Najib’s apology: The Confession of a Third World Boss

Malaysia-Today:

Najib’s apology: The Confession of a Third World Boss

Oct 29, 2024

That many of his supporters want him to be released, despite knowing that Najib treated his personal wealth, the wealth of the nation and the wealth of the people, like they were all one and the same, is also an indication that they likely see Najib as a third world leader, rather than a leader of a modern democratic state.

Nehru Sathiamoorthy


If you judge a soldier by the standards of a customer service officer, you might not only fire the soldier, you might even send the soldier to a firing squad.

If you decide to judge the soldier by the standards of a soldier however, not only won’t you fire the soldier, you might even decide to give the soldier a medal.

When you want to judge someone, you have to judge them in the appropriate frame of reference. You have to judge a child like a child, an adult like an adult, a leader like a leader and a follower like a follower, in order to be able to put a matter to rest.

Putting a matter to rest, by the way, is one of the main functions of justice. If you have justice, everything will be inclined to rest. It is when there is injustice or an absence of justice that restlessness and agitation will become prevalent.

Injustice or the absence of justice is what happens when you judge a child like an adult, or a leader like a follower or a follower like a leader. It is when we do things like that, that agitations and restlessness will sweep across the land.

When we say that everybody is equal before the law, it doesn’t mean we should judge everybody in exactly the same way, regardless of their role, responsibility, circumstances and intentions. If we judge everybody in exactly the same way because that is what we assume equality before the law means, what will happen is that we will see no difference between a cop who shoots a criminal and a criminal who shoots a cop.

Looking at it from this point of view, if we were to ask ourselves what is the appropriate way to judge Najib, the answer will of course be that Najib should be judged as a leader, not a follower.

But if we were to break the matter down further and ask ourselves whether Najib should be judged as a modern leader of a democratic nation or a third world leader, this is a matter that is much harder to decide.

Everybody who wants Najib to be locked behind bars until kingdom come are basically people who hold the opinion that Malaysia is a modern democratic nation, and hence Najib, as its leader, should be judged as a modern day leader of a democratic nation. If you were to judge Najib as a modern day leader of a democratic nation, it will be as clear as daylight that Najib is guilty of corruption, abuse of power, breach of trust and whatever else that he is standing trial for.

But Najib himself most likely doesn’t see himself as the modern-day leader of a democratic nation. That is why he might actually believe that he is innocent.

Some things that Najib claims, like how he is not guilty of any wrongdoing despite the fact that he admits freely that he did accept RM 2 billion in his personal bank account, because in his view, it is not wrong for him to accept the RM 2 billion if he did not intend to use the money for himself, are all indications that Najib likely sees himself as a third world leader, rather than a leader of a modern democratic nation.

That many of his supporters want him to be released, despite knowing that Najib treated his personal wealth, the wealth of the nation and the wealth of the people, like they were all one and the same, is also an indication that they likely see Najib as a third world leader, rather than a leader of a modern democratic state.

Now what is the difference between a third world leader and a leader of a modern democratic state, you might ask?

Well, the answer is that a leader of a modern democratic state is merely a “first amongst equal” in a nation whose government is made up “by the people, of the people and for the people.” Any one of us can become a leader in a modern democratic state. In order to become a leader, we just have to tell people what we stand for and what we have to offer, and if the people like what we stand for and offer, they will make us their leader, and grant us the resources, powers, privileges and authority in the nation, to represent them on a “first amongst equal” basis and manifest into reality what we had earlier promised them.

When we are a modern democratic leader, we can’t conflate our personal wealth with the wealth of the nation or the wealth of the people, and treat it all as if it is one and the same. Instead, we have to clearly demarcate as to what is our personal wealth, what is the wealth of the people, what is the wealth of the nation, what is the wealth that we can use to manifest our promise and what is the wealth that we cannot touch, to differentiate the use of these different forms of wealth. If you conflate, confuse or transgress these demarcations, you will be judged by your equals as a transgressor, corrupt person or a wrongdoer.

A third world leader on the other hand, doesn’t see themselves as a “first amongst equal”. Instead they, like Anwar said recently, likely see themselves as some sort of “father of the nation.” Just like a father does not clearly differentiate between his wealth and his children’s wealth and the wealth of his household, a third world leader is also not inclined to differentiate between his personal wealth, the national wealth and the taxpayers’ money either.

Just like how a father will simply assume that he is a selfless person who will obviously use all the wealth at his disposal solely for the benefit of his children and household, and apply that assumption to use the wealth of his children and the wealth of his household in any which way he deems fit, a third world leader will use the wealth of the nation and the taxpayer’s money in any which way that he or she deems fit, under the reasoning that he has the right to use it, because whatever he is doing is a selfless act for the betterment of the nation and the people.

Now I have always contended that Malaysia is a third world country with a modern and democratic appearance. What this means is that although on the surface, we might look like a modern country with a constitution, parliament, election, rules, processes and courts, when you scratch the surface and see what makes us tick on the inside, what you will find is a third world mentality ticking behind a first world appearance.

This is not only true of the public sector, but also of the private sector. This is why in the public sector, our leaders will unabashedly refer to themselves as “Abah” or “Father of the nation” or the “Pak Long” of “Keluarga Malaysia” while in the private sectors, the owners of Malaysian owned companies or corporations are not averse to act as if they are the workers’ father and expect that their workers serve them or their company as how children are expected to serve their father and their family.

If we read Najib’ apology recently, we can clearly see that Najib is actually talking to us as if he is our father.

When he apologises to us, he is basically saying “I am sorry I messed up, children. Please believe me when I say that whatever I did, I only did with your well-being in mind. However, I can see I made some wrong decisions and these wrong decisions I made has compromised your well being. While I admit that I have made mistakes, what I hope you will never doubt is that I have always loved you and whatever I did, wrong as it may be, were all but things that I only did with your best interest in mind.”

He is basically talking to us like a father who was involved in criminal activities to support his family. While he is agreeing that in retrospect, he can see that being involved in crime was not the best way to support the family, he is also insisting that he only did what he did not to enrich himself, but for the sake of taking care of our well being.

If your father was a criminal who supported his family through criminal enterprise, would you want him to be in jail?

This is how Najib, seeing himself as a third world leader and seeing us as a third world people, wants us to judge him according to a third world frame of reference.

How should we address this expectation by Najib?

Well, that really depends on how we see ourselves and how we see Najib.

If we see ourselves a citizen of a modern democratic state and Najib as a “first amongst equal” we will have one way to address this, but if we see ourselves a citizen of a third world nation and Najib as a “father of the nation”, we will have another.

As for me, I will just say that like Picasso about the moon landing, whether Najib is a third world leader or a modern democratic leader, a father of the nation or a first amongst equals, guilty or innocent “means nothing to me. I have no opinion about it, and I don’t care.”

All I know is that Anwar is championing the middle and working class’ cause by doing things like increasing wages and rationalising subsidies, and for as long as Anwar is the middle and working class’ champion, he can do whatever he wants to Najib, and I will make my peace with it.

At the end of the day, Najib is to me just one individual. His trials, tribulations and affairs, in the bigger scheme of things, means nothing more that “hill of beans in this crazy world” we live in.

If Anwar thinks that Najib being in jail is what is necessary for him to champion the middle and working class’ cause, then let Najib be in jail. If not, let Najib be free. Either way, what is important is that the economic reforms to transform the lives of the working and middle class of the country proceeds unhindered.