Asked about the admission process, Shahir said Zahid informed him that he slipped in the toilet last Wednesday (Aug 18), shortly after Asar prayers, which resulted in him suffering from neck and thoracic pain.
“He has no spine fractures. Yesterday, he underwent a pain intervention procedure to alleviate pain for his slipped disc,” said the doctor.
When asked how long it would take for Zahid to walk as usual, Shahir replied “he can walk normally, but cannot sit for so long. He cannot put pressure by sitting for so long.
Justice Sequerah: Then, how long can he sit?
Shahir: Usually, for every 30-45 minutes, he needs to stand up and stretch his body.
Earlier, questioned by deputy public prosecutor Raja Rozela Raja Toran on why the pain intervention procedure was conducted yesterday and not the day the accused was admitted (last Sunday), Shahir said he had to stabilise his patient’s condition first as he was already on medication.
Raja Rozela: Doctor, do you know that the accused went to Istana Negara on Aug 19. He also attended the swearing-in ceremony on Aug 21, a day before he was admitted. I watched the ceremony from start to finish, your patient was there. The pain he described to you did not prevent him from driving or being driven all the way to Istana Negara and he sat there for at least one hour or more until the ceremony ended.
That kind of pain could not prevent him, or did not prevent him (from going to the Istana). I put it to you that he is actually malingering because he has been seen by the whole nation basically that he is able to walk, he is able to sit, able to go around to the Palace as normal.
Shahir: I disagree. As a doctor, we have to trust our patient.
Never was a political deal more brazenly advertised as Zahid Hamidi yesterday joined the long list of UMNO politicians who have ended up in hospital as a very convenient way of avoiding the otherwise unavoidable (in his case 87 charges of gross corruption).
Posing by his bed the newly minted PM of PN 2.0, Ismail Sabri, Zahid’s arch enemy and political rival only days before, but who now utterly depends on the 11 votes he brings to the revived coalition.
The outgoing deposed PM Mahiaddin complained that the revolt against him owed to one thing only, he had refused to interfere with the judicial process to get Zahid and other kleptocrat UMNO MPs off the hook.
The public admission that this was the deal that Sabri has been prepared to make was thus confirmed publicly by the photo-shoot after Zahid had sat through his lengthy inauguration ceremony with no problem.
The doctors hired to explain the consequences of Zahid’s slip in the toilet (who are of course no more pliable than Malaysia’s judiciary – they merely trust their political patients) have made clear that sitting in court is different to sitting in the palace, given his condition. He can only do 30 minutes at a time in a court setting.
This guarantees a trial of around 50 years… long after Zahid and his disc are likely to have passed to a more inevitable judgement on the other side. Deal signed and sealed with a public photo for the papers.