Anwar: Critics of judiciary ignore lessons from Reformasi era
Anwar, who is also PKR president, said those who lived through the Reformasi era understand that the judiciary must remain the country's main pillar and be free from political interference.
He cited the works of renowned cartoonist Zulkiflee Anwar Haque, better known as Zunar, whose illustrations chronicled the public outrage during that period over corruption, abuse of power and manipulated court decisions.
"Sometimes when people talk about the judiciary, I feel some of them act as if they know nothing at all about history — people who were once complicit in all the oppression and injustice of the past, now wanting to speak about freedom.
"On the other hand, for us who lived through it, we believe and we are convinced that the key lesson is that the judiciary, which is the main pillar of the country, should be without political interference, because our experience has shown that we must be more mature as such interference leads to the abuse of the innocent.
"The same applies to economic management, such as the Scorpene and 1MDB scandal that was illustrated in in the cartoon," he said during the launch of the book "Melukis dengan Hati: Biografi Perjalanan Seni 50 Tahun" by Zunar here today.
Anwar said Zunar's work is important not only in terms of uncovering historical chapters, but also serves as a lesson on what Malaysia must learn from and what is to be avoided.
"To save the country, there must be a clear separation of powers and shared responsibility.
"If we assume that the judiciary is a noble institution, history has shown that it has, at times, been tainted by corruption and abuse of power.
"Likewise, the position of the prime minister or finance minister, even if entrusted to someone believed to carry out their duties well, has, in reality, been misused to amass excessive wealth.
"And all of this is captured in Zunar's work," he said.
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