Editorials
Monday, September 20, 1999

Dissent suppressed
in Malaysia’s courts

The issue: Malaysian judges have made a series of rulings against people who criticized them.
Our view: The courts have become repressive under the government of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.

LAST April the former deputy prime minister of Malaysia, Anwar Ibrahim, was found guilty of four charges of corruption and sentenced to six years in prison. Anwar had been charged with abusing his position by attempting to block an investigation into charges that he had committed adultery and sodomy.

Anwar's arrest in September 1998 and the subsequent five-month-long trial had rocked Malaysia and unleashed protests against the government of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.

Anwar had been Mahathir's protege and probable successor until the two men fell out over government economic policy during the Asian economic crisis.

The trial ended abruptly when Anwar's attorneys refused to present their closing arguments as a protest. The judge had rejected their motion that he recuse himself on the ground of bias against Anwar. The judge had made rulings during the trial that were viewed as prejudicial against the defense, including refusing to allow rebuttals of sexual allegations against the accused.

Anwar is currently standing trial on one count of sodomizing his family's former driver, an offense punishable by up to 20 years in jail and whipping.

The trial was suspended when Anwar told the court that a dangerously high level of arsenic had been found in his urine and accused his enemies of trying to poison him. Shortly after his arrest last year, Anwar was severely beaten by police officers.

The treatment of Anwar is a measure of how far the Malaysian courts have come from the time when they were respected throughout the world. Judges have also been remarkably harsh with people who criticized the courts.

Murray Hiebert, a Canadian journalist for the Far Eastern Economic Review, an English-language weekly magazine, has begun serving a six-week jail term for the crime of "scandalizing the court."

Hiebert wrote about a lawsuit by the wife of a prominent judge. She sued her son's school, alleging that it had unfairly dropped him from the debate team. The article noted the unusually rapid progress of the case through the judicial system.

Prison sentences have also been imposed on a lawyer for Anwar who suggested that prosecutors may have fabricated evidence and on an opposition member of parliament who criticized court treatment of a girl who claimed she was raped by a high government official.

The attorney general announced that anyone who accused him of carrying out selective prosecutions could be prosecuted for criminal defamation. This is an outrage in a government that pretends to be democratic.

Prime Minister Mahathir bears a heavy responsibility for politicizing the justice system and damaging individual rights. His treatment of Anwar alone is enough to make him a pariah.

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Silicon Valley

The issue: Silicon Valley's prosperity has brought problems with it.
Our view: Hawaii, which would like to emulate Silicon Valley, should consider the price of prosperity.

NORTHERN California's Silicon Valley, the heart of the high-tech movement, is a place Hawaii would like to emulate. High tech, after all, is synonymous with prosperity, isn't it?

But prosperity has its price, and Silicon Valley is paying -- choking on its success. A report by the Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group makes projections in areas affecting the business climate and quality of life. It says:

Between 1995 and 2010, about 400,000 jobs will have been created, but only 100,000 homes. With an average of 1.9 workers per household, there is a need for 100,000 additional homes.

From 1995 to 1999, housing prices rose 34 percent in the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area, but even more -- 46 percent -- in Silicon Valley.

Freeway congestion in Silicon Valley, measured by time spent waiting in traffic, has surpassed that of New York and Chicago and will surpass Los Angeles' in three years.

School enrollment is expected to increase by 20 percent during the same period, straining the educational system. One in five children in Silicon Valley from kindergarten through 12th grade has limited English proficiency.

Business groups are worried about Silicon Valley's ability to attract and retain workers.

One business executive told a group discussing the report that the area is able to attract workers for three to four years, "but employees are leaving when they become most productive. We're training people for other areas like Austin, Colorado and Seattle," where housing costs are lower and the quality of life is better, he said.

Hawaii has been experiencing a weak economy for most of the decade, and many people are discontented. Thousands of jobs have been lost. Hundreds of small businesses have closed. This newspaper is about to.

During Hawaii's boom years, the call was for slow economic growth. In the '90s it's been slow, all right -- too slow for most tastes.

The solution is seen by many as encouragement of high tech. If such efforts succeeded, Hawaii could become another Silicon Valley.

But what all about those problems of housing shortages and sky-high housing prices, congested highways and overcrowded schools?

Hawaii had those problems when the economy was going great, and still has some. Faster growth could make them worse. How much prosperity do we want?

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Published by Liberty Newspapers Limited Partnership

Rupert E. Phillips, CEO

John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher

David Shapiro, Managing Editor

Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor

Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors

A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor