DR M HITS BULLS-EYE: NAJIB AFRAID TO GO JAIL, THAT'S WHY HE WON'T QUIT

As Umno grassroots grappled with news that their party may have committed an Islamic 'sin' by collaborating with and using money obtained illicitly from a casino and gambling conglomerate, former leader Mahathir Mohamad lobbed another missile at Prime Minister Najib Razak, the Umno party president accused of complicity and massive corruption via the 1MDB government-owned sovereign fund.

In a video uploaded on a pro-Umno blog, Din Turtle, Mahathir told a forum held at the Perdana Leadership Foundation said that as long as Najib remains in power, the country will deteriorate and remain unstable.

“Advice, I have given. Even threats I have issued. But he (Najib) says he can’t, won’t quit. And because he can’t quit, I think he is afraid. If he quits, he might face criminal charges,” Mahathir told an enthralled audience of mostly Malay NGOs.

The ex-PM who claims he has no choice but to become an aggressive anti-Najib critic to 'save Malaysia' went on to repeat a question that he has often raised when discussing 1Malaysia Development Berhad’s (or 1MDB) reported RM42 billion debt.

“Where did the money go?” he asked.

“So, Najib has committed many offences and I believe that for as long as he remains prime minister, our country will become problematic, will lose its stability and will no longer be a place for us to live comfortably,” Mahathir said.

The 90-year-old statesman has been at the forefront of attacks against the Najib administration and has been actively campaigning for the prime minister’s resignation, believing the latter will lead BN to doom in the next federal polls.

'Haram' money, illegal GE-13 victory

Mahathir's outburst comes after a shocking expose from the Wall Street Journal.

According to a WSJ report, debt-ridden 1MDB had indirectly supported Najib's campaign by purchasing power assets from Genting Group in 2012 for five times more than its worth.

Genting allegedly donated part of the earnings to a foundation controlled by Najib. The foundation, Yayasan Rakyat 1Malaysia, then announced several charity projects ‎which Najib later brought up during his campaign.

"Though set up to help underprivileged Malaysians through education and sport, this charity soon got involved in spending that appeared designed to help Najib retain power in the May 2013 election," said WSJ.

In a response to WSJ, the Prime Minister's Office said the claims were baseless.

Pinning down Najib for a 'slow kill'

There has never been a greater uproar in Malaysian politics than the saga of a power tussle between prime minister Najib Tun Razak and ex-prime minister Mahathir Mohammad over the disclosure of improper acts or wrongdoings in the management and running of the sovereign wealth fund 1MDB.

The whistleblowers are being investigated but it was Mahathir who took the bull by the horns and began a savage attack on Najib and his wife Rosmah for a litany of wrongdoings, not only linked to 1MDB, but also regarding other facets of the governance of the nation.

It was very unlike Mahathir to become a barbaric and savage critic of Najib and Rosmah although he was pleased as punch when Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was shown the exit as prime minister only to be replaced by Najib.

Just as Badawi had incurred the wrath of Mahathir, both Najib and Rosmah are also now on the receiving end. Malaysians watching the ongoing spectacle unfold are beginning to wonder if anyone is good enough for Mahathir to occupy the chair of prime minister in this country.

Malaysians are learning fast that the political landscape in this country is not like what it seems and there appears to be a whole lot of skullduggery and cloak and dagger stuff that are going on behind the scenes which have been carefully camouflaged from the view of the man on the street.

Mahathir’s hypocrisy

The emergence of Mahathir’s hypocrisy and the fact that some people are suggesting he undergo a lie detector test goes to show that his credibility as a leader has been undermined and it is most probable and evident that the 1MDB fiasco has blow his legacy into tatters.

What was supposed to be a pleasant retirement has now changed into a fast and furious bid by the former prime minister to salvage his legacy and try and convince Malaysians that his alleged wrongdoings of 1MDB by Najib are true.

This is difficult for Malaysians to stomach because the media in this country are weighted in different directions and aligned to different political parties and therefore it is hard to tell who is telling the truth and if Najib is really hiding anything.

It must be remembered that during the time of Mahathir’s tenure as prime minister billions were alleged to be misappropriated but there was nothing to deter him from going on to govern Malaysia with an iron fist covered by a velvet glove.

Mahathir was the quintessential dictator and this is what Malaysians are learning from the 1MDB fiasco and it is also obvious that Najib is a quick learner and has learnt all the tricks of the political trade from him only to give Mahathir a taste of his own medicine.

1MDB’s media coverage

From the beginning of the 1MDB saga breaking into the open and opening a can of worms, Malaysians of all walks of life have placed the media under scrutiny to see how credible and true and honest they are in the coverage of this debacle.

Now Malaysians have got a lesson on how the media works in this country. The state controlled media or mainstream media are guilty of favoring the government of the day and slanting stories in favor of Barisan Nasional (BN).

The alternative media are supposed to give a contrarian view and to supposedly oppose the BN government because they are very often on the lookout for wrongdoing and acts of abuse of power and authority by BN leaders.

Since the government controlled media is on the side of the state and the alternative media is rooting for the once established opposition coalition that is now in disarray and fragmented, it is social media to which Malaysians are flocking in droves to get information of 1MDB.

Within the framework of social media, millions of Malaysians are participating in debate and discussion on not only 1MDB but other issues of the day in which their views, opinions, grievances, concerns, worries and complaints are all being followed by many people.

The verdict of Malaysians

But it is really the 1MDB fiasco that is the hot issue off the press and millions of Malaysians are trying to form a verdict of whether Najib and the management of the sovereign wealth fund are guilty of causing RM 42 billion to “disappear” as alleged by Mahathir.

Malaysians are actually sitting as the jury and deliberating over reams of reports and stories and analyses and commentaries to find the needle in the haystack and it is really difficult to get to the bottom of the truth as the situation has become convoluted.

There are so many twists and turns that Malaysians don’t know who to believe in and what to believe in as the 1MDB saga has been blown out of proportions by the vested interests of so many parties, that like so many other issues before, it looks as if the matter is just going to fade away into oblivion.

This is what many Malaysians believe, that at the end of the day, the 1MDB fiasco will be swept under the carpet and life will go on as usual for everybody as this is the way that the system works in this country to which there has never been any real attempt to change.

Unless and until people with the real political will and conviction come forward to helm the government, this sad tale of no action or nothing being done to stop the rot of mismanagement in the Malaysian government is set to be there for many more years to come. - MAILBAG