The Daim circus comes to town

The Daim circus comes to town

S Thayaparan
Published: Jan 22, 2024 7:30 AM


“Daim is already 85, and he may not remember events of 25 to 26 years ago. This is unfair and may prejudice him. That is why a speedy investigation is required.”

- Former attorney-general Tommy Thomas

currently representing Daim Zainuddin and his family members as their lawyer.

COMMENT | In a recent piece, Mariam Mokhtar wrote - “Others claim Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim was exacting revenge on his former political rivals. The rakyat really don’t care, as all they want is justice. Corruption has become a way of life. There is no respect for the rule of law. Values and morals have been abandoned.”

I have no doubt Mariam is correct when it comes to the thinking of a certain segment of the voting polity but if the prosecution of certain high-profile individuals emanating from Madaniville is political revenge, then there is no justice, there certainly is no respect for the rule of law, and the corrosive effects of corruption on values and morals is merely being perpetuated by these investigations.

“Don’t let it be that only those who are viewed as rivals to the unity government in power now be probed while the supporters and members of the administration are not investigated,” said Hassan Abdul Karim, a PKR lawmaker. This sounds more like a fig leaf than any real call for accountability and transparency.

Do not get me wrong. If this is some sort of revenge play, then I admire the fact that Anwar has the cajones to go after mainstream political and financial sacred cows. But my admiration for such an act does not help the rakyat who suffered because of these corrupt personalities and their enablers and it certainly does not rectify the systemic dysfunction.

The fact that Thomas is shepherding the defence of former finance minister Daim Zainnuddin and his family points to how intertwined the mainstream, political, legal, and financial establishment is, and how Daim may have more options then what is speculated in the press.

Distractions galore

The second time Dr Mahathir Mohamad came into power, he claimed that corruption in Malaysia was no longer a serious issue because Pakatan Harapan had swiftly handled the Najib issue.

As reported in the press - “The fact is corruption is not a very major issue anymore. Previously, of course, people talked about corruption but now there is less and this has been noted by those people.”

And, just recently, he disavowed his responsibility for any corruption in Umno (which he and others have always claimed as corrupt) - “If they (the authorities) noticed any irregularities, they should not have waited for the prime minister’s directive to address the issue… That was not my job. That was the job of the police, the (then Anti-Corruption Agency). They should have taken action.”

And one wonders if Daim’s memory is as dodgy as Tommy assumes what he will remember of the decades of political and financial malfeasance of his enablers from within the government and the private sector and those close associates Madani desires to prosecute. And what would happen if the money trail leads back to players in Madaniville? There are only so many times discharge not amounting to an acquittal (DNAA) can be used, right?

This is supposed to be about the system. Whatever Daim’s fate, the reality is that unless the system is reformed, all this is political theatre meant to distract the masses who in reality - because of decades of programming - probably do not even understand that Daim is part of the problem when it comes to their economic, social, and political suffering.

It also does soften up public perception when it comes to the corruption of former prime minister and convicted felon Najib Abdul Razak, because whatever Najib did may not come close to the scope of what Daim might have done and who he did it with.

And the political class wants you to be distracted. Sure, the spectacle of a former AG who brought down a former prime minister going against the current AG, going after the rumoured political money man for another former prime minister, is worth the popcorn but it is meant to distract from the fact that the AG’s department like everything else in this country needs to be reformed.

Why reforms are not coming

P Gunasegeram just wrote a piece about reforming the role of the AG by devolving power and giving it back to investigative bodies which would ensure that corruption, for instance, would be persecuted without fear or favour.

He wrote - “If Malaysia is to fight corruption and have an impeccable law and order system, these are necessary measures.”

For decades, an allegedly corrupt figure like Daim was unmolested and do you really think that it was because we had an independent prosecution service? The question we should be asking now is how we make the prosecution services transparent and accountable and not subservient to the executive.

This way, when big fishes are displayed the rakyat will know that it really does not matter how close they are to the political class, because the political class (if corrupt) would be in the crosshairs of the prosecution services and independent investigative bodies.

But the political class isn’t doing that, right? They want you to see the big fish but not the whole rotten system that those fish swim and spawn in and which has nurtured numerous big fishes for decades.

It is the same reason why the political class does not want local government elections.

For far too long, the federal government through its proxies has engaged in corrupt practices and destroyed local economic ecosystems to satisfy commercial interests, while people who live in these communities have had very little say over them.

In an environment where there is no transparency or accountability is where plutocrats, kleptocrats, and their enablers thrive. And yet for all the rhetoric about reforming the system, there has been none so far but what the rakyat have got is the spectacle of big fishes dangling from hooks.

Successive governments have always feared reform and they have always been the circus to distract people.

Talk about the police having a horrible year. Well, the answer to that was always an independent police commission. This way the police can be held independently accountable and senior police officers would not have to come out of the woodwork signalling that the force is going down the manure hole.

But because the system is predicated on the “our boy” mentality, what the political class does is attempt to ensure that they have a stake in how and why the state security apparatus carries out its duties.

Even more damaging to the average rakyat are the various fiefdoms in the PDRM aligned with the political class, which ensures practices like corruption and financial malfeasances rarely see the light of day, not to mention a black economy that also funds the political class.

However, all this will be forgotten with the Daim circus in town. Politics is more often than not about displaying scalps and there is enough schadenfreude (pleasure in the misery of others) to garner votes. But schadenfreude does not reform the system nor does it halt the religiosity that is supplanting secular and democratic norms.

This is not about justice or karma, but merely big business and bigger politics.



S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. Fīat jūstitia ruat cælum - “Let justice be done though the heavens fall.”