A FALL MAHATHIR WILL NEVER RECOVER FROM: BADLY ADVISED OR NOT, ‘ONCE HERO, NOW ZERO’ DR M FALLS DEEPLY IN THE ESTEEM OF HIS PEOPLE & THE WORLD – SAD TO SAY NO ONE TO BLAME BUT HIMSELF FOR BUSY PLAYING MACHIAVELLIAN POLITICS, GOING AFTER NAJIB & ZAHID BUT PROTECTING HISHAM, ANNUAR MUSA, OTHER UMNO WARLORDS WITH AN EYE TO HIS BERSATU PARTY’S BENEFIT

Hypothetically speaking, let’s assume Najib Razak refused to concede defeat after the unexpected results on May 9, 2018. And thanks to the corrupt Election Commission, no official results were announced. So technically, the opposition led by the 93-year-old Mahathir Mohamad did not win the 14th General Election. Mr. Najib wanted to cling to power.

The scandal-plagued leader then decided to declare a national state of emergency. The police and military obediently did whatever Najib told them to do. After all, his cousin Hishammuddin Hussein was the Defence Minister and the corrupt Java-immigrant Zahid Hamidi was the Home Minister. To flex his muscle, Najib commanded that all opposition leaders be arrested.

Heck, the despicable crook even used the Special Branch to abduct Mahathir, the same way Christian pastor Raymond Koh and Muslim social activist Amri Che Mat were abducted by the police intelligence unit. Najib Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor, together with his band of corrupt ministers, would then continue to plunder and rape the nation – and live happily ever after.

What can the people do if the above scenario happens? The truth is, nothing can be done as the nation goes to the dogs. However, had the country signed the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Najib could be investigated and prosecuted for committing international crimes – genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.

The Rome Statute was established in 1998 as a court of last resort, to prosecute those behind the world’s worst atrocities in places where national authorities could not or would not step in. Had not the Americans decided to use Japanese Emperor Hirohito as a “puppet or tool” to control Japan, he would have had been prosecuted together with General Hideki Tojo for war crimes.

Hence, it’s strange that a wise monarch such as the Sultan Ibrahim of Johor would scream until foaming at the mouth against ratifying the Rome Statute. There is absolutely no reason for the monarchies to reject the international treaty, unless they have plans to commit the four core international crimes – genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.

Like ICERD (International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination), Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Friday (April 5) announced that his government will make another major U-turn – to withdraw from the treaty that covers serious crimes and crimes against humanity after one month (signed on March 4) ratifying the Rome Statute.

In essence, this will be the new government’s second international flip-flops in 10 months. The joke on the street was that the Pakatan Harapan government has made more U-turns in 10 months since taking over the government than 61 years under the previous corrupt and evil Barisan Nasional government. Like it or not, that’s a massive humiliation to the Mahathir administration.

Standing alone announcing the decision, Mahathir told a press conference – “There seems to be a lot of confusion about the Rome Statute, so we will not accede. This is not because we are against it, but because of the political confusion that has arisen. Therefore, the Cabinet this morning decided to withdraw from the Rome Statute.”

Visibly upset and frustrated, the prime minister also revealed that the critics of the Rome Statute wanted to trigger a row between the country’s monarchy and the new government. He said – “We understand that this is a political move. A political move to get the rulers to back them up. Of course, some members of the royal family also may be involved.”

Angrily, the PM said – “The confusion was created by one particular person who wants to be free to beat up people and things like that. If he beats up people again, I will send the police to arrest him. I don’t care who he is.” He also rubbished the suggestion that the Rome Statute would undermine the Malay rulers.

Obviously, the premier was referring to the Johor Palace when he said – “So I’d like to say to these cowards who during the last regime saw (former Prime Minister) Najib stealing money and doing all kinds of things and they said nothing. A lot of cowards who want to benefit from Najib’s misadministration so that they too can benefit.”

On March 10, Tunku Mahkota Johor Tunku Ismail tweeted that the government had failed to consult the Conference of Rulers when it agreed to accede to the Rome Statute , and that the government had undermined the rulers’ position.On March 23, Sultan Ibrahim of the Kingdom of Johor accused Putrajaya of violating the Federal Constitution by signing the Rome Statute.

Sultan Ibrahim said – “Any party that touches the rights and powers of a ruler or state government is breaking the law and can be considered traitors. The action of the Federal Government to ratify Icerd and sign the Rome Statute is an action that is contradictory to the Federal Constitution because it touches on the power of the rulers and the special status of the Malays as well as the sanctity of Islam in the country.”

In April 2018, just a month before the disgraced Najib Razak dissolved the Parliament for the 14th General Election, Johor Crown Prince Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim suddenly swung the Johor Palace’s support for the crook. He said – “Don’t change the boat if the engine is not broken, don’t even change the skipper but allow the Sultan of Johor and I guide the skipper for you.”

On Friday (April 5), UMNO warlord Ismail Sabri Yaakob, former Minister of Rural and Regional Development, announced that Selangor UMNO will be sending a memorandum to the Sultan of Selangor to voice its protest against Malaysia acceding to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), as it affects the sovereignty of the Malay Rulers.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that after inciting the Sultanate of Johor, the UMNO political party is trying to rope the Sultanate of Selangor to go against the Mahathir government. And it wasn’t too difficult to put the monarchies and Mahathir at loggerheads. The sultans’ grudges against the old man started decades ago in 1993 when Mahathir stripped the royalty of its legal immunity.

However, Mahathir has nobody to blame but himself for being pussyfooting in sending all the crooks of UMNO to prison for corruption, money laundering, thuggery, tax evasion and whatnot. Instead, the premier, in an attempt to transform his political party PPBM (Bersatu) to become UMNO 3.0, has been happily accepting corrupt defectors from UMNO.

Short of targeting Najib Razak, Zahid Hamidi, Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim and Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, it’s business as usual for other UMNO fat cats. Mahathir appears to be not interested in investigating corrupt leaders such as Hishammuddin Hussein, Annuar Musa, Ismail Sabri Yaakob, Mahdzir Khalid, Noh Omar, Azalina Othman, Ahmad Maslan, Anifah Aman, Salleh Keruak, Bung Mokhtar and the list goes on.

Mahathir, instead of leveraging on his popularity to promote meritocracy, has instead chosen to play the same 3R cards (religion, racial and royalty) which UMNO has been playing for the last 61 years. He thought he could transform his PPBM to become more Malay than UMNO Malay Nationalist Party and more Islam than PAS Islamist Party.

Adding salt to the injury, Mahathir’s own party seriously lacks talents so much so that even leaders possessing “fake degrees” were treated like a goldmine. His top lieutenant, Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, could not even manage the police force leading to the Sri Maha Marianmman temple crisis, not to manage the spread of racism and extremism by UMNO gangsters.

Exactly why young talents like “street-smart” Rafizi Ramli and “Princess of Reformasi” Nurul Izzah are left in the wilderness without proper portfolio to help boost the image of Pakatan Harapan government is beyond comprehension. While it’s quite rude to say Mahathir deserves the humiliation after forced to flip-flip on the Rome Statute, the fact is he has wasted the last precious 10 months.

However, now that certain parties have poked and angered the old tiger, it would be interesting to see if Mahathir will retaliate accordingly. He should realise that none of the UMNO warlords are his friends. He should be smart enough to know that while they are fighting tooth and nail bootlicking him, at the same time, they are sharpening knife to backstab him whenever the opportunity arises.

If Mahathir continues to treasure garbage from UMNO, it’s absolutely possible that Najib, the poster boy of corruption, will make a grand return as the country’s prime minister again, even if he is convicted and sent to prison. Like PM-in-waiting Anwar Ibrahim, the crook can certainly be pardoned. The old man should prioritise the necessary reforms, and neutralise UMNO once and for all.

More importantly, Mahathir can no longer point his finger at Aung San Suu Kyi’s failure to defend the Rohingya, a stateless Muslim minority driven from Myanmar in their hundreds of thousands last year by an army campaign allegedly amounted to genocide. He previously lectured Aung San Suu Kyi – “They are actually oppressing these people to the point of killing them, mass killing.”

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