COMMENT I find it ironic why Hishammuddin Hussein has to say, “ Nobody above law in probe on PM ”. He is perhaps the closest family and political wise to Najib Abdul Razak to know that Najib has a very special position with regard to Malaysian law. If anybody is closest to being above the law it is the present prime minister.

Consider all these. The controversial Scorpene submarine deal, the Altantuya Shaariibuu murder and political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda’s involvement, and Najib’s personal bodyguards Sirul Azhar Umar and Azilah Hadri who were both charged with the murder of the Mongolian woman. Najib is somehow closely connected to all of the above but astoundingly he was never called upon to even testify or give statements in all the cases.

We may say that was history. What about these present cases- no statement from Bank Negara governor on the US$700 million moved into Najib’s account, the inspector general of police’s reluctance to question Najib on the money and deafening silence from AmBank to confirm or deny the above! These are the present and not history.

Dr Mahathir Mohamad went to great pains to remove the Malaysian rulers’ immunity in 1993 to see it make a comeback big time during Najib’s time as prime minister. No wonder Dr Mahathir is very upset. To have the "immunity" transferred from the rulers to the chief executive who is the prime minister, finance minister, Umno president and 1 MDB chief adviser certainly makes him extremely powerful and very scary.

He has never been made answerable for previous cases why should he be made to do so now?

So Hishammuddin, somebody has been able to stay above the law. All this while Malaysians have been fooled. ‘Immunity’ is alive and thriving in Malaysia. It’s just been quietly transferred from the rulers to the present prime minister without even having to go through Parliament.

If anyone doesn’t believe it, just watch the charade and circus unfold before us. Najib will never be hauled up for anything. Instead the government is now busy trying to catch who let the cat out of the bag but not who is the plunderer.

Our only hope  for source of justice lies in the foreign land of America, home of The Wall Street Journal , and perhaps in Australia where Sirul’s case is due to be heard soon. If this is the case, how can we claim to be Merdeka? Merdeka rings very hollow when we still have ‘immunity’ for the ruling politician after the British left 57 years ago. Real Merdeka means we should not live in fear of oppression as no one should be above the law.

RAJA KAMARUL BAHRIN SHAH RAJA AHMAD is the MP for Kuala Terengganu.