It was July 2017 and the 1MDB scandal had broken. It was the period when details of how large sums of money ended up in then-prime minister Najib Abdul Razak’s accounts were coming from various parts of the globe.
It was also the period that the whistleblower, former PetroSaudi International director Xavier Andre Justo, ended up in the notorious central prison in Bangkok, popularly known as the Bangkok Hilton.
He had not spilled the beans on any individual but something was needed to distract Malaysians from what was to follow.
Who else but then-inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar to come to the fore - threatening to arrest opposition leaders who had met Justo unless they came forward to give a statement?
As idiotic as the statement sounded, it was given the same treatment and the IGP came out none the wiser.
During a career spanning over five decades, this writer had the opportunity to meet gang leaders, thieves, drug addicts, rapists and even a murderer. The man who painted the now-demolished Pudu Prison wall – a man convicted for a drug offence – was a regular visitor to the office after his release.
First, what offence had Justo committed in Malaysia, and second, is there any law that prevents Malaysians from meeting anyone, including a foreigner?
The principle of "I have a right to choose whom I want to associate with" comes into play.
At that time, I wrote: “Never mind the missing billions and the reports by the Public Accounts Committee and the auditor-general. We have been side-tracked deliberately or otherwise into a sideshow with reports from our northern neighbours.
“A Swiss national has suddenly become the focus of the subject of contention instead of addressing the real issue.”
Remove from Netflix request
This week, another sideshow emerged from Najib’s ongoing 1MDB trial in the High Court in Kuala Lumpur.
His lead counsel, Mohamed Shafee Abdullah, complained that a documentary on 1MDB amounted to contempt of court and wanted the video streaming service Netflix to stop showing it.
“Man on the Run” features interviews with among others former attorney-general Tommy Thomas, former US ambassador to Malaysia John Malott, Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown and FBI investigator Charles W O’Neal.
“But having seen this, Your Honour, it’s about almost two hours’ programme, so I saw it right up until 2am. The programme, Your Honour, was extremely sub judice and contemptuous,” Shafee told judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah.
Najib misled?
Outside the court, Shafee told reporters that Najib was misled.
Thanks to this sideshow, which made headlines the world over, “Man on the Run” jumped to the second spot on the streaming platform’s Top 10 Movies in Malaysia.
Shafee’s complaint that Najib was misled was instantly dismissed by the documentary's producer, Cassius Michael Kim, who insisted that the allegations were not possible because other individuals had accompanied Najib throughout the interview process.
According to a Scoop report, the director said that both lawyer Muhammad Farhan Muhammad Shafee and aide Ahmad Lutfi Azhar were in the room during the session where the trio took occasional breaks to discuss the answers.
Sub judice and contempt
Now to the part about being sub judice and contemptuous. I previously argued that the former is an archaic piece of legislation that ought to have been removed from the statutes when the jury system was abolished in 1995.
I even brought up the issue to then attorney-general Mohd Apandi Ali who provided some unacceptable reasons for doing so.
At the sentencing of former Selangor menteri besar Mohd Khir Toyo, Shafee unsuccessfully tried to cite me for contempt after I wrote a commentary refuting several claims that were made in his mitigation.
At the Court of Appeal in 2015, Shafee brought to the attention of the five learned judges, the two articles – a commentary I wrote titled “Truth, nothing but the truth” and an editorial titled “Don't do the crime if you can't do the time”.
It caused irreparable damage to proceedings, Shafee told the judges.
The panel led by then-chief judge of Malaya Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin, however, immediately dismissed the allegation, saying that they had not been influenced by any reports on Khir's case.
“None of these reports, either here or other reports, influenced us at all," said Zulkefli, stressing that the judges had decided purely on the evidence and the facts.
Sequerah will make his judgment on facts that have been and will continue to be presented to him. It would be a fallacy to even think that he will be swayed by any article or documentary – written or on celluloid.
As for the contempt, the rules are wide and encompassing and since Shafee has said that he would file proceedings, it is best left to the legal eagles to seek it out.
But as a matter of public interest, the trial has been dragging on because of several sideshows and let us not be distracted by them. - Mkini
R NADESWARAN is a veteran journalist who writes on bread-and-butter issues. Comments: citizen.nades22@gmail.com.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.
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