Is killing 1MDB going to improve your life?

For 38 months Mahathir has been trying to oust Najib and over the last 20 months he exploited the 1MDB issue in that effort. But then what have we achieved since 2013? Our lives are still miserable and our future is still bleak. And after this long roller coaster ride we are back where we started, which is nowhere.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

The 1MDB issue has been central to most Malaysians’ lives since Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad first exploded the issue 20 months ago in December 2014. Since then Malaysians eat and sleep 1MDB. I was told that during the recent Hari Raya open houses the subject matter on everyone’s lips was 1MDB — and even more so last weekend since the US Justice Department exploded yet another bomb late last week.

If you look at it through neutral or unbiased lenses, this is proof that Mahathir and his ANC (Anti-Najib Campaign) succeeded in their psy-war and propaganda campaign while Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s media team failed badly. One of the reasons why they failed is because Najib’s media team started late and took action only after substantial damage had already been done. Of course, we also cannot rule out elements of internal sabotage.

To make matters worse, whenever anyone attacked or counter-attacked Mahathir, the Special Branch would call them up and tell them to back off. Mahathir is a sacred cow and is not to be whacked. I personally received a call from a senior Special Branch officer and the Deputy Director, Hamid Bador, actually openly whacked me and said some nasty things about me.

So, with the ANC whacking Najib and the Special Branch intimidating all those who whack Mahathir, it was a boxing match where one opponent had to fight with his hands tied behind his back. Of course, in such a situation Mahathir will definitely win while Najib would lose. And Najib’s people failed to act against this until it was too late. Only when Najib’s Boffin Boys stepped in was the matter addressed, but by then it was too late in the game.

Let this be a lesson to the Prime Minister. Never ask a boy to do a man’s job and never assume that just because you think you are on the side of kebenaran (right and truth) then you have nothing to worry about because the truth would eventually be revealed. When under attack always assume you are going to get hurt never mind if you are right and the attackers are wrong.

A good defence team would always explore all possible avenues and routes of attack, plus the timing of that attack. For example, the Germans won almost every battle during WWII but they failed to forecast when and where D-Day would happen even though they expected it to happen. And that cost them the war. Hitler should have read Sun Tzu about knowing your enemy.

What many failed to notice is that the attack on Najib started earlier, 18 months before December 2014 to be exact. But then the issues that Mahathir used did not catch the attention of most Malaysians. Malaysians did not really care about Najib pandering to the Chinese, neglecting the Malay voters, kowtowing to Singapore, refusing to implement the Crooked Bridge, and so on — all the initial ‘crimes’ of Najib.

One reason why these issues did not catch the attention of Malaysians is because they were merely recycled issues. Mahathir had used the same issues against Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi back in 2006 in his attempt to oust him. When Mahathir realised that no one was buying these excuses as to why Najib must be ousted, he looked for another issue. And that issue, which Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin brought to him, was 1MDB.

Mahathir was told that the killer issue was the money that was banked into an account that carried Najib’s name. No doubt it was a trustee account and Najib did not personally manage that account, which was the normal practice for Umno since 1988. However, only Umno knows this while most Malaysians would not. Hence the allegation that Najib rather than Umno received that donation would stick.

This was similar to the then Selangor Menteri Besar Harun Idris case. A foreign bank gave Umno a donation but then the money was transferred into a bank account that carried Harun’s name. Even though Harun did not personally handle the money he was still charged for corruption and was sent to jail.

The whole of Umno knew that the money was given to the party and was used for the party’s political activities and that Harun did not even personally receive or handle the money. Nevertheless, the judge still sent him to jail in 1977. And the real reason for finishing off Harun is so that he can be blocked from becoming the next Prime Minister after Tun Hussein Onn, which would have meant that Mahathir would never have become Prime Minister in 1981.

So what Mahathir hoped for was a repeat of the Harun incident. The donation might have been for the party and the money might actually have been used to fund the party’s political activities. However, since the account carried the Prime Minister’s name, and even if he did not manage the money, they can still push for him to be indicted and convicted for corruption.

Anyway, that was what was going on the last thee years since 2013, and the happenings over the last 20 months in particular. And during that time we also saw Anwar Ibrahim getting sent to jail, the Kajang Move, the ouster of Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim, the indictment of Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, the breakup of Pakatan Rakyat, the formation of PAN, the formation of Pakatan Harapan, the Sarawak state elections, and many more. And we shall soon see the formation of Mahathir’s new party and a new opposition coalition being formed — all in just a mere 38 months or so.

Okay, against that backdrop, what have we achieved? So much turmoil in just three years! But then, at the end of the day, it looks just like the Iran-Iraq War. After nine years of fighting and one million lives lost, neither Iran nor Iraq gained anything. In fact, they lost more than they gained because the cost of that war in terms of lives and money was huge.

So Mahathir has taken us on a three-year campaign against Najib. What has that campaign achieved? Najib is still Prime Minister. Mukhriz is still not Deputy Prime Minister. In fact, Mukhriz is no longer even an Umno member. 1MDB is still there. However, more important than all that, the lives of 30 million Malaysians is still as miserable as it was 38 months ago.

Because all Malaysians were so engrossed and bogged down with 1MDB and were trying to see how the 1MDB issue could be exploited to oust Najib, no one was taking care of the store. The future of our children (and, for me, my grandchildren) is still not guaranteed — because we are all too busy with 1MDB that no one had the time to worry about our children’s and our grandchildren’s future.

Racism and religious intolerance is worse now than it was 50 years ago in 1968, which led to the 13th May 1969 riots.

The education system today is far inferior than it was more than 50 years ago in the 1960s when I was in school — and when a form five student was far superior to a university graduate today and when we spoke better English than an Englishman.

In the past, Malays of all walks of life would party, dance, drink and go the horse races (even the Prime Minister, Ministers and the elite) and no one would care a damn, not even the religious department. Today, our problem is with Malays going to Iraq or Libya to join the Islamic State army.

In the past, the job of the Royal Malaysian Police and the Special Branch was to protect our lives and maintain law and order, plus fight the CTs (Communist Terrorists). Today, their job is to take sides in the Mahathir-Najib battle and help one side in its effort to try to oust the Prime Minister (while in the meantime Malaysians are getting robbed, shot, murdered and kidnapped almost every day and the Chinese underworld runs the police force).

Yes, it is good that Mahathir raised the 1MDB issue 20 months ago. Then everyone can focus on 1MDB and scream, march, demonstrate and riot on the streets to try to topple the Prime Minister. Maybe we can even see the yellow shirts and red shirts clash on the streets and turn the streets red with blood. That would really capture our attention.

With all this excitement no one needs to worry about running the country and none of us will notice how miserable our lives are. And we will not really care how bad our lives are and how bleak our future is just as long as we can use the 1MDB issue to oust the Prime Minister and allow Mahathir and his proxies to take over and make Mukhriz the next Deputy Prime Minister and eventually the Prime Minister.

And once that is achieved we can go back to our miserable lives while the new ruling elite will live a good life and run this country as bad as it has been run since Mahathir took over as Prime Minister 35 years ago in 1981.