LETTER | The country risks becoming a laughingstock to the rest of the world if former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak is granted a royal pardon.

People will say, “Well, anything is possible,” but it is only possible when the leaders in the country, instead of upholding the rule of law, decide to continue with the already tarnished reputation as a kleptocratic nation, which foreign investors have shunned.

Are we prepared to put our own nation at stake just because of one man? This is the question that I would like to pose to the unity government.

Najib’s corruption case involving RM40 million in the SRC International court case is not isolated; it is a small part of the greater 1MDB scandal, which is so much bigger.

The SRC International trial has gone through the entire legal process involving nine senior learned judges at every level of the higher courts in our judiciary system. Najib was found guilty and his appeals were rejected by both the Court of Appeal and the Federal Court.

And in the process, then attorney-general, who was behind the charges, Tommy Thomas, has come under heavy fire from the powers that be, and a High Court judge, Mohd Nazlan Ghazali, who sentenced Najib to 12 years’ jail, has attracted a lot of unnecessary criticism against him, some of which are unfair.

Notwithstanding the strong evidence provided by the US Department of Justice, and the witnesses who revealed under oath what transpired in the entire 1MDB scandal, so far, no one has been charged in court or made responsible for the scandal incurring a hefty debt of RM50 billion, except Najib who was at the centre of the scandal.

We must also not forget that even in the review of the SRC International case involving three judges, the outcome was a straight 2-to-1 decision.

Of a total of 12 learned judges, there was only one dissenting view. This is something that no Malaysian can deny (that it was a fair trial), despite what Najib’s loyalists may claim that it was a case of political persecution during the era of former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

The same prime minister was the one who put Anwar Ibrahim into prison in the first corruption case; subsequently, it was during Najib’s era that Anwar was again imprisoned for another five years. Anwar was not pardoned until he nearly completed his second five-year term.

A number of previous cases involving the deaths of Altantuya Shariibuu, Nasjadi Pascal and the sacking of former attorney-general Ghani Patail remain unresolved. All these cases did raise a lot of questions within the civil society about the credibility of one man, although at this stage, unless these cases have been given a fair trial, I would reserve further comments.

Culture of shame

Most of us know that, because of the 1MDB scandal, the total debt of over RM50 billion would take at least 20 years to pay up. This also means that the money, which could have been used to improve the country’s medical and education system, would have to be used to pay up the loans.

If Najib is not allowed to go through the prison term, many of us would be asking if there is any ounce of justice left in the country, where a person convicted of petty theft is handcuffed and imprisoned for a year or two, whereas politicians like Najib can get away with a 12-year jail term with, perhaps, just a few months to serve.

Many politicians, especially in Asian countries where there is a culture of shame, have died in jail while serving their full term. In Japan, they have the culture of hara-kiri. Where would we put our faces if we give in to pressure from certain quarters?

While politicians need to check their own conscience, I urge Yang di-Pertuan Agong to weigh this carefully, because Najib’s case was and is still a very serious one involving billions of ringgit. While we have already started to redeem our dignity as a nation, we cannot afford to lose it again for the sake of one villain.