From Ibrahim M Ahmad
Barely four weeks on and the circus that greeted the Federal Court’s dismissal of Najib Razak’s final appeal against his conviction and sentence in the SRC International case seems to have tapered down considerably.
Languishing in jail, he receives no special privileges, we are told. His cell is only equipped with a fan, and he must take cold showers.
Being a former prime minister, he has been placed in an isolation cell for the sake of both prison and personal security, we are told, as allowed under Reg. 8 of the Prison Regulations 2000.
Reg. 16 requires him to be dressed in prison clothing. However, that is something the public has yet to witness.
Recent appearances in court have seen him transported by car, dressed in a suit and without handcuffs, a dispensation the prison authorities say they are entitled to make as he was not the perpetrator of any violent crime. He is, after all, a former prime minister convicted of white-collar offences.
The general public, however, would love to see him arrive in a Black Maria, dressed in a prison jumpsuit and cuffed.
Such is the scale of dislike for him. Unlike Anwar Ibrahim, he is not viewed with even an iota of sympathy, the opulence of his previous life all too glaring.
O, to be a fly on the wall of his cell, and to know his innermost thoughts.
In the solitude of his cell, where there is no incentive to keep up appearances, Najib surely knows the game is up.
Recent comments by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong and the Sultan of Selangor hint that the Malay rulers are not inclined to grant him the pardon his loyal supporters are clamouring for.
Their Majesties are perhaps mindful that public sentiment is almost wholly against the man who must bear the brunt of the blame for the colossal 1MDB scandal. Never mind that so many others still active on the political scene have shamelessly benefited from the very same stained funds.
With almost the entire 12-year jail term still ahead of him, the likelihood of an additional five years for failure to pay the massive RM210 million fine imposed, as well as the prospect of further convictions and additional sentences in four remaining cases he faces, Najib must know he is unlikely to see daylight for at least a decade.
The former prime minister must also accept that Umno cannot gamble its entire election strategy on championing his cause for fear it might cost them crucial Malay votes and further alienate non-Malay voters.
Very quickly, the party’s biggest personalities have become mute. They no longer talk about Najib, and because Najib is no longer the topic of conversation, they are left with absolutely nothing to talk about.
The maverick Zaid Ibrahim – only recently re-admitted as a member – is the single notable exception, flying the Umno flag almost single-handedly.
Meetings among the party’s top three – president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, deputy president Mohamad Hasan, and prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob – have been reduced to staring matches to see who will blink first.
Party leaders and members below them have been equally silent. In the space of less than a month, loud noises of discontent have quickly evaporated into a deafening silence.
Najib may have been Umno’s rainmaker for a dozen years or so, but with GE15 around the corner, he will have to concede that party members must now leave him behind and latch on to a new one quickly.
His huge social media presence, now manned without his input and sorely lacking new material, is bound to fade away.
Ongoing court cases may draw some curiosity in the short term, but Najib knows he will soon be forgotten.
Having scaled the giddy heights of political success and its trappings, he has now sunk to rock bottom.
The lowest ebb is the turn of the tide, 19th century poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once said.
Najib may well disagree. That tide which swept him from the crest of the wave of power to the depths of his prison cell does not look like it will turn at all. - FMT
Ibrahim M Ahmad is an FMT reader.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.
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