Rehab is a top idea

Alas, the suggestion by Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein that the Indonesians should have handed-over Malaysian terror suspect Noordin Mat Top for rehabilitation at home instead of shooting him down like a dog proved a bummer in the case of the bomber. But in principle I think that rehab for malefactors is a top, if not Top, idea.

Even Hishammuddin himself appears to be making an attempt at self-rehabilitation, commenting on the recent suggestion by MIC's M Sukamaran that former PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad should be insulted with a garland of slippers that "we must never forget our values and culture of respecting others. If we want others to respect us, then we must accord respect to others".

Coming from the man who achieved infamy as head of Umno Youth by routinely waving his keris and threatening doom to anyone daring to question Malay supremacy, such regard for respect seems a major step forward. And it's not the first sign of a new, less harsh Hishammuddin.

You'll recall his declaration just weeks ago that the Shah Alam ‘cow's-head' protesters had no intention of provoking racial or religious ill-feeling, then his sterling statement of citizens' right to express themselves:

"In this day and age, protests should be accepted in this world as people want their voices to be heard. If we don't give them room to voice their opinions, they have no choice but to protest".

Unfortunately, however, as laudable as Hishammuddin's attempts at his personal rehabilitation may be, they're by no means entirely complete. His defence of the cow's-head protesters' right to be heard was followed almost immediately by the arrest of a small group of Hindraf supporters holding an entirely peaceful candlelight vigil.

And no sooner than he'd made the above-mentioned "respect" speech and released some long-term ISA detainees, he reverted to his old bully-boy style, blustering that he would "not hesitate to fill the Kamunting Detention Centre to the brim if there are people out there who are a threat to national security".

Such relapses suggest that Hishammuddin has a long, hard struggle ahead of him before he can convince anyone that he's taking his rehab seriously. But meanwhile, let's hope his rehabilitation concept catches on among his colleagues in Barisan Nasional and its agencies.

Dr M on top of the list

It would be a great step forward, for example, as some other commentators have remarked, if the Malaysian police could be encouraged to stop killing ‘suspects' in ‘gun battles' and in custody, and try rehabilitating them instead. In fact it's evident that a great many police are in dire need of rehabilitation themselves. As are countless BN politicians and their cronies in the judiciary, the civil service, business and commerce and the media.

But unfortunately rehab can only be effective if participants in the process admit they have a problem and truly want or need to reform. To start at the very top of my list, Dr Mahathir has yet to concede any of the many character flaws that make him a classic case for rehabilitation, and so has squandered his retirement years refusing to change until now it is way too late.

Current Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak is similarly still deep in denial, despite the far-from-convincing resolution of the C4 killing of Altantuya Shaariibuu and questions surrounding ‘commissions' on arms deals while he was minister for defence. So that, far from contemplating going into rehab, he's still out there lamely proclaiming his 1Malaysia concept in the face of its obvious falsehood.

Admittedly a few other high-profile figures appear to be attempting to rehabilitate themselves, or at least trying to convey the impression of some degree of personal improvement. Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz, for instance, the de facto law minister that everybody used to love to hate, has been unusually quiet of late. Erstwhile cash-smuggling menteri besar, Muhamad Muhamad Taib, has also been strangely silent.

Even the previously irrepressible Khairy Jamaluddin seems to be mostly keeping his big mouth shut. And former bane of the bloggers, Zainuddin Maidin, appears to have rehabilitated himself out of sight since his humiliating defeat in the 2008 general election.

Some other BN figures literally crying-out for rehabilitation, however, are still brazenly bluffing it out. Khir Toyo, undaunted by all the attention he's attracted by building himself a magnificent mansion, wasn't too shy to come out with his "stupid animal" comment concerning the recent cow's-head incident. And Samy Vellu, despite financial scandals like Maika Holdings and the Telekom shares affair perennially hanging over his head, and his leading the MIC to the brink of extinction, still refuses to face reality.

The genuine rehab success

In fact, now that I've really thought it through, there are only two former Umno/BN figures that seem to me to have undergone successful rehabilitation.

One is Zaid Ibrahim, who in my book doesn't really count as he was always a misfit in BN anyway, and eventually abandoned it on principle.

So that the sole genuine rehab success - and my old mate Ktemoc would debate even this one - is Anwar Ibrahim.

And, as everybody knows, his re-education from Malay ultra and deputy to the dreaded Dr Mahathir involved a couple of trumped-up charges and show trials, a beating by the then chief of police and six years or so in jail.

I imagine that Hishammuddin had much the same treatment in mind when he claimed that rehabilitation would have been preferable to death for Malaysia's gift to terrorism, Noordin Top.

And I must say again that I entirely agree with him. Rehab should replace death for all those ‘suspects' the police currently ‘kill'. And lots of trials (legitimate, unlike Anwar's) and long terms of imprisonment (of course without beatings by the police, chief or otherwise) are urgently required for the rehabilitation of Malaysia's rotten BN regime.