From the United Kingdom to Switzerland, Singapore, Hong Kong, the United States of America to France we are reading of reports of mounting investigations on Malaysia’s much touted economic and financial maverick, the now infamous 1MDB and its related fund transfers that have changed labels in Malaysia from being called a ‘donation’ to an ‘investment’ and a seeming ‘loan’ that was returned.

Even our military arms purchase is now under the lens of French authorities while the anointed broker of the then-defence minister and present prime minister of Malaysia is basking in London.

Back to the basics, name one country in the world that is or has gone through such widespread investigations and reporting in so many reputed and established media?

Indeed if what our Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and all his defenders are peddling at full throttle is viable truth, why are highly respected investigating agencies probing our nation’s actions in the first place?

Are we saying that these reputed and fearless investigators are all so gullible, having fallen victim to the Sarawak Report and media spins?

Why in the first place did Malaysia get entangled in this web of a mess that spooks of mega-scale corruption and misappropriation?

And back home we are seriously threatening of jailing citizens and journalists who even dare to ask concerned questions. We already have seen how some leaders are being kicked out (as they themselves publicly claimed), unceremoniously, for probing this financial quagmire.

Indeed, it looks like this once a promising ‘Asian Tiger’ is now a case of ‘give a flower to a monkey’.

We had premium oil that we sold for a killing as oil prices kept rising to an unprecedented US$100 per barrel. We enjoyed bell weather and exported our crops. Palm oil replaced virgin forests all across the country as we milked the times. We sold our timbers making some individuals multi-billionaires while natives were displaced. Our penchant for mega-scale developments from automobile to energy to towering structures seemed never ending.

We sent our corporate troops on a buying spree and even have huge facilities rented out to the FBI of the US.

But today we are being investigated all across the globe.

Yes, we can beat and jail our own citizens for asking and probing and reporting concerns over the financial mess our government is culpable to this date. But will the ‘orang putih’ let us shame them with our obvious penchant for greed and power and control? At all costs these age old institutions will not want to earn the wrath of their own citizenry and stakeholders surely.

Indeed it is a heartbreaking case of having ‘given a flower to a monkey’. Today Malaysia is deeply in debt and muddled in a sea of global attention and all for the wrong reasons. What is it going to take us 29 million people to restore our dignity, pride and integrity? And how long is the pain going to leave its mark?