It is not uncommon for Heads of States involved in scandals to be brought to court, and this has happened throughout the world in the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia.
One recent example is Silvio Berlusconi, the flamboyant media tycoon who served not once but three times as prime minister of Italy from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. This despite a long list of criminal allegations against him, including collusion with the Mafia, false accounting, tax fraud, corruption and even bribing police officers and judges.
Berlusconi is indeed no stranger to the Italian courts. He has been tried over several cases including having sex with underage girls. Berlusconi was charged with paying for sex with underage nightclub dancer Karima El Mahroug between February and May 2010 when she was still below the age of 18. He was also charged with abusing his political power to cover up the relationship. Needless to say, it was this scandal that disgusted Italians so much that they decided to finally give him the boot.
Then in the U.S., Bill Clinton was caught having several sexual trysts with an intern Monica Lewinsky between November 1995 and March 1997. All in, the former U.S. president and husband of recently retired secretary of state, Hillary, was accused of having 9 sexual encounters with Monica. The president and the intern were charged with having fellatio and other sex acts in the Oval Office itself and hauled up before a grand jury. Despite being the most powerful man in his country and the world, Bill found himself having to testify via closed-circuit TV and was lucky to escape being impeached by the U.S. Congress.
In Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra the ex-prime minister and brother of the current premier, Yingluck, was tried for corruption over the sale of telecoms giant Shin even when he had already fled the country. Shin Corp's disposal to Singapore investment firm Temasek in January 2006 was one of the main catalysts for the numerous street protests that eventually forced Thaksin to resign. The Thai courts seized more than 40 billion bhat of Thaksin’s money amid allegations that he had abused his power and sold off Shin without paying any taxes to the government.
Over in Indonesia, on 29 May 2000, after decades of authoritarian rule, ex-president Suharto found himself under house arrest on corruption charges. In July 2000, the authorities had announced that Suharto would be charged for embezzling US$571 million of government donations and using the money to finance family investments.
Suharto's family fortune has been estimated at US$15 billion in cash, shares, corporate assets, real estate, jewelry and fine art. Of this whopping sum, US$9 billion is believed to have been deposited in an Austrian bank. Suharto had consistently topped the Transparency International’s list of corrupt leaders with an alleged misappropriation of between US $15–35 billion during his 32-year presidency.
Even so, the late Suharto who died in 2008 could not match Malaysia's Mahathir Mohamad who has been ranked on Wikipedia as the second wealthiest former head of state with an amazing US$44bil fortune, exceeded only by Egypt's Mubarak who is alleged to have amassed between US$40-US$70bil.
Corruption, abuse of power is protected instead of being punished
In Malaysia, there have always been rumblings about former premier Mahathir Mohamad, whom some in the business circles called Mr Ten Percent. The latest estimate on Wikipedia suggests that the 87-year-old, who still wields enormous political power, is in possession of a staggering fortune earned through his family and an extensive network of cronies he built through the years.
But no one yet in Prime Minister Najib Razak's government has dared has dared to take any action against Mahathir or to even order a probe. Instead, Mahathir is glorified and revered by his Umno party as a Malay hero and champion of Malay rights although in private, he is said to have 'internal' enemies aplenty. But so powerful is he that no one dares to make a move on him.
The same goes for the embattled Najib, who has been accused of taking an illicit kickback amounting to some RM570 mil for pushing throughthe government's purchase of two over-priced and under-used Scorpene submarines.
Najib and his wife Rosmah Mansor have even been accused of being involved in the controversial Altantuya Shaariibuu murder. The Mongolian national is believed to have knowledge of the Scorpenes deal and blighting the reputation of the first couple, two of their former bodyguards were found guilty of murdering her. A favorite topic of private conversations throughout the country including in Putrajaya, the administrative capital, is did they order the killing?
Again, despite the domestic and international notoriety as both the Scorpene and Altantuya cases are often headlined by the foreign press, no one has dared to institute any action against Najib or his wife.
Where there is smoke, there is fire
It is telling that in all of the above scandals, the protagonists all denied involvement and blamed their rivals for initiating the rumours to topple them.
However, once their governments began to investigate them, evidence was not hard to find and they were soon charged. Except in Malaysia, where almost everyone in the country knows and believes that Mahathir and Najib are guilty of their respective scandals. But dare not say so or at any rate not in public. No yet anyway.
All eyes are now on Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim and his Pakatan Rakyat coalition - will they finally bring Mahathir and Najib to book?
It would be difficult for Anwar to evade the task. Mahathir and Najib know this, they understand the political reality. Hence the desperate fight by the Umno-BN to cling to power with some even predicting Mahathir and Najib might stir up street riots so that they can place the country under emergency rule and avoid jail time for themselves and their cronies.
Umno arrogance: Already guilty but so what?
While Najib is still being cocooned by the power of his office, some say he has already put Mahathir on trial with the ongoing Royal Commission of Inquiry into Illegal Immigrants in Sabah.
The Sabah RCI has already yielded results. Stung by the mountain of criticism and bad press, Mahathir has admitted issuing hundreds of thousands of citizenship to illegal workers so that they would vote for BN during the 1994 elections. But he insists his action was not illegal nor the high treason claimed by Anwar and other PR leaders.
Of course, Najib has not dared to take the matter further by ordering Mahathir's arrest or the Attorney-General to begin an official probe.
The best joke is that even if the RCI - which is composed of a civilian panel - finds Mahathir guilty, it has no power to arrest or to punish him. It can only recommend solutions to Najib's government, which is also not bound to act on these recommendations.
No, Najib is not serious about getting justice done. He just wants to frighten Mahathir and show that he is doing something about the unpopular elder leader's past misdeeds. But Najib would never dare endanger his own political situation by arresting and charging Mahathir, whom many consider to be the real power in their Umno party.
Who will punish the PM: A need to change mindset & demand accountability
Above all the burning question on Malaysians lips is, who will then punish Najib? This is certainly a question for Malaysians to ask of themselves as the implications go deeper and further than just putting Najib and wife Rosmah Mansor behind bars.
It is evident that apart from the Altantuya and Scorpene scandals, there are a host of other deals that he has been accused of. Even in the granting of citizenship to illegals to boost votes for BN, Najib is believed to have reached out to more than a million of such people - several times the number Mahathir is being accused of - especially in the key state of Selangor.
But who will punish Najib - the sitting PM of the country - when he doesn't dare to punish a past PM.
It is clear this is actually problem of the people's will rather than of government infrastructure or lack of laws. If the people insist on accountability and responsibility, then they would be able to clear the country of a lot of very bad and immoral examples and save themselves billions upon billions of ringgit.
Evidence aplenty
Once the Umno-BN is booted out in the coming 13th general election, gathering evidence against Najib and Mahathir won't be difficult at all. In fact, controversial businessman Deepak Jaikishan is but one of the many prominent people waiting in the wings to spill their guts out on a slew of corrupt deals purportedly sealed by Najib, Mahathir and other Umno-BN bigwigs.
Catching Mahathir too won't be difficult as he ruled the country for 22 years from 1981 to 2003. By the fact that he wielded so much power during his time, Mahathir not only did not bother to conceal many of his tracks, he did not think it would ever be necessary.
But history is filled with upsets and shock changes. Both Najib, Mahathir and their corrupt colleagues in the Umno-BN coalition may not be able to escape any more. Their luck may have finally run out!
Historic coming of age
For the rest of the nation, their exit will herald a new coming of age. Malaysia will finally get a real stab at becoming a world class nation once it is able to put behind it the awful ravages of corruption that has dragged it down for decades.
As the Global Financial Integrity's latest report has warned and to which neither Najib, Mahathir nor the country's central Bank Negara has dared to respond to, more than a trillion ringgit has been lost in illicit outflows in the ten years from 2000 to 2009.
Given such blase' attitude and determination by the incumbent government to cover up its misdeeds, it was not surprising that in 2010, Malaysia took the dubious honour of being the world's No. 2 most corrupt country, winning the 3rd spot for the cumulative ten years from 2001 to 2010.
Against such concrete data, it would be shocking if Malaysians who are better educated than many of their peers in Southeast Asia would want to retain the BN as their government.
Change for the better is indeed very close at hand and those who do not want Malaysia to do well - and this sadly includes the likes of neighboring Singapore which would have to face up to greater competition from a much more dynamic and efficient alternative government - are watching GE13 closely.
Fortunately, so are the true friends of Malaysia. As Malaysians around the country now say - see you on balloting day!
Malaysia Chronicle
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