COMMENT After Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s cabinet reshuffle, pressure for him to resign has escalated. With the current development, and the use of the iron fist, it is obvious to me that Najib, the sixth prime minister of Malaysia, may not even survive beyond his sixth year, and sixth month, which is by September.

He faces two major ‘threats’. The first is a parliamentary ‘vote of no confidence’ which may spring surprises; the other will be the Bersih 4 rally .

Attempts to thwart these two initiatives to remove Najib may be met with even stronger resistance as apparently the people, in particular, members of Umno aligned to former deputy prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin, are becoming restless.

What Najib has done wrong

Amidst the probe into the 1MDB scandal, Najib has changed the course of history by removing attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail. Even Gani was in the dark when he learnt about his early retirement due to ‘health reasons’.

Najib had done the same with the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal when he transferred the responsibility from former transport minister Ong Tee Keat to the then chief secretary, Mohd Sidek Hassan. Shortly thereafter, Ong was removed as minister.

Back then, DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang had asked what happened to the investigation. “I argued that what is needed is a royal commission of inquiry to conduct a comprehensive and no-holds-barred investigation into the ‘mother of all scandals’ including relevant ministerial and cabinet aspects of the scandal instead of trying to sweep the whole issue back under the carpet.”

Lim called the PKFZ a ‘mother of all scandals.’ I wonder what he calls the 1MDB scandal now, since it involves three times the amount in the PKFZ fiasco.

AG removed, Muhyiddin dropped, and four of the public accounts committee (PAC) members are given positions in the cabinet. For now, it is unclear whether the new AG will be carrying out any prosecution against the wrongdoers. It is hoped that the new attorney-general, Mohd Apandi Ali, will hear the voice of his own conscience and do the necessary in order to win the people’s confidence.

Otherwise, the 1MDB scandal will be yet another major dent into the country’s reputation, and soon, it will be forgotten. The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) may have remanded a few directors and a despatch person for further investigation, but it does not mean that the cases will end up in court. It all depends on Mohamed Apandi.

What Najib has done is not helping to restore people in his current administration. Several members from the PAC should not be appointed to various cabinet positions as yet, until the investigation is completed. What he did has raised more suspicion in the eyes of the Malaysian public.

Even PAC chief Nur Jazlan Mohamed will be getting brickbats after failing to keep his earlier promise that he has set his priority to complete the 1MDB probe before accepting any cabinet positions.

Opposition redefined

The opposition is no longer confined to the lawmakers who form the alternative front to ruling coalition Barisan Nasional.

A university professor had jokingly named Dr Mahathir Mohamad as the unofficial Mr Opposition of Malaysia. He is correct in many ways, because the former prime minister appears to be Najib’s fiercest critic.

The word ‘opposition’ now includes both the civil society as well as Umno members who are with Dr Mahathir and Muhyiddin. In a recent statement, Bersih 2.0 steering committee promised that Aug 29-30 will be the long-awaited Bersih 4.0 rally to force Najib to resign.

From within Umno, Dr Mahathir has been Najib’s thorn in the flesh within the past two months. He has on many occasions urged that Najib step down. Dr Mahathir is known for his relentless attacks once he starts a campaign.

On Najib’s birthday recently, Dr Mahathir had cheekily offered the embattled prime minister an olive branch, urging him to enjoy his retirement .

Instead, Najib responded with a cabinet reshuffle, and chose to drop his faithful deputy who had defended Najib in hard times.

Umno veterans are also not amused in the manner in which Najib had removed Muhyiddin and another minister Shafie Apdal.

It appears now that the word ‘opposition’ has extended beyond the traditional boundaries around political parties such as DAP and PKR. The line has been blurred, to include even the staunchest of party members who were once in Najib’s cabinet.

Umno redefined

Replacing Muhyiddin is Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, a minister and an Umno vice-president. Apparently a descendant of an Indonesian migrant, Zahid had appeared on an Indonesian TV news channel several years ago proudly declaring his origins and that he still has his cousins and other relatives in Indonesia.

In the last general election, there were allegations that Zahid was involved in corrupt practices including vote buying and spending above the limit of RM200,000 for the last general election in his Bagan Datoh constituency.

The Federal Court case was presided over by Justice Arifin Zakaria, where one of the five-member panel was Mohamed Apandi Ali ( photo ), who is the newly-minted attorney-general. Apandi is also known to be a foirmer Kelantan Umno treasurer.

It clearly shows that in Umno, it is no longer the interests of the ordinary Malays that are on the leaders’ mind, but people who are aligned to the prime minister of the day. If you are on the correct side, even coming from a constituency totally unknown to most Malaysians, you can be elevated to the post of cabinet minister or deputy minister.

Since the cabinet reshuffle, only Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin was prepared to urge that the 1MDB probe proceed. However, one would take it with a pinch of salt now that it is coming from another Umno minister and it is uncertain whether Mohd Apandi will take the bull by the horns.

But as it is, even Muhyiddin is unceremoniously rebuked by Tun Faisal Ismail Aziz, a former Umno Youth exco member, who is now the adviser of the Department of Special Affairs (Jasa). One wonders what Faisal meant by money going into Najib’s private accounts is none of Muhyiddin’s business . Is this Umno’s mentality as a whole or is it his personal opinion?

The fact of the matter is that the people want to know where the money came from and where it went, and how, anyone who is earning the salary of a prime minister can have RM2.6 billion deposited into his private accounts. The people are interested to find out, and so should the MACC.

The matter was exposed by The Wall Street Journal ( WSJ ), a highly reputable international business journal, but Najib has not provided a good explanation till today. Sarawak Report had further outlined how the companies are linked to each other.

No matter how senior or faithful one may have served the party (Muhyiddin with his decades of service compared to Faisal), it is no longer important. As the proverbial saying in Malay goes, “Harapkan pagar, pagar makan padi” (When you depend on the fences, it is the fences that eat up the grains.)

The Malay community can no longer look to Umno to protect their interests. Instead, they have to accept the fact that human rights are the basic rights of every human person, irrespective of race or religion.

Civil obedience redefined

Generally, most Malaysians have been law-abiding. However, in the current scenario, the civil society has to redefine the boundaries in which they can and cannot act.

First, any means to remove Najib has to be done using peaceful and even creative means such as peaceful street demonstration, without destroying any public property. At best, it should be done through the polls.

Violent civil disobedience cannot be tolerated in Malaysia. Any individual (provocateurs or otherwise) caught destroying public properties or bashing up another individual should be immediately arrested and charged. The peace-loving Bersih demonstrators can carry out citizen’s arrest and hand over the culprit to the authorities.

The police have a duty of care to ensure that the public is not further aggravated through the use of force. It should facilitate public rallies and not be perceived as trying to defend the people in the corridor of power. Instead, as patriotic Malaysians, they should stand by the people of this country.

If need be, overnight rallies may have to be facilitated by the police to ensure that the people’s wishes are being met. In the interest of the country and the future generation of Malaysians, the police can also recommend to the cabinet that a national referendum be called so that the people can decide whether Najib can continue to be the country’s prime minister.

The word ‘patriotism’ has to be redefined as one’s willingness to defend the nation from rotting further, no longer from the party line. Laws have to be obeyed, but at the same time, it has to be reinterpreted based on the provisions set out in the federal constitution.

This is the best of advice coming from a loyal citizen of this country. Do we want to see the country rotting and be blamed for it by generations of Malaysians to come, or do we want to be the catalyst of change? It is time to let go all the prejudices one has against the other; it is time for my fellow Malaysians to unite and do what is right.

 

STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008.

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