Remembering Najib Razak’s contributions with gratitude

Remembering Najib Razak’s contributions with gratitude





Letter to Editor

“JUSTICE hurried is justice buried” and “justice must not only be done but must be seen to be done” are venerable English adages.

The Federal Court’s decision not to permit Datuk Seri Najib Razak to introduce new evidence has sent shockwaves throughout the country as many feel that the all-important evidence of conflict of interest being excluded will be detrimental to his final appeal for justice.

It must be noted that countless defendants had been freed by the courts worldwide despite a mountain of evidence against them all because of technical grounds due to certain mandatory procedures not having been followed.

Conflict of interest is crucial evidence in any case and English and Commonwealth court cases are replete with examples.

It is hoped that in the ultimate analysis and judgement the Federal Court judges will consider the overall evidence relevant to the SRC International case.

Najib’s plight has moved a sizeable majority of Malaysians who strongly feel that he should not be imprisoned considering his contributions, from a very young age, to the country.

Many feel that he is a victim of political vendetta when he lost power and that his IMDB case has been singled out when the nation had seen so many financial scandals and bailouts in the past over the decades such as the Bumiputra Malaysia Finance Limited (BMF), Perwaja, MAS, Bank Bumiputera, the Bank Negara forex speculation, LCS and many others.

Many remember his socio-economic upliftment programmes.

He was the first prime minister to focus more on the needs of Sabah and Sarawak through various major infra-structure projects that could lead to more progress and development like in West Malaysia.

Previous leaders had only been exploiting to the hilt the resources of the two states. Najib had also decreed that Malaysia Day be a public holiday for the whole country in recognition and remembrance of East Malaysian efforts and goodwill to integrate with Peninsular Malaysia.

The Indian community too remembers with gratitude the efforts of Najib to help alleviate poverty among Indians – a kind and magnanimous gesture that has gone down well among Indians no matter their political affiliations.

Najib knew that about half of the Indian community needed help from the government to ensure that they progressed like others.

He came with a carefully planned initiative known as the Indian Blueprint. He was instrumental in formulating many other initiatives for the Indians, one of which was, despite the opposition he had received, the Matriculation programme that will enable more Indians to go for a tertiary education.

His initiatives to assist the Indian community are numerous and too long to enumerate here.

Mainstream Malaysians will also remember his various initiatives to overcome urban poverty especially among the Malays as the cost of living and lower incomes were major contributory factors of deprivation and hardship.

His introduction of BR1M to help the B40 and M40 was appreciated and the programmes are still helpful and continuing.

Najib also introduced the minimum wage scheme, a fervent appeal of both workers and trade union leaders since Merdeka, to overcome the exploitative lower salaries of Malaysian workers that mired them in poverty despite their employment.

Malaysians from all walks of life who value and appreciate what Najib had done for the country and are grateful to him will be keeping their fingers crossed for the next few days and hoping that the Federal Court decision will be favourable to him. – Aug 22, 2022



V.Thomas
Sungai Buloh, Selangor