COMMENT Tampered emails or not, it no longer matters as far the 1MDB fiasco is concerned.

For every Malaysian who is concerned about the future of this country, it is where the money has gone to. This is in the midst of a weakening ringgit against the greenback.

Despite all the queries from the opposition and former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the answers are not forthcoming.

Instead, we hear of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s ‘Nothing to Hide’ meeting being turned into a platform for Dr Mahathir to lash out at Najib, yet Najib failed to turn up to answer the questions raised by Dr Mahathir.

We would have expected Najib to at least take the bull by the horns; instead, he chose not to turn up. The advice by the inspector-general of police (IGP), Khalid Abu Bakar, is nothing but a mere excuse. It is the duty of the police to maintain peace and order.

Fears quite baseless

In my opinion, there is no apparent threat to the life of the prime minister, as the people who turned up were unarmed. These were mainly Umno members, some of whom are in fact professionals.

Even in the most risky of situations, a bullet-proof vest could have been used. After all, it was an enclosed environment, and in the event that any untoward incident happened, the police could have easily cordoned off all exit doors.

Any criminal (unless a terrorist)  would think twice about committing any mischief especially when he knows that it involves the life of a very important person and he will be trapped in the conference room; therefore, the fears expressed by the IGP are quite baseless.

Being the prime minister, Najib has the obligation to face the people and respond directly to Dr Mahathir, even if Khalid had advised him against turning up at the event.

Najib should call the shots, not Khalid. He is the leader. We have read in history the many leaders who took the bold step to appear in public even though they knew their lives were at stake. One example was Julius Caesar.

Even the assassination of then-president of the United States of America John F Kennedy took the world by surprise, but till today, Kennedy is respected by many for his great courage. Another example is Martin Luther King Jr.

Najib’s absence at the Nothing2Hide meeting is therefore not working out well for his own reputation. In fact, it has badly eroded Najib’s credibility as a leader. Leaders do not ‘chicken out’ when faced with adversities.

Whatever damage control done after that has not appeared to work with the critics and people who are watching this entire episode unfolding.

In fact, public relations mogul Lim Kok Wing, who is supposed to help Najib fend off his critics, is not even making any impact on improving Najib’s reputation..

There are in fact indications, and we are still watching, that some of Najib’s advisers now could well be implanted Trojans from the Mahathir camp.

Najib knows his position shaken

Since Dr Mahathir launched his ferocious attacks on Najib, the latter knows that his position has been greatly shaken.

Within Umno itself, the turmoil is building up. Once this ‘volcano’ erupts, it could be even worse than the 1987 split between Dr Mahathir’s camp A and Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah’s camp B.

Najib is fully aware of the possibility of the split. He knows that he may not even survive the onslaught of his fellow party members if Umno’s election is carried on. For this reason, Najib has to call off the coming election for the next 18 months.

Dr Mahathir’s camp, however, will unlikely allow this to happen especially when they know that Najib is trying to evade the real issues with 1MDB, where Najib as Prime Minister, Finance Minister as well as chairman of the advisory board of the Finance Ministry’s investment arm, cannot claim innocence.

Therefore, for Home Minister Zahid Hamidi to claim that the information was tampered with by PetroSaudi International executive, Xavier Justo ( photo ), is no longer important. For Malaysians, the issue now is not about the source of information, or how the inside information has been leaked out, but where is  the RM42 billion.

It is not about 1MDB’s ability to pay its debts by the end of the year, but where has the money gone to.

It is not about how much money 1MDB contributed towards the development of Islam, or how much money was donated to the Chinese schools in Penang, but where is the RM42 billion.

Giving away RM1 million here and there is a drop in the ocean, where the 1MDB fund is concerned. Najib has to answer this question instead of talking anything else under the sun.

Where did the money go to? Most people I meet say that they are concerned about the way how money has been squandered from public funds.

No one is concerned about one individual by the name of Xavier Justo, who was arrested by the Thai authorities while he was on holiday in Thailand.

The arrest of Justo has made things look even worse, as even Dr Mahathir smells a rat in Justo’s arrest. It would become a major public relations disaster for Najib’s team if the arrest is challenged, as it could involve more than just 1MDB and Malaysia.

Threatening the media over the 1MDB fiasco is the last thing that the government of Malaysia should do, as it would further erode the people’s confidence in the entire administration. Najib’s administration seems to be losing direction, and current development is worrying.

Getting worse

Things are getting worse by the day when we see one incident after another where even security guards are taking the ‘law’ into their own hands. This is unheard of in the past. Of all things, Rela issued a letter of appreciation to the security guard who made a visitor wear a sarong. It is perplexing that even men were asked not to show their knees.

In the latest incident, even the Johor prince Tunku Idris Sultan Ibrahim has weighed in on the ‘short skirt’ saga to tick off the security guards who stopped a woman wearing a knee-length skirt from entering the Penang court.

It appears that there is a concerted effort to intimidate women wearing skirts that are deemed too short. Even national gymnast Farah Ann Hadi was not spared of the criticism. It is  good that the Sultan of Selangor Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah has seen it fit to speak out against those who criticised Farah.

We, the rakyat, would like to thank the royalties who have finally spoken up for the people. Meanwhile, I tend to agree with the Johor crown prince, Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim, that Najib has to come clean with the 1MDB and open the books for all parties to view if there is really nothing to hide.

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