YOURSAY | Rosmah judgment – kleptocrats no longer untouchable

 

YOURSAY | ‘The real victim is not Rosmah, but the society.’

Live: Court sentences Rosmah to 10 years’ jail, RM970m fine

The Middle Man: This is another victory for justice and another step towards defeating the cancerous corruption in our governance system that has brought our beloved country to the brink.

This must be the start of a wake-up call to those in leadership positions that the law will catch up with you eventually.

Self-serving politicians who think they are immune will now shudder with fear and anxiety that their corrupt ways will be exposed and they will lose everything they had garnered through corruption.

For those mindless followers of these corrupt souls, they should take a hard look in the mirror and see just how dumb, clueless and stupid they have been.

Clever Voter: The real victim is not Rosmah Mansor, but the society. The country has been on a slippery slope, even laughed at by our Asean neighbours.

Rosmah has no reason to shed tears. Her entire family, plus their friends, did a great injustice to the nation. The judiciary did the right thing.

Vijay47: How true, Jagjit Singh (Rosmah Mansor's defence lawyer), your reminiscing of the dark clouds of 1988 (the removal of the then lord president Salleh Abbas) and their apparent return “since Aug 23” (the day Rosmah’s husband and former prime minister Najib Abdul was sent to prison).

However, the resurrection now of those shameful days can be laid at the feet of your colleagues from the Bar. Such members attempted every item in the ‘Book of Tricks’ but fortunately, we had a judge of stern mettle who did not cower. The rest, as you well know, is history.

Who knows, when years ahead we look back at present times, some may even grieve those dark days made another stab at returning on Aug 30. Who would you blame then?

In the pursuit of justice, there would always be judges and “outside influences”; where man is present, there would always be vulnerability but not necessarily the certainty to succumb.

You have kindly averred that “you have full confidence Your Lordship would not be influenced by these outside efforts”. No doubt His Lordship would be grateful for your testimony.

But since you yourself have affirmed that His Lordship would not be influenced, does the matter not, as the legal fraternity would say, rest there?

Koel: Najib’s administration is one of the darker of the many dark periods in Malaysian history.

From charges and allegations, it would appear that elites were all out to loot and drain the country of its meagre resources.

Those days are not over as we saw from the recent Umno gathering and the harassment of judiciary and the media.

This group of vultures appear to be regrouping to once again run a lawless administration. The Rosmah judgment gives a small measure of comfort to the average upright citizen.

But make no mistake - our children and grandchildren will be paying for generations for the unconscionable lawlessness of this group and this party. But thank you to the court for this small comfort.

Coward: First of all, it looks like the leaked court documents are produced as a matter of routine.

Anyone can write a document, but that is not the basis for recusing judges. If so, the judiciary is for gaming.

But most of all, the existence of the document proved nothing. You must give a High Court judge more credit than being swayed by the last document he seen prepared by someone else.

You can see the defence’s submission is devoid of credit when it simply points to what the judge must be seen to do, without concrete facts on why the judge will not be seen to do if he did not recuse himself.

Way To Go: The coincidence is alarming - both Najib's and Rosmah's alleged draft verdicts were revealed by fugitive blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin on the eve of their sentencing.

This is a serious crime against the judiciary done with the sole intention to sabotage the Najib/Rosmah trials. Those behind these leakages must be brought to book.

It is inconceivable that confidential court documents can be stolen and leaked so easily to a fugitive rogue blogger.

This appears to be an inside job by those sympathetic or in the employ of the interested parties, its beneficiaries - those who stand to benefit most from these leakages, like using it to scuttle due process.

Whatever it is, this is a criminal matter that has to be dealt with by the police. And it should not be too difficult provided the police have the will, professionalism and competence to get to the bottom of it.

I Am A Malaysian: "Defence lawyer Jagjit Singh mitigates for a lenient sentence, citing Rosmah Mansor’s contribution in society and being a first-time offender, among other reasons.

“The counsel then suggests a prison time of one day among other lenient sentences that may be meted out to Rosmah Mansor."

The lawyer must be joking to suggest a prison time of one day for Rosmah's crimes. He obviously is not behaving like a dutiful officer of the court by sending out the wrong message that the penalty does not need to commensurate with the severity of the crime.

Federal Bakery: It is right to point out similarities between now and 1988. That too was a case of unprincipled politicians willing to strike at very roots of an independent judiciary to have their corrupt ways.

Then too, lawyers were not spectators to the event but paid participants in the unholy assault.

Jagjit’s integrity and reputation is beyond reproach. He has stood tall among lawyers. Let us hope he will do the right thing and recover the profession's reputation that was lost in these past weeks.

The Realist: The cases involving Najib and Rosmah have brought out the worst of the legal profession where the verdict is not determined by evidence and the law but rather trying to accuse the judges of being impartial and skewed.

I am sure that everyone has a right to an opinion as to whether Najib and Rosmah are guilty or not based on what they read from the court proceedings.

These proceedings are presided by judges hearing the cases, being presented with evidence from both sides.

Now we have lawyers resorting to smearing judges, trying to infer something out of nothing just to keep delaying the cases.

In doing so, they get more fees and justice keeps getting delay with the hope that the new government can 'fix' the judges and their clients walk scot-free.

There is no more honour in these so-called 'senior ' lawyers and they put the Bar in disrepute and tarnish the rest who works hard to do things right.

AnotherKomentar: While some think Rosmah has been hard done today, while others might rejoice at her conviction, justice and rule of law have prevailed and won the day.

This rule of law sees prince and pauper as equal. It’s also why Malaysia is infinitely a better country if we all - regardless of politics, race and religion - seek to adhere, uphold and protect this rule of law as sacred core of our democracy.

For without this bastion of rule of law, our democracy will truly be dead. - Mkini