"Polis halang kami dari keluar dari Restoran Amjal dan minta IC untuk catatkan butiran. (Police stopped us from leaving Amjal Restaurant and asked for our IC to mark down our details.) So we are all standing around here and are not allowed to leave. To be clear: they are refusing to allow us to leave."
– Muda co-founder Dr Thanussha Francis Xavier (Twitter)
COMMENT | I wonder what is going through the mind of embattled MACC big cheese Azam Baki. The state security apparatus locked down swathes of the capital because concerned citizens are calling for his arrest.
Citizens were inconvenienced because of him. Businesses were inconvenienced because of him.
In the end, a couple of hundred kids trolled the state security apparatus who did their utmost to ensure the rakyat was punished for their right to exercise free speech.
The state security apparatus did so by locking down, intimidating, and harassing the rakyat they supposedly work for, and of course ignoring the spirit of the laws they are supposed to enforce.
And it is so galling. You have the head of an agency that is supposed to be on the side of the rakyat when it comes to corruption, allowing the state security apparatus to act in his name.
And if he objected to such heavy-handed actions by the authorities, he could have issued a statement.
This is all because of one man. One man who is supposed to be scrupulously free of the taint of corruption and go after the kleptocrats who are turning this country into a banana constitutional monarchy.
Or maybe he is just allegedly supposed to do that.
I have no idea how anyone can take the MACC seriously when the head honcho cannot even keep his hands clean from allegations of impropriety.
Of course, rumours are circulating that as head of the MACC, he has the goods on a plethora of kleptocrats. And is this so farfetched to be believed?
Right now, one former prime minister is accusing another former prime minister of pressuring him to interfere in the judicial process of the country.
When you are in a situation like this, all bets are off. Malaysians understand that nothing will come of these revelations. Even if there are investigations by the “relevant authorities”, nothing will come of it. Why?
Because in this climate, nobody really knows who is in charge and political power brokers, their lackeys, proxies in the media, and lickspittles in the bureaucracy are manoeuvring themselves to ensure political survival, in case someone emerges as top dog.
So if the measure of power in this country is how much the state security apparatus bends over to ensure that dissension is quashed, you better believe that the Malay uber alles state is defending Azam for a reason, when they have left many other kleptocrats to their fates.
Silencing the people
I get that Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob wants to sweep this under the Keluaga Malaysia rug but you can also tell the incompetency of a government by how they attempt to quash dissent and free speech.
While the police and the state security apparatus was dithering during the recent floods, they came out in full force to stop a rally by young people calling for the arrests of an official of the state.😏😞😠😟😡
Meanwhile, the MACC chief is refusing to cooperate with any kind of oversight and we have the prime minister placing a fig leaf on the contradictory “results” of a Securities Commission investigation which seems to have done more to impart malfeasances on Azam than exonerate him.
All this for one bureaucrat who is supposed to keep the good ship Malaysia free of corruption, or at least that should be the MACC’s goal.
If anything, this clampdown on the Tangkap Azam rally is telling citizens who may not even be aware of the situation that the government has something to hide, or in this case, someone to hide.
After all, Azam has done himself no favours by his public comments and the only reason why he is still around is because the state wants him around.
Indeed, the state is shovelling so much horse manure attempting to justify his continued holding of office, that the corridors of power must be awash with the stuff.
This is the kind of treatment only offered to importantly placed assets, not to high-ranking minions who are normally thrown to the wolves and asked to repent for being nabbed and not the actual criminal act.
Remember in a system of "our boy", anything is possible.
If anything, this clampdown on the Tangkap Azam rally is telling citizens who may not even be aware of the situation that the government has something to hide, or in this case, someone to hide.
After all, Azam has done himself no favours by his public comments and the only reason why he is still around is because the state wants him around.
Indeed, the state is shovelling so much horse manure attempting to justify his continued holding of office, that the corridors of power must be awash with the stuff.
This is the kind of treatment only offered to importantly placed assets, not to high-ranking minions who are normally thrown to the wolves and asked to repent for being nabbed and not the actual criminal act.
Remember in a system of "our boy", anything is possible.
This is why it was so important that Umno regained power. And since Ismail Sabri has to placate the former prime minister and his bunch, it is not smooth sailing for the prime minister.
The court cluster is now spinning a narrative that the fix is in and when we have two former prime ministers accusing each other of political abuse of power and corruption and a sitting premier beholden to both, you can bet your last ringgit that everything in Putrajaya revolves around this power struggle.
No doubt in the next couple of days, orders would be issued to investigate the organisers of this rally and the state will demonstrate how petty they are, not to mention hypocritical, when nobody seems interested in investigating the crimes of the powerful.
If a bunch of young people got the state so riled up, imagine how it would be if that demographic of Malaysians who actually wanted change took to the streets. Of course, even saying this in this political climate could get you into a lot of trouble.
This is after all the "see no evil, hear no evil" but certainly do some evil kakistocracy.
S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. Fīat jūstitia ruat cælum - “Let justice be done though the heavens fall.”
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