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by M. Bakri Musa (Author)
On July 2016, the US Department of Justice filed the largest single action ever brought under the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative. From 2009 through 2015, DOJ alleged that more than US$3.5 billion belonging to One Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), a Malaysian government-linked company, were misappropriated. The central culprit was "Malaysian Official 1," today identified as then Prime Minister Najib Razak.These commentaries trace the degeneration of an inherently corrupt Najib Razak, as well as the failure of Malaysian institutions at all levels and those entrusted with running them. Najib was exposed only when the coalition he led was defeated in the May 2018 Malaysian General Elections.Malaysia is still reverberating from the consequent humongous financial and other liabilities. Worse, 1MDB is not the only mess; there are other potential 1MDB-like scandals awaiting exposure.Today Najib, his wife, ministers, and top officials face several serious criminal charges in Malaysia. Najib is not terribly bright and could not have executed this massive heist on his own. He had many enablers who not only paved his rapid political ascent but ignored his many obvious dark traits and blatant corrupt acts. His flawed character and dark tendencies were obvious much early on but Malaysians refused to recognize them in deference to his pedigree, being the son of the country's much revered second Prime Minister, Tun Razak.Najib's many enablers in turn owed their rise through his father. Their enabling and paving the way for Najib was but an expression of that old Malay cultural tradition of terhutang budi (repaying an old debt).The most consequential enabler was Mahathir Mohamad, Prime Minister from 1980 to 2003. Najib was Mahathir's political heir.Najib learned his corrupt ways only too well from his mentor, and brought them to a new obscene high, or egregious low. The only difference between Najib's and Mahathir's misdeeds is that Najib lost the election and thus his evil ways were exposed. Mahathir won elections and his crimes remained hidden. Quantitatively and qualitatively their evil deeds and characters are in the same league.It may seem perverse that despite facing multiple criminal charges, each of which could put him behind bars for the rest of his life, Najib is still being held in high esteem among a good segment of Malaysians, especially Malays. They refer to him with unabashed adoration as Malu Apa, Bossku (My boss What's there to be ashamed of?)As these essays make clear, there is a reason for that perversity. To a significant segment of Malays, Najib's path to the top had the imprimatur of not only Mahathir but also the Sultans and Agung. The Sultan of Pahang for example was an unabashed admirer. As those criminal charges have revealed, the loot from 1MDB may have flowed towards the various palaces and other elite.The religious sector too was not spared. With the loot of 1MDB being used to sponsor free Hajj trips, no wonder the religious establishment deemed Najib's greed and perfidy as other than that. Quite the contrary. Seeing that the funds were routed through Middle Eastern entities, that money was seen as God's bounty. To Muslim Malays, anything emanating from the land of the Prophet is holy and blessed. Even the flies in Mecca are considered halal Najib inherits many of his father's darker side, as with his penchant to mislead. His late father Tun Razak concealed his fatal illness from everyone, even his family. As for Razak's hypocrisy, he exhorted the masses to send their children to Malay schools while he sent his to England. These odious traits find full and ugly expression in the son, Najib.These essays also cover the general failures of local institutions, and the pivotal judgments of Malaysian voters as expressed in the 2018 General Elections.
