COMMENT So, after the hullabaloo surrounding the US Department of Justice, 1MDB, Riza Aziz and Jho Low, the bottom line question remains: Will Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s position as premier be at all affected?

Najib has done quite an astounding job staying in power despite this scandal. My wife quipped, “Very many other people would have died of shame by now.”

Yet, Najib survives it all. (On an unrelated note, I learnt that cockroaches can survive an initial nuclear explosion better than humans can, but will eventually still die from radiation poisoning.)

There were rumours quite a while ago, in the earlier days of the 1MDB scandal, of an uprising within the government bureaucracy to go after Najib the legal way.

By today, the three main people said to be spearheading this effort have all been successfully eliminated from their positions - slowly but steadily.

‘The king stay the king’

Former attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail, probably no saint himself, was the first to fall - unceremoniously and quickly replaced very early in the game.

Former Bank Negara governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz showed some strength early on, but also eventually toned down, and retired relatively quietly some months later.

Last to fall was Abu Kassim Mohamed of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), who recently announced his intention to resign.

Slowly but surely, all the thorns in Najib’s side have been removed, and those positions vacated seem to have been filled by those willing to toe the line. Like they said on one of my favourite TV shows, ‘The king stay the king’.

So, will this latest in a long string of international embarrassments affect Najib’s position in any significant way?

Precedent suggests not.

Indubitably, tongues will wag, people will talk, and social media will be abuzz with jokes (my favourite to date has been “Malaysian Official 1? More like 1Malaysia Official”).

At the end of the day though, as far as domestic politics are concerned, this latest development does not seem to blaze any new paths towards actually removing Najib from power. Certainly, shame alone has been shown to be ineffective in achieving this goal.

What can Mahathir’s new party achieve?

What has been an interesting development on this front is Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s announcement that a new party will be created.

Certainly, historically speaking, Umno splinter parties have not done well. Semangat 46 did not make much headway, and PKR’s success and viability is quite debatable.

That said, it feels like a Mahathir-led party will probably capture the imagination of at least some portion of the people who traditionally vote BN.

Whether that will translate into the opposition breaking ground in the BN stronghold that is rural Malaysia all remains to be seen (making headway in other demographics will not be electorally significant).

Such rural areas are not traditionally places in which stories about New York penthouses, private jets or Monet paintings tend to hold much sway. How much weight Mahathir’s name will carry I suppose only time will tell.

The good news for those who want Najib out is that there is at least some glimmer of recognition of late, within the anti-Najib circles, that there really is no significant change without significant opposition unity.

Acknowledging this fact is one thing, and making it a reality quite another, of course.

An opposition united around firm principles (rather than marriages of convenience) may also be too much to hope for, but we shall keep an open mind for now and see.

‘Ironic and ironic-er’

On another note, here is the quote/subject material that I confess most made me want to write today:

“According to the allegations in the complaints, this is a case where life imitated art,” said assistant attorney-general Leslie R Caldwell.

“The associates of these corrupt 1MDB officials are alleged to have used some of the illicit proceeds of their fraud scheme to fund the production of ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’, a movie about a corrupt stockbroker who tried to hide his own illicit profits in a perceived foreign safe haven.”

At long, long last, someone publicly notes the intense irony surrounding the fact that allegedly corrupt money went into the making of a blockbuster film about corruption.

The irony goes a little deeper. The production company behind ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ is Red Granite Pictures, co-founded by Najib’s stepson Riza Aziz, who is at the centre of the Department of Justice’s asset seizure lawsuit.

(The US Department of Justice has formally stated that Riza was gambling in Las Vegas with Jho Low and and a ‘lead actor’ from 'The Wolf of Wall Street'. Wonder if the Department of Islamic Advancement of Malaysia (Jakim), the Selangor Islamic Department (Jais), etc have any comment?

The following are the four most recent films by Red Granite, along with their themes and subject matter:

‘Daddy’s Home’ (2015) - Stepfather issues

‘Dumb and Dumber To’ (2014) - Somewhat self-explanatory

‘Horns’ (2014) - About a man accused of raping and murdering his girlfriend

‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ (2013) - Rampant corruption and lavish debauchery in the financial world

The phrase that comes to mind is, “I can’t even...”

The fact that Najib’s stepson would make four movies in a row with these themes boggles the mind. I really can’t tell if this thick skin is a form of mockery, arrogance, self-loathing or goodness knows what else.

As a random aside, the stars of ‘Daddy’s Home’ are Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg. This particular collaboration is probably best known for the 2010 film, ‘The Other Guys’.

One of the funniest movies ever made (in my humble opinion), ‘The Other Guys’ is also set against a backdrop of a financial system gone wild, overrun by ruthless, well-connected financial pirates who plunder and pillage, and then get off scot free (feel free to check out the closing credits).

Sound familiar?

NATHANIEL TAN believes all the pieces matter.