Nair's uphill task for human rights

File photo of lawyer Sankara Nair

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 10 - It's an uphill task. Impossible, even, some say.

Yet, as one of opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's lawyers, Sankara Nair isn't feeling the heat. He says it used to be worse.

Flashback to 1998, when Anwar was convicted of sodomy and spent five years behind bars. Nair was part of Anwar's defence team then.

He told The New Paper in a phone interview yesterday: "I was worried the last time. I lost a lot of my work. I lost some big cases. People won't touch you, they don't want to have anything to do with you. You become a pariah."So why has he stuck around all these years as part of Anwar's legal team? Said Nair, who is single and has spent 13 years in the legal profession: "It's a matter of human rights.

If you believe in something, you just do it. Everything else doesn't matter."Taking on the high-profile Anwar case also accorded him a sort of 'activist lawyer' label. Since then, the 52-year-old former senior police officer has managed to pull in some high-profile cases.

In 2005, he represented the three Chinese women nationals who accused Malaysian police of strip-searching them and slapping them after they were arrested on suspicion for having false documents. That same year,Nair also defended Dr Sadeq Mustafa Faris, a Libyan-American scientist whose research company was investigated in 2005 by the Malaysian government for misusing government funds.

Nair said: "I still had some cases here and there, and that kept me through."

Since 1998, Nair has continued to represent the former deputy prime minister in several legal matters.

These include personal requests for Anwar to visit his seriously ill mother in 2000 when he was in jail, and in 2006 when Anwar filed a civil suit against former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

For the current sodomy case, Anwar's nine-member legal team is headed by veteran lawyer and former Malaysian Bar Council president Haji Sulaiman Abdullah.

As to whether he ever had to fear for his life, Nair appeared blase, saying: "I don't go out much anyway."

But he insisted he is 'politically neutral' and intends to remain so.

"I'm not a member of the PKR (Parti Keadilan Rakyat) or any other opposition party," he said.

So did he feel a sense of deja vu sitting in court on Thursday when sodomy charges were formally laid on Anwar? "Yes, in a way it is. Anwar and I were just saying it yesterday in court," he said.

But he believes there have been slight changes. For example, he expressed surprise that sessions judge S M Komathy Suppiah had not objected to the defence team's request for bail, which was set at RM20,000. "I have faith in the court system. There are good judges there."

Nair also said the police have been trying to be co-operative. He recounted how he had been upset over the 16 Aug arrest when a dozen police cars and about 20 policemen in balaclavas had stopped Anwar's car and hauled him off to jail. "It was a silly thing to do. After that, I wrote to them."

"I said, 'Don't arrest him that way. If you want him in court, I will take him to you'," he said. On Thursday, Nair said the police seemed to respond to his pleas.

"Second time round, it worked out well. I even got an SMS from one of the officers thanking me for co-operating with them," he said.

As for the ground support, Nair said he feels Anwar's supporters are becoming more vocal. "In 1998, people were afraid to speak out. They were worried the police would arrest them.

"Now, you have the Internet. Views are a lot freer. I get people coming up to me telling me they are not scared like before. They are willing to speak out."

Yet, some things, Nair added, "haven't changed at all".

"This case is full of holes. For example, the police report wasn't even given to me. I asked for it in court and they said no. 'So after court yesterday, I went back and wrote them a letter and still they said no," he said.

"I wrote them an appeal letter and finally, they said yes. Then this morning, they say I cannot get it. There are just so many inconsistencies," Nair added.

-TMI