THE Kuala Lumpur High Court has delivered its verdict and it should be accepted with an open mind: former premier Datuk Seri Najib Razak must stay behind bars for the rest of his six-year jail term. There is no house arrest for him.
Judge Alice Loke Yee Ching ruled on Monday (Dec 22) that the 16th Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s royal decree on the house arrest was invalid under the law.
So Najib’s bid to get out of Kajang Prison based on the royal addendum order has failed and the whole saga should have ended peacefully.
But the unambiguous judgement has only inflamed passions, especially among diehard UMNO supporters who regard their Bossku as being the victim of an unfair trial.
Najib has been serving his time in prison since August 2022 after he was convicted of misappropriating RM42 mill belonging to SRC International Sdn Bhd.
He was originally sentenced to 12 years in jail but the Federal Territories Pardon Board halved the sentence last year.
Pitting court of law against palace
Nevertheless, justice has been served and Najib, 72, paid for his crime but now the whole narrative has been twisted to portray him as the victim of injustice.
An even more dangerous trend is to get the palace involved to overturn Loke’s ruling because the verdict meant the powers of the Malay rulers have been reduced.
This is an ingenious line of thought that could have serious repercussions as it pits the royalty against the judiciary. In future, any court ruling can be overturned by virtue of the power of a royal decree.
To give it a racial slant, it has been argued that it is pointless to be Malay-Muslim leaders if they allowed the powers of the Malay rulers to be reduced by a court headed by someone not from the dominant race.
But the judiciary must always stay beyond reproach to give true meaning to its independence and integrity in a parliamentary democracy.
When justice is delivered on a person for any crime committed and is sentenced to a prison term, it must be seen as justice served and not as an unfair treatment meted out to the guilty party.
Unfortunately, in the case of Najib, certain quarters thought it fit to see hidden hands behind the court ruling. One politician even went so far as to imply that the dismissal of Najib’s appeal is the work of “political machination”.
It is not clear what is meant by “political machination”. Does it mean that perhaps Putrajaya is tugging the strings to influence the court? Or that the governing coalition does not want to see Najib returning to the political arena in time for the 16th General Election (GE16)?
Or is it all the work of the DAP bogeyman perennially the punching bag of PAS and UMNO?
False sense of justice
UMNO is still under the illusion that its former boss can one day return as a hero to lead the battered party again to its former days of glory. Some partisans steadfastly believed that his nine-year record of service as premier stands him in good stead to reclaim his lost throne.
But all have conveniently forgotten that Najib has tarnished his record by one heinous crime that has also given Malaysia a bad name at home and abroad. He is no more a man of honour but a convicted felon.
If the 10-term former Pekan MP were to stage a political comeback, he can only count on the support of a broken party and not the public at large who will most assuredly reject him at the ballot box.
Still, UMNO will not throw Najib under the wheel and will do everything it can to save him from political oblivion.
All eyes will be on the palace for a favourable response but it might be an exercise in futility because His Majesty Sultan Ibrahim, King of Malaysia has made his stance clear upon ascending the throne: he has zero tolerance for corruption.
The king reportedly said: “I’m going to hunt all the corrupt people. I make sure I bring results.”
Najib has already been hunted down and is languishing in his cage – a prized catch for all those who are fighting hard to get rid of the cancer of corruption from the body politics of Malaysia.
Editor’s Note: Aside from the 12-year imprisonment and RM210 mil fine which have since been reduced by the Pardons Board to six years and RM50 mil respectively for his SRC International case, Najib is awaiting another major verdict.
On Friday (Dec 26) a.k.a. Boxing Day, presiding judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah will deliver his decision in the last on-going criminal case against Najib pertaining to the 1MDB scandal.
Najib is facing four charges of abuse of power and 21 counts of money laundering amounting to about RM2.2 bil misappropriated from the state-owned strategic development outfit, 1Maaysia Development Bhd.
Phlip Rodrigues is a retired journalist.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.
- Focus Malaysia.
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