A Gung-ho Gambler, Game Plans & Gamechangers By Dato M Santhananaban

 

The following is an opinion written by Dato M Santhanaban. It was quite long so I have truncated it. I have also switched some names (as usual) but you will know who is who. Some main points are reproduced here. My comments in blue.

 

M Santhananaban
April 15, 2024

A Gung-ho Gambler, Game Plans & Gamechangers

A procedurally convicted and imprisoned former prime minister, a notorious gambler and speculator with public pension funds, is objecting strenuously to the conditions of his incarceration. Undoubtedly he had had, from the beginning, full or partial knowledge of these prison conditions for a long, long time. He received a controversial partial pardon on his prison term and a high discount on the fines imposed on him. Instead of being grateful he seems grossly dissatisfied.

Bifurcated 1Malaysia

While in high office he declared and was driven by a paradoxical 1Malaysia mantra. But he has now finally concluded that he is seemingly not of that utopian  1Malaysia mould but of another special Malaysian category. In the context of the other category of elitist Malaysia’s highest ranking kleptocrats, he seems to believe and imply that he should not be treated like the normally convicted white collar criminals of 1Malaysia.

He wants to be placed in a home environment to complete his prison term. His loyal or beholden workhorses are seeking special dispensation for this novel unprecedented home stay facility. This is not just a plea for mercy but a movement to pressure and possibly blackmail the current prime minister to arrange an unspecified unfettered home stay environment.

OSTB : My view is the whole thing has been choreographed, scripted, crafted and drafted. In other words you and I are being taken for a ride. And I think Mr Kleptocrat is also being shafted. 

That '38 charges DNAAed' fellow made a brilliant move by pressuring his coalition partners into a General Election in November 2022. The outcome - a hung Parliament with no clear cut winner - has worked out the best for him. He has since bargained his way out of a jail term

But without a doubt he had an able and willing partner to assist him - none other than the prime minister of Gaza. Kleptocrat had a role to play throughout the 'hung Parliament' time period and he obviously secured his 'Get out of Jail Card' by throwing his support behind the main actors (as in a drama or play). 

But he is finding out now that he is indeed being shafted. The latest episode about that "home stay prison sentence" is evidence of that. He was promised things that "they" cannot or do not want to deliver now. Kleptocrat is being shafted. He will not smell breakfast in his own kitchen for a very long time. 2028? 

And here is another catch - what about the other ongoing charges and cases against him? "They" still hold the trumpcard against him. If he is found guilty again and is sentenced to jail again, then which idiot or idiots are going to "support"  another Pardon for him?  You mean each time he gets convicted he can get pardoned?  Main-main kah?

That Court affidavit citing that Tengku's name (about that "home stay prison sentence") clearly indicates that everyone knew the script.  Such 'suggestions' cannot get into the pardons process without everyone signing off on the matter. To say that the prime minister of Gaza did not know of such a thing is being simple. I wont use the word 'stupid' :)

Nearing the end of his 17th month in office he is not being fervent or forthrightly decisive in addressing this difficult divisive, explosive issue.

With a full 16 month-term in office behind him, he is not making waves, not the impressive impactful ones.

He seems bogged down, caught almost in some surreal space, hemmed in within vicious bigwig manoeuvres and a time warp, and seems unable to inspire any new or fresh confidence in his administration.

There were some grand unrealistic expectations of him at grassroots level initially but there was also the cantankerous cadence of scepticism as to what he would or could be.

He has disappointed his most keen supporters, detractors and sceptics alike.

OSTB : So he went to that Ponggal Celebration and told the Indians straight to their faces 'Stop asking me this and that'. Actually this is him. This is the guy. The script has never changed. This is what he always was, always has been and always will be.

Have you considered the possibility that these are also just deflections and diversionary tactics? To keep us (the you, me and the general public)  from paying too much attention to the billions that are being dished out by the truckloads? We hear snippets like the billions being dished for the digital projects, The Star newspaper mentioned 'a new star is born'. Big money contracts. 

The highway monopolies have been extended, the rice monopoly has been extended and the vehicle inspection monopoly has also been extended. That carbon footprint crap in Sarawak etc. All worth billions. These are the billions that we know. What about the other more quiet contracts and projects about which we do not know much?

Instead we are being kept preoccupied over :

• 'home stay prison sentence' (not happening - Klepto is being shafted)
• Iran's missile attack
• the Press barred from covering that Court case
• ubi kayu as a replacement for rice
• and all sorts of crap.
  

These are all just useful pieces of 'useless information' to be put on the front pages to divert the public's attention away from the money and the projects. This has been the SOP for a very long time, since from the bad old 'ketuanan' days.

This is partly on account of his perceived selective anti-corruption and assessed wealth accountability drive. He suffers from another serious disability - his original reformasi rovers, are no longer with him. He is more reliant on capitalising on the support of identifiable minority groups than being propped up by the primary stronghold of peninsular Malay power. He seems to have failed in wooing mainstream Malay support.

He is in a bind mainly because he has unsuccessfully but frantically tried to pander and placate this powerful peninsular Malay base. In an earlier era he and Dr Mahathir wittingly or unwittingly Islamised and radicalised this same power base to sustain themselves in power. That playground, which has assumed largely an extremist ethnic-religious bent, is increasingly the province of PAS, Bersatu and marginally UMNO.

His own party is a bit player and a nonentity in that milieu.

(OSTB : Well they have just about 30 seats in Parliament. That is not a good showing. And in the recent SIX State By Elections his party got wiped out, along with UMNO. Kuala Kubu is coming up next and he will most likely get thrashed there as well).

All these three obviously major Malay-First parties seem to have in their respective individual closets a candidate for prime minister. UMNO’s de facto leader is the imprisoned Klepto..

The youth wing of UMNO seems to be openly working against the best interests of the government to free, empower and rehabilitate Klepto 

OSTB : I think it is all part of the script. But Klepto is being shafted. The loser here is Klepto. Klepto is not going to be going home anytime soon.

Money politics was what created an unchallenged UMNO juggernaut from the 1980s onwards. Somewhat oddly there is now a harkening for those halcyon days amongst a minuscule minority of adventurous political entrepreneurs.

There seems to be no other plausible reason for UMNO’s obsessive preoccupation with pursuing a pardon for the country’s most prominent convicted felon, its boycott of a particular store chain and its constant refrain on inflammatory sensitive issues. UMNO is playing with fire and undermining and derailing whatever forward and positive progress that the prime minister of Gaza is capable of making. 

(OSTB : ditto. Same comments as above. They are all in the game. It is all part of the script. DNAA man does not do anything without consultations first. Every move is agreed upon).

Unity, Rule of Law Fundamental

(OSTB :  Unity, Rule of Law??   

This subject is too alien to them. In their order of priorities these things rank somewhere near that brown ring in a dirty toilet bowl. Money and power is still the lingua franca and the coinage that makes them get up in the morning. 

How to solve this problem?  

• JUST DO NOT VOTE FOR THEM. 
• THERE IS NO OTHER WAY. 
• WE ARE A DEMOCRACY. 
• WE HAVE THE VOTE.
• NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF YOUR ONE VOTE.
• NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF YOUR ONE VOICE.

The views expressed are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.