The Najib conviction: is it a win or loss for Pakatan?
Furthermore, if action is finally taken against Guan Eng and those other DAP leaders, they cannot complain since even leaders in the government, or leaders linked to the government, face that same fate. At the end of the day, DAP leaders, too, are subjected to justice, not political persecution. Actually, the Najib verdict is bad news for Guan Eng and DAP.
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Raja Petra Kamarudin
Pakatan Harapan is celebrating Najib Tun Razak’s conviction today and is declaring it as a win or victory for Pakatan Harapan and the people of Malaysia. Maybe they should look at the bigger picture instead of looking at things with myopic eyes.
First of all, the 1MDB-SRC issue has been Pakatan Harapan’s main weapon for 68 months from December 2014 until yesterday. Now that the court has already made its decision, that weapon has more or less become senjata tumpul. Pakatan Harapan will need to look for a new weapon to use against Umno (and even PAS).
Pakatan Harapan and its cohorts such as Sarawak Report cannot keep harping on 1MDB-SRC, as the matter sudah basi. Malaysians no longer want to hear stories from surat khabar lama. They want to hear new stories. So what new stories will Pakatan Harapan now churn out?
The second and most important point is regarding the allegation that Umno went to bed with PPBM, or supports Muhyiddin Yassin for prime minister, because they want to do a “deal” involving the criminal cases and trials of the Umno leaders such as Najib, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and a number of others.
Now that Najib has been convicted — and they say, later, Zahid and the others will suffer the same fate as well — the allegation as to why Umno supports Muhyiddin, or has gone to bed with PPBM, has been proven false. There are no under-the-table arrangements or out-of-court deals after all. So how is Pakatan Harapan going to now spin this issue? Cerita lama sudah tak pakai.
Pakatan Harapan also alleges that, now that Perikatan Nasional has taken over the federal government, the judicial system is going to be compromised and corrupted. Malaysia is going to return to the pre-Pakatan Harapan days when justice did not exist in Malaysia and the courts were used for political persecution or selective prosecution.
If that allegation is true then Najib would have been acquitted. But he was not — and it seems neither will Zahid and a number of other Umno leaders. Hence Pakatan Harapan’s allegation about the compromised and corrupt judicial system under Perikatan Nasional is not true after all.
And in that same spirit, if Malaysia’s judicial system is not compromised and corrupt (meaning the judges, MACC, Attorney-General’s Chambers, etc., included), that would mean Lim Guan Eng and all those other DAP leaders being subjected to investigations involving the Penang undersea tunnel are not victims of political persecution, as alleged by Tony Pua.
Furthermore, if action is finally taken against Guan Eng and those other DAP leaders, they cannot complain since even leaders in the government, or leaders linked to the government, face that same fate. At the end of the day, DAP leaders, too, are subjected to justice, not political persecution. Actually, the Najib verdict is bad news for Guan Eng and DAP.
