Whew! What a relief it was to read of Najib Abdul Razak’s two-hour rant to the Umno gang at its annual orgy of self-glorification declaring that he considers it his ‘duty’ to continue as party president and thus prime minister.

Because, though not generally very superstitious, for years now I’ve been counting on Najib to provide the last letter of the RAHMAN prophecy - that a leader with the initial ‘N’ will spell the end of the bleeding Umno/BN regime.

And, let’s face it, Najib has amply demonstrated that he’s precisely the man to fill the bill. ‘Bill’ being an entirely appropriate word to describe his deadly misrule of Malaysia, in light of the fact that he has overseen the alleged stealing and squandering of possibly even more countless billions of ringgit in public money than even Mahathir Mohamad and his cronies allegedly managed to get away with.

Countless billions whose disappearance Najib continues to refuse to account for beyond repeating such lame and loony lies as “in the 1DB affair, I wish to state that it is being handled and is in the process of being settled,” and that the R2.6 billion that arrived in and promptly disappeared from his personal bank account before the 2013 general election “was a political donation from outside the country and not from 1MDB”.

Nobody could be so idiotic as to believe a word of such a load of rubbish, but of course his accomplices and supporters are happy to pretend to, as they get their ‘fair’ shares of the proceeds of such alleged frauds and thefts as salaries, ‘allowances’, or licence to commit their own robberies on government departments, custodians of public funds like Mara and Tabung Haji and even on ‘religious’ charities.

In fact never in the whole sordid history of Malaysia has so much been stolen from so many, and never has such massive larceny been so sanctimoniously and apparently successfully veiled behind a screen of false piety.

Najib shamelessly and selectively resorts to the Quran to ‘justify’ himself every time his crimes get him hopelessly cornered, as when he swore he had never met Altantuya Shaariibuu, the Mongolian murkily murdered in the course of the Scorpene submarines scandal while he was defence minister, and he was back bashing the Quran again this week about “tests that a leader has to undergo to prove his mettle and raise his stature” and a “loyalty rule” to leaders allegedly proposed by the Prophet.

What, as always, he failed to mention, however, was the Prophet’s repeated condemnation of illicit profit, especially the making of such profit at the expense of the faithful, and of the even more serious sin of trying to hide such crimes behind Umno/BN-style hypocrisy.

Hypocrisy perhaps most spectacularly evidenced by his promise early in his premiership to create the “world’s best democracy” and his subsequent illegal employment of the Sedition Act against critics and opponents; his much-vaunted claim of “zero tolerance of corruption” and the ensuing RM2.6 billion ‘donation’ and RM42-billion 1MDB scandals; and his fraudulent ‘Election Integrity Pledge’ immediately followed by his stealing of the 13th general election.

GE13 should, of course, by rights have been the realisation of the RAHMAN prophecy, as even with the aid of his corrupt electoral commission, politicised police force, compromised judiciary and captive mainstream media, he still lost the popular vote.

And now, even as we speak, the same Electoral Commission that so grossly one-sidedly rigged constituencies in the regime’s favour in 2013, is doing its best, or rather worst, to organise a repeat performance for the next federal polls due for 2018.

GE14 result could be different

But I’m betting that if Najib sticks around as he seems determined to do, the result could be different next time around. For a start, nobody is about to forget, let alone forgive, the RM2.6 billion bank account or the 1MDB fiasco.

And given the combined incorrigibility and incompetence of Najib and the Umno/BN gang, there are inevitably new scandals in the pipeline that will put current and previous ones in the shade.

Then there’s the fact that three more years of lies and political repression by Najib will continue to cost him supporters across the board, and three more years of hypocritical pretence to ‘protect’ Islam and Malays will progressively alienate ever more of the great many people who sincerely care for their race and religion.

My only fear is that the Umno/BN gang will finally realise what a loser of a leader they have in Najib and replace him with somebody else. Certainly there are plenty of other nasties, nitwits, nincompoops and nobodies in the no-account Umno government in particular and the party at large, but happily for us prophecy fans, none of them have names beginning with ‘N’.

And I have a sneaking suspicion that members and supporters of the regime, as much as they would love to deny it, are every bit as transfixed by the prospect of the RAHMAN prophecy’s coming true as the rest of us are.

Even more so, in fact, as their consciences cry out, albeit unconsciously, for retribution for their collective crimes against not only the rakyat, but even worse, against the very race and religion they falsely claim to champion.

So once again I say “hang in there, Najib”, and do everything in your power - pathological lying, horrible hypocrisy, rampant corruption, outright robbery, jet-setting with your shopaholic spouse and all - to finally inspire Malaysians to rise up and seize their long-awaited post-RAHMAN, Umno/BN-free destiny.

DEAN JOHNS, after many years in Asia, currently lives with his Malaysian-born wife and daughter in Sydney, where he coaches and mentors writers and authors and practises as a writing therapist. Published books of his columns for Malaysiakini include ‘Mad about Malaysia', ‘Even Madder about Malaysia', ‘Missing Malaysia', ‘1Malaysia.con’ and ‘Malaysia Mania’.