Beauty and the Beast, Malaysian style

 

From Clement Stanley

This is a story of two Malaysians who have put the country on the world map for contrasting reasons. It is the Malaysian version of “Beauty and the Beast”.

For the beauty, it could end on a happy note this Sunday at the 95th Academy Awards. For the beast, there is no ending. Just some prolonged agony for all Malaysians who are waiting for justice to prevail and for a happy ending.

Michelle Yeoh could well become the first Asian to win the best actress award and walk away with the Oscar for her lead role in the comedy movie “Everything, Everywhere, All At Once”.

If there are any indications of what is to follow at the Oscars, Yeoh has already picked up the award for best actress at the Screen Actors Guild Awards last month, and best actress in a comedy/musical at the Golden Globes in January.

Now comes the 95th Academy Awards which is likely to be watched by millions all over the world. In the US alone, close to 50 million people will be watching the Academy Awards according to The Hollywood Reporter (THR).

The former Miss Malaysia who was born in Ipoh is about to put Malaysia on the global map without a planned PR or advertising campaign.

The “beast”, Jho Low (Low Taek Jho) has also done the same. He also put Malaysia on the global map without spending money on any marketing strategy or advertising campaigns.

All he did to get Malaysia infamously known was to rob the nation of billions of ringgit.

Not only that, he was largely responsible for bringing down the mighty Barisan Nasional (BN) government that had governed the nation for 60 uninterrupted years with his master plan – 1MDB.

Numerous personalities, political parties, international organisations, and even foreign powers tried to do it over the years. None of them were successful. The icing on the cake was to land former prime minister Najib Razak behind bars.

Yes, Jho Low succeeded where others had failed and he even had banker Goldman Sachs admit that they were part of this grand scheme.

Today, no one is sure where Jho Low is hiding but he has had the nerve and audacity to offer to return RM1.5 billion to the government if all charges were dropped against him. He had tabled this offer through former attorney-general Appandi Ali who was appointed to negotiate settlement terms with the government in July 2022.

While the beauty has brought pride to the people of Malaysia and continues to raise the profile and image of the country to a positive level, the beast has done just the opposite.

He has shown the world how easy it is to rob this nation with the golden rule of “it is not what you know, but who you know”.

Yeoh, who also starred in Ang Lee’s “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and the James Bond movie “Tomorrow Never Dies”, can keep the Malaysian spirit very much alive without any government interference. I sincerely hope she wins the Best Actress award at the Oscars.

On the other hand, Jho Low who used to own one of the world’s most expensive yachts, The Equanimity, private jets, paintings by Picasso and prime properties (including hotels, such as Park Lane in New York) all over the world also continues to keep Malaysia on the world map largely due the country’s inability to bring the man home for justice and the fate that awaits him.

If that does happen, that would be an excellent ending to a Never Ending Story. - FMT

Clement Stanley is an FMT reader.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.