumb 4th floor asses...

Stupid... Stupid, Stupid, Stupid, Stupid

So, what now? With the long-anticipated RCI report out, and for all practical purposes public, is there going to be any action taken against the individuals implicated, as recommended by the commission? As usual, any investigation will be under the perview of the Attorney General's chambers.

Blogger-friend Haris Ibrahim has stated his unabashed shock at the possibility of this highest of high profile cases being handled by one AG Gani "No Case" Patail - in Walski's view, the absolute worst Attorney General this country's ever had.

If Gani is going to take charge of these investigations, can we just save the public funds that will be expanded in such a wasteful exercise, please.

Just total up the anticipated expenditure, forget the investigations, and give the money to some orphanage.
(source: The People's Parliament)

But Haris has every reason to be concerned. As mentioned in his post, too many times in the past, Gani Patail has been guilty of providing the most idiotic kind of counsel, demonstrating his ineptness as a prosecutor. Or for that matter, in Walski's not-so-learned opinion, a lawyer. What better way for the case to go away unacted upon, than to let Mr. No-Further-Action handle it...

And so boys and girls, the gravy thickens... but until and unless any action is announced, all that we can possibly offer is speculation. And in theory, until Tuesday, at least, the entire nation is now under OSA lock-down... enjoy the long weekend!