YOU DON’T NEED TO ASK MAHATHIR, ALTANTUYA OR RAZAK BAGINDA: BY NOW IT IS VERY CLEAR, MALAYS HAVE TO ABANDON NAJIB

When polling for the 14th general election takes place on May 9, caretaker prime minister Najib Abdul Razak and Umno must be deposed, and this must be done by the Malays – young and old, men and women alike.

They have a duty to save the country. They have a duty to no longer be blinded by orchestrated hoaxes, lies and deceptions.

Here are 12 reasons why:

1. Najib refuses to name his exceedingly generous Arab donor and the purpose of the donation. Why? What’s he hiding?

2. Najib has never explained how he intended to use the money, or if he, in fact, had begged for it.

3. Najib won’t reveal what conditions, if any, were attached to the donation. Arab royals are not the type to ‘donate’ money unless there is something in it for them in return. Ditto with China.

4. Najib refuses to provide evidence to back his claim that he has returned all or most of the donation.

5. Money of that size being transferred into and out of the country would have required the express knowledge and approval of Bank Negara. Najib must show evidence of this approval.

6. If not, former Bank Negara governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz must explain what she knows of the money transfers and of this sordid Ponzi scheme. The reticence would be peculiar, but for the fact that this is Malaysia, where silence is easily bought or coerced by the state.

7. Nobody should be injudicious enough to believe Najib on 1MDB, any more than they should on anything else he mutters. Najib and Umno are beyond believability. History is proof of this.

8. One can go right back to 2002 and track forward Najib’s remarkably suspect credibility and legitimacy, beginning with the Scorpene submarine scandal, and the ghastly 2006 murder of the Mongolian woman Altantuya Shaariibuu (photo) who was the French interpreter in the deal, and mistress of Abdul Razak Baginda.

9. Razak Baginda was Najib’s defence consultant and personal friend. He is alleged to have pocketed RM500 million from the deal, with French authorities even indicting him over the alleged kickbacks in August last year.

10. None of these scandals have been fully explained with corroborative evidence from Najib of his innocence. Taking his word just because he’s prime minister just doesn’t cut it anymore. Don’t be gullible and recklessly wilful.

11. Najib has been said to have “approached” Beijing to bail out 1MDB. If true, what has he offered China in return?

12. Is Dr Mahathir Mohamad correct in calling Najib a “thief” and a “monster”? And was this not known already?

Is this the calibre of the man and the party Malaysians want to lead them into the future? What future?

Malays cannot afford to be blindly patriotic to Najib and Umno. Their loyalty should be to their country first and only. Those on the urban fringes and in the kampung must now know who Najib and Umno really are beneath their skin, and just what they represent.

Malays have been flagrantly deceived

They might just lose their country if they give Najib and Umno their votes and through these, legitimacy Najib doesn’t merit.

If they don’t abandon Najib and Umno on a tsunami scale or by an outright majority, there’s every chance the country will be ruined further. The proof is already in the pudding.

Najib and Umno have flagrantly deceived Malays over many years because they consider the community to be inherently naïve.

They must not let Najib play them the way a kitten plays with a ball of wool. Umno has never ruled on their behalf; it has only ruled them, for its corrupt self, its corrupt cronies and their corrupt families.

Malays must use democratic means to demand that Najib answers questions on all the scandals. They must demand that Najib and Umno chieftains reveal their financial assets and that of their spouses.

This way, everybody gets to see if the caretaker prime minister and his men have accumulated wealth, how much, and where they’ve stashed it.

If they’ve stashed it abroad, there are two implications: they have something to hide and want to avoid paying their share of taxes, and/or they have no confidence in Malaysia’s future.

Now is the time for the community to demand Najib and Umno be accountable and truthful for once.

Because, after 2018, Malaysia may no longer belong to ordinary Malays. It will no longer be their country. It hasn’t been for years.

– M’kini