How to forgive the 'MO1'?
COMMENT | There are phases in life – working and personal - when you feel betrayed, let down or deceived by colleagues, good friends and family members.
Then comes the time when you sit back and say: “What the heck, why are you so selfish, getting angry at minute disagreements?” You try to make up and move on.
But these episodes are different from the call by a certain "MO1", who thinks Malaysians can get into the “forgive and forget” tempo and “move on”, as he has suggested. He has high hopes.
How do you forgive him when he changed his story repeatedly over the RM2.6 billion in his personal bank account? To date, almost four years after the scandal broke, he has given several versions and all seem to be suspect.
How do you forgive someone who removed people in power just to prevent more news of his involvement in this scandal? How do you forgive a man who appointed his own cronies who absolved him of any offence?
How do you forgive him when the attorney-general was directed not to enter into any Mutual Legal Assistance agreements with the prosecutors from other countries?
How can you forget the US Department of Justice accusing "MO1" of being a kleptocrat who plundered and raped the country? With this, it was the end of Malaysia’s dignity and respect.
How do you forgive someone who put his hands so deep into the till that the money ran out? How do you forgive someone who dug one hole to cover another and repeated it several times over?
How do you forgive someone who muzzled the media and ensured that the truth is kept away from the masses? Websites were blocked and newspapers were directed not to even mention the phrase “1Malaysia Development Berhad” or its acronym “1MDB”...
COMMENT | There are phases in life – working and personal - when you feel betrayed, let down or deceived by colleagues, good friends and family members.
Then comes the time when you sit back and say: “What the heck, why are you so selfish, getting angry at minute disagreements?” You try to make up and move on.
But these episodes are different from the call by a certain "MO1", who thinks Malaysians can get into the “forgive and forget” tempo and “move on”, as he has suggested. He has high hopes.
How do you forgive him when he changed his story repeatedly over the RM2.6 billion in his personal bank account? To date, almost four years after the scandal broke, he has given several versions and all seem to be suspect.
How do you forgive someone who removed people in power just to prevent more news of his involvement in this scandal? How do you forgive a man who appointed his own cronies who absolved him of any offence?
How do you forgive him when the attorney-general was directed not to enter into any Mutual Legal Assistance agreements with the prosecutors from other countries?
How can you forget the US Department of Justice accusing "MO1" of being a kleptocrat who plundered and raped the country? With this, it was the end of Malaysia’s dignity and respect.
How do you forgive someone who put his hands so deep into the till that the money ran out? How do you forgive someone who dug one hole to cover another and repeated it several times over?
How do you forgive someone who muzzled the media and ensured that the truth is kept away from the masses? Websites were blocked and newspapers were directed not to even mention the phrase “1Malaysia Development Berhad” or its acronym “1MDB”.
Editors, for fear of their newspapers being suspended, meekly surrendered their role as independent sources of news that mattered to the people.
Would the MACC forgive him?
How do you forget his actions in getting a woman charged for releasing balloons and someone for drawing a caricature of him?
How does one forgive him for diverting millions to his son for his follies at nightclubs and casinos while pretending to be a pious man who fears God?
Ask the MACC if it would forgive him for allowing the transfer and harassment of officers who investigated his follies and those of his family.
How do you forgive someone who had nothing to say about his unemployed housewife having amassed such wealth? How to forgive this man for ordering the speaker not to allow any debate or question relating to 1MDB, citing sub judice?
Who could he have protected? The crook Low Taek Jho or Jho Low, who allegedly stole billions from the funds of 1MDB?
"MO1" can claim that some of the above actions were not his doing but these were carried out at his behest for his benefit. If they were indeed unwarranted, he should have made efforts to prevent them from taking place.
He has no remorse whatsoever. He is still in a denial mode. As late as last week, he claimed that there was no solid evidence on his involvement in the 1MDB affair.
But he has no explanation for the RM112 million in cash found in an apartment, although people have come out of the woodwork to claim it belongs to the party.
Neither he nor his wife has afforded any plausible explanation as to the large number of luxury handbags, watches and jewellery found in the same apartment.
He has offered all kinds of excuses for lopsided contracts and for the high salaries of advisors and cronies whose associated companies have milked the system dry.
The list is endless. After nine years of almost dictatorial rule, it will never occur to anyone to forgive and forget his transgressions. The cronies who shared in the spoils should not be spared too.
Like all right-thinking Malaysians, it is a resounding “no” to this forgive and forget concept being advocated by a disgraced leader who is trying to save his own skin.
R NADESWARAN is in no forgiving mood when it comes to those who put their hands in the till to steal taxpayers’ money. Comments: citizen.nades2@gmail.com
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.
