“We gotta sink the Bismark 'cause the world depends on us

Hit the decks a-runnin' boys and spin those guns around

When we find the Bismark we gotta cut her down.”

The Bismark, a German battleship, was one of the biggest and most powerful in the World War II and it was terrorising the northern seas with its 15-inch guns.

“Churchill told the people, ‘Put ev'ry ship a-sail’

'Cause somewhere on that ocean I know she's gotta be

We gotta sink the Bismark to the bottom of the sea.”

In Malaysia we have our own Bismark in the 1MDB, which is terrorising some people. So, like Winston Churchill’s order, all those who keep questioning it needs to be cut down!

And all those important people who were supposedly entrusted to get to the bottom of the tale of the Arabian Nights seem to have adopted the line from this song by Johnny Horton and modified it to say: “We gotta bury 1MDB alive to the bottom of the earth ‘cause the nation depends on us”.

In our context, read “nation” as the ruling party with an unbroken 55-year reign.

The latest to lend his hand to the life-burial of 1MDB is Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chief Hasan Arifin . I say “life-burial” because the issue is very much alive and kicking about.

The public still feels the strong pulse of the issue, unlike a lifeless body without the slightest pulse. What’s the hurry to close the enquiry as there are people who have not been called up yet?

So finding the truth is not the important matter, but burying the issue is, lest the truth be discovered by further investigations.

Could Hasan tell us, if any member of his family suffers from some medical problem and is rushed to the hospital, what does he expect: that the medical staff do a thorough investigation to find the root cause and treat it accordingly, or give some Panadol and quickly send the patient home so as not to waste time doing test after test?

Sinking the Bismark was a jihad, and similarly, burying alive the tale of the Arabian Nights has turned into a jihad in the minds of those entrusted to get to the bottom of it, what with the one and only attorney-general (AG) Mohamed Apandi Ali having to resort to religion to challenge former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Perhaps in their understanding, “Getting to the bottom” means “sending to the bottom?”

Since religion has been used by the AG, is it not time for the ulamas and muftis to come out openly and state unequivocally whether all the shenanigans about and around this tale of the Arabian Nights meet up to the strict standards of the tenets of religion?