Another doggone delay to Najib's trial

Malaysians are creative, when finding ways of controlling others, and making excuses.

We've all made excuses, some more bizarre than others. A friend finally sacked an employee who used to ring in sick, on Fridays or Mondays. The final straw was when her grandmother had "died" for the sixth time.

We often use excuses to ponteng (play truant) from school, from work, or to avoid going to weddings, but is this acceptable in public life?

You can't speak out against a corrupt Muslim leader, because God will punish you in Hell for speaking out and exposing his theft and corruption.

You must accept a Muslim leader who lies because it is "better" to be led by a Muslim, however tainted he is, rather than be ruled by a good non-Muslim.

You can't tell a Mat Rempit to behave, because it will stress him, and he will create more havoc.

You can't expose a Malay for his indiscretions, because Malays must protect their own kith and kin, and not shame the community.

You can't trust non-Malays, who would wipe out the Malays if they were to rule, and establish Christianity as the official religion. Never mind that Malay institutions like Tabung Haji, Felda, and mosques have been destroyed by Malays/Muslims.

Is this what has become of Malaysia? Excuses?

Take the postponement of Najib Abdul Razak's SRC International trial, last Tuesday. When the normally aloof lawyer, Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, gave his blow-by-blow account of the rough-and-tumble play with his dog, you realise that Shafee is desperate, and both he and Najib must know that the inevitable is near.

Shafee was trying too hard, with his long-winded explanation about his dog, in the lead-up to the end, when he pinned the blame on the Attorney-General, for delays to Najib's trial.

Shafee said that he hoped to train the dog as a guard-dog, because he trusted guard dogs more than human guards. The guards can't be too happy to know their services are not really appreciated.

He could not resist boasting that he has a professional dog trainer, who used to work in a police K-9 unit and was trained by the FBI. If he were to say this in Ipoh, people would laugh at him, because FBI in Ipoh stands for Federal Bakery Ipoh.

Did Shafee think we would be impressed when he said that his Indonesian employee massaged his hand, whilst he and five other lawyers discussed work till 1 am?

His other revelations were equally dreary. If he, his wife and assistant lawyer, were worried about the half-a-tennis-ball size swelling between his wrist and fingers, why did he not remove his enormous ring, just in case the swelling spread and constricted the blood supply to his finger?

Shafee's excuse left many Malaysians teary-eyed. These were not tears of sympathy, because they were crying from too much laughter, after reading the responses, on social media, about Shafee's pathetic excuse.

Najib has got at least one thing right. He manipulates social media to paint a picture that portrays him as the victim of Pakatan Harapan's policies and the witch-hunting of the 1MDB investigations.

On the other hand, Shafee, will find that social media has been his undoing. Ranging from images of Shafee's  dog, featuring a "hand-bag" dog (small breed which can fit into a handbag) wearing a King-Fu uniform, to cutting comments which say that people do not think with their wrists, but with their brains.

Shafee likes to project a confident, hard-as-nails image, so did he draw upon his skills to convince the judges to allow a postponement? Whilst you and I can see through his "dog excuse", the three appellate judges Zabariah Mohd Yusof, Lau Bee Lan and Rhodzariah Bujang, appear to have been taken in by his wrist injury.

Shafee's verbose shaggy dog story is a glimpse into how he "won" his past cases. He probably bored everyone to stupefaction with brain freeze.

If you have a difficult and unpleasant chore to complete, the best thing is to get it over and done with. Delaying it will only add to your stress and other people's angst.

Shafee's dog-eared story was just another long-winded drama, before the real court drama on Friday.

So is Shafee a good Mat Temberang (braggart) or is he just "cheong hei" (long-winded)?

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MARIAM MOKHTAR is a defender of the truth, the admiral-general of the Green Bean Army and president of the Perak Liberation Organisation (PLO). - Mkini