Should Najib be pardoned?

 

Should Najib Razak be pardoned? There are many ways to approach this question.

One is from the angle of precedents. Have people in the same position as Najib been pardoned before? Alternatively, one can look at it in terms of process and procedure. How does the pardon process work?

Another way to approach the question is from the viewpoint of ethics and morality. Is Najib truly sorry for what he did? Has he asked for forgiveness? Is he sincere? Has he been punished enough?

There is yet another way to look at the question. That is, what do the people want? Do they really want to see Najib in jail?

It may sound feudalistic, but let’s consider Najib a member of the ruling class.

On that basis, we can explore what the people want by analysing the relationship between them and the ruling class. It is within this framework that we can ask how Najib’s pardon and release will be judged by the people.

Many of us do not understand why Najib remains popular with the rakyat despite having been roundly rejected in the 2018 general election.

In the eyes of the rakyat, Najib’s chief flaw prior to the 2018 election was that he appeared to many of us to be trying to glorify himself, without first bringing us glory.

The way we see it, it is our prerogative whether to glorify a leader. The leader’s job is just to bring us glory. If a leader brings us glory, we will glorify him. The leader is not supposed to glorify himself.

Najib’s reign was by no means a period of glory for the rakyat. As a matter of fact, during Najib’s reign, many Malaysians felt that the country’s glory days were well behind them. Najib may have tried to bring us glory, but his efforts did not really strike a chord with us.

He tried to do many things like create a new city (Bandar Malaysia), erect another tall building (the Merdeka Tower) and build the ECRL and HSR. However, none of these things really mattered to the rakyat.

That he had billions of ringgit in his bank account while his wife was having RM1,200 haircuts only served to increase our ire. Not only was he failing to bring us glory, he looked like he was having a gala time doing it.

While many people did appreciate some of his other initiatives, like KR1M, BR1M and Klinik 1Malaysia, these were not initiatives that brought us glory. As a matter of fact, these initiatives only made us even more aware of the state of our decline.

If Najib had just shown that he was distressed by the nation’s decline, and if he looked like he was trying to do everything in his power to restore our glory, he might still be the prime minister today, even if his efforts were unsuccessful.

It was only because he looked like he was having a gala time glorifying himself despite failing as our leader that the rakyat rejected him in 2018.

While a majority of the rakyat did not want Najib to be our prime minister in 2018, it is questionable whether we wanted him to be punished and jailed. Many were just satisfied with toppling him.

We know this is the case because when Najib looked like he might be prosecuted, many people started to show him affection by calling him “Bossku”, which was a sign that they did not really want him to go to jail.

Then the pandemic raged, and our impression of the entire ruling class, including Najib, changed drastically.

Many of us are suffering greatly in this post-pandemic era, and many of us have been extremely disappointed by the way the ruling class has conducted itself during our period of intense stress.

In the old days, whenever the village suffered from a drought, a chicken, goat or cow would be sacrificed by the elders to propitiate the angry spirits.

In the same way, in this post-pandemic era, the nation needs to see someone from the ruling class go to jail to soothe the rakyat’s troubled and weary spirit.

Najib just happened to be a member of the ruling class to suffer the misfortune of being the chosen sacrificial lamb.

Today, still under intense stress brought about by inflation and economic deterioration in the post-pandemic era, we continue to look for an appropriate sacrifice to comfort ourselves.

If our leaders decide that Najib should be released from jail, they must identify someone to take his place. At the end of the day, the people are still going to need a sacrifice.

The thing about the leaders of our ruling class is that every one of them has someone ready and eager to replace him. However, each needs our support to maintain his position.

When Najib fell out of favour with the people, we threw our support behind Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who toppled him. Then we toppled Mahathir by not resisting Muhyiddin Yassin, and then Ismail Sabri Yaakob who overthrew Muhyiddin. Then we toppled Ismail at the ballot box.

If the government feels it can make good fortune rain down on the rakyat to relieve us from the present drought of inflation and economic deterioration, then, by all means, release Najib. We will not care even if no one goes to jail in his place.

But if the government fails to conjure rain, the rakyat will likely blame it for not doing enough to soothe and propitiate the angry spirits.

If that happens, Anwar Ibrahim’s government might well lose our support, just like Najib’s, Mahathir’s, Muhyiddin’s and Ismail’s did. - FMT

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