“Don’t anyone tell me to have a heart for poor Bossku; I shall celebrate like no tomorrow!”

 

Letter to editor

HALLELUJAH! Ho liao (好料)! Magizhchi (மகிழ்ச்சி)!

What a bumper time for rejoicing! Two big celebrations in four days!

First, a celebration over the High Court ruling made last Monday (Dec 22) that disgraced former premier Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s application for house arrest is invalid.

Now the learned judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah has ruled on the charges against Najib for abuse of power and money laundering, and pronounced sentencing. The amount misappropriated from the 1MDB scandal was to the tune of RM2.3 bil.

I said two days ago that I had faith in Sequerah’s judgement, It has proven right.

Najib has been found GUILTY. Yaaaaay! I am going to celebrate like there’s no tomorrow!

This ruling has come after seven long years of waiting. Justice has been slow but it has finally come. Yam seng! Kanbei! Cheers!

‘Nobody’s above the law”

Don’t anyone tell me to be sensitive and not celebrate the administration of long-awaited justice. Today’s ruling reinforces the integrity of Malaysia’s judiciary.

We are also showing an example to the world. We brought a former prime minister (PM) to account.

Granted, this is not the first time because Najib is now in prison for his guilt in the earlier SRC International Sdn Bhd case but today’s second conviction for him reinforces the Malaysian belief that nobody is above the law.

That is something we must be proud of. That is something we must celebrate.

Let us also not forget that because of the mess 1MDB got into, we Malaysian are left with the burden of paying back its debts – up till, it seems, the year 2039. Who brought us into this?

The buck stops with Najib.

‘A tale surpassing Arabian Nights’

He co-founded 1MDB (formerly the Terengganu Investment Authority) in 2009 and saw to it becoming a federal body under his watch as finance minister and PM. 1MDB became wholly owned by the Minister of Finance (Incorporated).

He was also chairman of 1MDB’s Board of Advisers.

He has been touting the fairy tale that the huge amount of money that went into his private bank accounts in 2013 was an Arab donation.

The SRC judges – right up to the Federal Court – have already dismissed it as an unacceptable story. But he still tried to flog it during his defence in the current 1MDB trial.

This time, judge Sequerah rightly called it what it was: “This is an unbelievable tale, and a tale that surpassed even those from the Arabian Nights. A concoction bereft of any credibility.”

I love that allusion to the Arabian Nights!

Don’t anyone tell me to have a heart for poor Najib who has been sentenced by Sequerah to 15 years in prison and a fine of RM11.38 bil. Najib is getting his just desert.

I have no place in my heart for a kleptocrat who abused his power to steal from the people.

I want him to pay the price of his thievery. I want him in prison. Period.

If I’m heartless, so be it. 

Veteran journalist Kee Thuan Chye is the author of Ask for No Bullshit, Get Some More! (sequel to No More Bullshit, Please, We’re All Malaysians).

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

- Focus Malaysia.