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Standpoints

Najib’s shamelessness in lecturing others about shame

The former prime minister should recall that he has been sentenced to 12 years in jail and a fine of RM210 million, with four top judges so far finding him guilty as charged.

Subramaniam Muthali
2 minute read
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I refer to Najib Razak calling Muhyiddin Yassin a shameless hypocrite on the former’s social media recently.

It started with Muhyiddin expressing relief over not having to work with a party that embraced someone convicted of criminal wrongdoings. Muhyiddin, the Bersatu president, was clearly alluding to Najib, who still holds sway in Umno despite being convicted of abuse of power and corruption.

Najib shot back by saying that Muhyiddin could not have become the prime minister in March 2020 without the support of Umno.

Najib must have forgotten that the tainted leader here is himself as he was sentenced to 12 years in prison and a fine of RM210 million. His appeal has been rejected by the Court of Appeal and his final recourse is the Federal Court. In total, four top judges – one from the High Court and three from the Court of Appeal – found Najib guilty as charged.

On top of that, there’s still a slew of outstanding criminal proceedings against Najib, not to mention the disrepute that Bossku has brought to the country.

Najib seems to have forgotten that there is nothing wrong with a criminal backing a leader – provided there’s no quid pro quo. And Muhyiddin had made it clear, when he was PM8, that he would not entertain any requests to interfere in the judiciary.

In fact, it was revealed that Najib had wanted Muhyiddin to remove senior DPP Gopal Sri Ram from prosecuting Najib. And because Muhyiddin refused to bend backwards, he lost the premiership last August due to a putsch by Umno’s “court cluster” led by Najib.

Now that Muhyiddin is no longer the PM, he has, as a matter of principle, chosen to distance himself from the likes of Najib, who still pulls the strings in Umno. In other words, Muhyiddin is just consistently opposed to colluding with criminals. For Muhyiddin to do otherwise would be a sham.

And who is Najib to question Muhyiddin for shamelessly accepting support from Umno when it suits Muhyiddin but opposing Umno when the chips are down? Najib does not have an iota of credibility to talk about “shame” when the Court of Appeal called Najib a “national embarassment” in the SRC trial verdict.

If Najib knew what “shame” was, he wouldn’t have stolen billions from the country and made Malaysia an international laughing stock. If he knew what “shame” was, he wouldn’t have subjugated government machinery to keep himself in power and out of jail during his premiership. Najib is the last person in the country qualified to talk about shame!

The views expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of MalaysiaNow.