UMNO gangsters’ attempt to bully, intimidate and threaten has further provoked the Chinese voters to support Yeo Bee Yin.
Prisoner Najib Razak had packed some of his belongings in his prison cell, preparing to be chauffeured back to his luxury mansion to serve the remainder of his jail sentence at home, revealed his son Nizar. The fantasy, however, was crushed after High Court Judge Alice Loke rejected the former premier’s judicial review for an “invalid” royal addendum to be enforced.
First question – was the crook staying at the Hilton, requiring him to pack his luggage for a check-out? When was the last time you heard a prisoner had to do packing before being released from prison? It appears Najib is living luxuriously in an air-conditioned studio unit – equipped with IKEA wardrobe, kitchen, sofa, WiFi, microwave, fridge, 65-inch LCD TV with Netflix, Ogawa massage chair, Macbook Air and whatnot.
Second question – what made the crooked family so optimistic that the High Court would rule in Najib’s favour, so much so that the man who had stolen billions in the 1MDB scandal believed he had 99% chance of walking out from the Kajang Prison? Either he was misled by his own lawyer Shafee Abdulah or was overpromised by UMNO deputy president Zahid Hamidi.
Either way, all signs lead to Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, the most powerful man who controls the Pardons Board, orders the AGC, influences the Judiciary, and advises the King. For Najib to have the perception that he was about to go home, Shafee’s team must have received sufficient assurances from Deputy Prime Minister Zahid, who in turn got it from PM Anwar.
This means Reuters may have actually received an insider leak pointing to the release of Najib, leading to the British news agency confidently publishing – momentarily – a flash titled “Malaysia High Court judge orders Najib to be released from jail for home arrest”, ahead of a verdict from High Court judge Alice Loke Yee Ching. But clearly something happened that forced the prime minister to abort pressing the button.
UMNO went bonkers, throwing tantrums after its former president did not get his candy. While Akmal Saleh, the notorious Youth Chief of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) called for UMNO’s exit from the government as a result of the High Court’s ruling, Najib’s other son, Nazifuddin, was furious after a DAP lawmaker viewed the court’s verdict as a cause for celebration.
Of course, racist Akmal is not even a Member of Parliament; therefore, he has nothing to lose but everything to gain by instigating his party to quit the Unity Government. A traitor cum Trojan-horse working for the opposition Perikatan Nasional, Akmal would certainly get a senatorship to enable him to become a minister if he succeeded in getting UMNO to withdraw support for Anwar Madani.
Extremely frustrated that his daddy was humiliated and had to unpack and continue staying in prison, Nazifuddin and the pro-Najib faction in UMNO have begun weaponising the racial card over a Facebook post that Democratic Action Party (DAP) lawmaker Yeo Bee Yin had posted in celebrating the judgment against Najib. Both UMNO and DAP are part of Anwar’s unity government.
While shamelessly gloated how the old ruling government led by UMNO had built Malaysia, Nazifuddin angrily blamed DAP for toppling UMNO in the 2018 General Election, followed by a celebration for the conviction of a Malay politician (Najib). He further mocked DAP’s total annihilation in the recent Sabah election. Perhaps the clueless son of Najib didn’t realise UMNO too had suffered heavy losses.
When DAP publicity secretary Yeo Bee Yin shared a news article regarding Najib’s court judgment with a message – “Another reason to celebrate this year-end” – she was actually expressing what many voters felt, including Chinese, Malays and Indians. In fact, 95% of Chinese and 70% of Malays voted against the Najib administration in 2018, leading to the stunning collapse of UMNO for the first time in 60 years.
The only difference is that the Chinese voted against Najib’s 1MDB corruption, whereas the Malays voted against his GST (Goods and Services Tax) back in 2018. However, the Nov 2022 national election results show 80% of Malays had continued to reject the Malay nationalist party, which captured only 26 parliamentary seats – a drop from 54 seats in the May 2018 General Election.
Essentially, UMNO’s election campaign to free Najib in 2022 did not work and had backfired instead, as 80% of Malays abandoned the corrupt party in droves in favour of the Islamist party PAS. Rubbing salt in the wound, UMNO continued to suffer heavy losses in the 2023 state elections, winning only 19 seats while losing 89. Which part of “Malays no longer trust UMNO or Najib” that spoiled brat Nazifuddin and Najib cheerleaders still don’t understand?
The early Christmas celebration by Yeo is justified – even encouraged. Unlike a Malay woman in Terengganu who was sentenced to 14 months’ jail for stealing two packets of Milo valued at RM74, Najib was the 6th Prime Minister of Malaysia, sentenced to merely 12 years’ jail for stealing billions. Yet, Najib was given 50% and 75% discount vouchers for his jail sentence and fine, respectively.
Just because 80% of ethnic Malays do not openly celebrate Najib’s house arrest verdict like the Chinese, who call a spade a spade, it does not mean the Malays do not welcome the court’s ruling. It was precisely because the Malays were ashamed of UMNO-Malays like Najib that led to their rejection of UMNO in 2018, as well as in 2022 and will continue to reject UMNO in the next 16th General Election.
As a matter of fact, when the Court of Appeal delivered its verdict in Dec 2021, Judge Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil, who was leading the three-man bench, had not only upheld Najib’s conviction, but also ridiculed the ex-PM’s claims that he (despite stealing money) was acting in the national interest, calling it a “national embarrassment” instead. Only UMNO-Malays feel extremely proud of crooked leaders like Najib.
It’s both childish and counterproductive for UMNO to threaten Yeo with caricatures and a demand for an apology within 24 hours. UMNO is in a deplorable state with just 26 MPs compared to DAP’s 40. As the smallest and weakest Malay party in the country, UMNO needs DAP-Chinese more than DAP needs UMNO-Malays. Heck, even 80% of Malays do not need UMNO – they have PAS.
If spineless Anthony Loke dares to order Yeo to apologise as demanded by Selangor UMNO Youth bullies, DAP is guaranteed to lose even more seats – both parliamentary and state – in the next 16th General Election. DAP was annihilated in Sabah largely because power-hungry leaders like Loke kept silent in the past three years while UMNO freely attacked and terrorised Chinese businesses and interests.
Who the hell is UMNO to tell DAP – currently the largest party with 40 MPs in the Unity Government – what to celebrate and what not to celebrate? Just because the pro-Najib faction within UMNO desperately wanted to free Najib does not mean DAP too must respect the crook by keeping quiet and hypocritically pretending to be sad over the court’s ruling.
Anwar Ibrahim, trying to cling to power as the war of words between DAP and UMNO spread, has desperately called for calm. While stressing that the judiciary must remain independent and free from external influence, he also called on all parties who may not sympathise with Najib and his family to avoid escalating tensions or creating a charged atmosphere in this sensitive matter.
But why should people force themselves to sympathise with a family of crooks? Should not the forked-tongue Anwar sympathise with the Malay woman forced to steal two packets of Milo due to poverty instead? Having lectured people to have compassion for Najib after illegally and unfairly granting him a royal pardon, now Anwar wants people to keep quiet over the good news of keeping the crook inside the prison?
Anwar should stop being a “munafiq (hypocrite)”. When Najib lost his final appeal in the SRC International case and was sent to jail on Aug 23, 2022, Anwar welcomed the ruling and hailed it as a victory for the “rakyat (people)”. He even said there was now a sense of “relief” and thanked the judges for their ruling in sending the crook to prison.
If UMNO and Anwar’s party PKR feel Yeo’s statements are offensive, hurtful and insulting, then they should have lectured Najib and his family on the basic moral from the beginning – don’t steal. Yes, you don’t have the right to demand respect if you steal people’s money to the tune of billions of dollars, and cry after a dubious royal addendum is found to be invalid and defective.
Crucially, Yeo Bee Yin and those who choose to celebrate an early Christmas of Najib being retained in the Kajang Prison did not break any laws for laughing, ridiculing, disrespecting and even insulting the world’s biggest crook, whose scandal involved global investigation across three continents, where money was spent on high-end property, luxury goods and lavish holidays and parties involving Najib, his family and partner Jho Low.
If UMNO has balls, it should quit the Unity Government immediately as recommended by Akmal. And if PM Anwar isn’t happy with DAP, he should kick the Democratic Action Party out of his Madani government. Most of UMNO leaders who are ministers are keeping quiet over Yeo’s celebration for a reason – they care more about their power, position and perks than Najib’s house arrest.
UMNO is set to lose more seats if its sole purpose of existence and reason to partner with Pakatan Harapan in forming the Unity Government since 2022 is to free Najib Razak. While DAP can go back to the opposition camp, the same cannot be said about UMNO. Without Chinese votes to offset Malay votes abandoning UMNO, opposition PAS is expected to swallow – slowly but surely – UMNO alive.
It’s not rocket science why PAS gleefully supports Najib and pretends to sympathise with UMNO after the court rejected the addendum. PAS’ evil intention is to split UMNO from the government using the “divide and rule” tactic so that the Islamist party could form yet another backdoor regime. And we know what happened to UMNO during the UMNO-PAS-Bersatu government from March 2020 to November 2022, and thereafter.
If DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke blinks in the game of brinkmanship with UMNO, then he is stupider than he looks. He should thank Yeo as her celebration message has rallied Chinese voters – directly and indirectly – behind DAP. UMNO gangsters’ attempt to bully, intimidate and threaten has further provoked the Chinese voters to support Yeo Bee Yin.
Likewise, if Anwar thinks he could win both Malay and Chinese votes at the same time through gimmicks, lies, double standards, double talk, and hypocrisy, then he should prepare for PKR (People’s Justice Party) to lose more seats than UMNO. No matter how much he tries to impress the Malays and appease UMNO, 80% of Malays have already been converted to PAS supporters. – Finance Twitter