Don T Allow Najib Circus To Distract From Systemic Dysfunction

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"What do we do now?"
– Bill McKay (The Candidate)
There is this belief that the sight of the former (and convicted) prime minister Najib Abdul Razak in a prison jumpsuit or languishing in the slammer will ameliorate the ketuanan (supremacy) system, which is destroying this country.
Of course, Najib should be in jail but then again, so do many others whose reputations have been whitewashed because they were part of the campaign to save Malaysia. 
Najib strutting around is not a legal issue – although it does point to the inequalities of the system – but rather a political issue.
A veteran journalist who had been detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) by the Dr Mahathir Mohamad regime for daring to report on the corruption of the government of the day, snorts in derision of the political personalities – establishment and opposition – who are mortified that Najib is still walking around.
He said that all this talk of 1MDB is as if there are no ongoing acts of corruption that even happened during Pakatan Harapan’s time, which have been sublimated by the narrative that Najib is the only criminal in town. 
How ludicrous, he said. He, like any other rational person, understands that even if Najib is thrown in jail, the entire system has morphed into a system of racial and religious privileges, which is slowly crumbling under its own toxic weight.
I do not believe that there are any independent institutions in Malaysia now. 
Nowhere is this more evident than in allegations by retired Court of Appeal judge Hamid Sultan Abu Backer that the Harapan win rattled senior members of the judiciary (for a whole minute) but then they were “extremely happy” when members of the old regime were elevated. 
"The talk among the judicial members was that they were appointed because of the influence of a former minister they served earlier,” Hamid had said.
Retired Court of Appeal judge Hamid Sultan Abu BackerWho could forget the same judge's shocking allegations “that certain members of the judiciary have been aiding private parties to defraud the government.” 
Najib still walking around is all part of a political sandiwara (act) until the Malay establishment can somehow find some sort of equilibrium. Najib talks about political persecution and in a sense it is. 
What of all those other corrupt politicians who are walking around today and these folks remain “untouchable” even when Harapan came into power?
Ideological framework
Indeed jailing Najib because of the compromised system is actually doing a favour for his political opponents. Do not for one moment think that the jailing of this convict is in the best interest of the rakyat. 
It may provide some of us with a moment of schadenfreude but the reality is that we do not have an independent system that would ensure that all the other kleptocrats get what’s coming to them or there will be fair and independent investigations into the political elites.
The system is rigged. Everyone knows this. In fact, Mahathir acknowledged this when he said the reason why Bersatu was needed was because of the disproportionate weightage given to rural voters. 
He said: "Somehow, this kind of people - the rural people, they fear multi-racial party.” 
Of course, the former premier forgets to mention it was his regime and successive Umno regimes which gerrymandered the system so that these people remained ignorant and were denied proper access to opportunities that urban polities take for granted.
Former prime minister Dr Mahathir MohamadIt is not that Najib is holding this country to ransom, it is that the ideological framework that Umno put in place is holding this country to ransom. 
A framework that someone like Mahathir rages against, today using Najib as a proxy for the systemic failure he and Umno engineered.
What is dangerous about this Najib sandiwara is how the extremist forces in this country have taken advantage of the political instability brought upon by the weakening of the Umno political hegemon.
Racial and religious issues are being played up because all these Malay uber alles parties want to be the sole voice of the “Malays”. 
This is why lawyer and activist Ambiga Sreenevasan's public statements are extremely important.
As reported in the press on the issues of policies infringing on the rights of non-Muslims, she said that while the government is aware that the policies limited the rights of non-Muslims, it does not care. 
“This is how they encroach bit by bit into our lives,” Ambiga added.
This is the existential threat the country is facing, and what makes this so dangerous is that it really does not matter if Najib is in jail or not. - Mkini
S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. Fīat jūstitia ruat cælum - “Let justice be done though the heavens fall.”
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.

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