JULY 14 — As scandals go, it doesn’t get much bigger than this. After brewing and simmering slowly over the best part of last year, the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) saga took an unbelievably dramatic turn with allegations that billions of ringgit from the troubled government owned investment fund found their way into the personal bank accounts of no less a luminary than the prime minister himself.
Combined with the timing of some of these transactions being just before the last elections and further revelations of millions of ringgit allegedly being deposited in cash into the PM’s wife’s bank account made it the perfect political storm.
Even more unbelievably, if that was possible, till date none of the allegations splashed across local and international media have been denied with any credible evidence to the contrary.
Quite the opposite in fact. Indeed the existence of these bank accounts has now been verified and the patently weak defence offered that the funds were not used for personal gain has been mercilessly derided and lampooned by understandably angry Malaysians on social media.
Given this context, what many international observers find baffling is the lack of action on the part of government and citizenry alike. In any other major democracy, a scandal of this magnitude would have led to immediate rebuttals and defamation suits.
On the other hand if the allegations had any merit, it would have led to either the immediate resignation of the accused till investigations were complete, impeachment proceedings and/or criminal proceedings.
Otherwise popular outrage over the allegations would result in massive protests.
In Malaysia, though, neither has happened.
The government is going about its business, the Cabinet is united behind the PM and even the task force formed to investigate the allegations comprises people who directly report to the accused!
Ordinary people equally are going about their lives and no major protests have been mounted against the seemingly lackadaisical official response.
The answer has a lot to do with slow and steady emasculation of democratic institutions that normally serve as a check and balance to any excesses of the government.
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, the Election Commission, the police, the judiciary and the Attorney General’s Chambers have all faced consistent criticism for their allegedly pro-government bias in the discharge of their duties.
Even the governor of Bank Negara Malaysia, hitherto seen as a universally respected civil servant is, through her silence on the current issue increasingly seen as favouring the ruling coalition.
Add to that the tight government control over the mainstream media and intimidation of Opposition activists and ordinary people alike using the Sedition Act and the Peaceful Assembly Act, and it’s not hard to see why the streets are quiet and all the official statements are about threatening whistle-blowers and critical netizens rather than the personalities implicated in the scandal.
Which is why the prevalent sentiment on the ground seems to be cynicism.
Many Malaysians believe that they have seen enough financial scandals involving personalities associated with the ruling coalition and their cronies go unsolved, unprosecuted or unpunished to believe that the 1MDB saga will end any other way.
This segment of the population believe that this delay in taking action is to find ways to protect the accused, the task force is fatally compromised and the sheer scale of the scandal will make it impossible to even acknowledge, let alone prosecute without dealing a death blow to Barisan Nasional.
However, there is a key difference between this issue and others in the past that will end in tremendous change in the political climate of the country, one way or another.
That is, as this column pointed out recently, the presence of the untouchable Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
He is, to use a poker analogy, all in with nothing further to lose and will keep on the pressure for as long as it takes for the PM to cave in. And the international media spotlight along with the alternative digital and social media will not let a matter of this magnitude die without resolution.
And all politicians realise that the longer this crisis drags on, the greater the damage to the public perception of Umno/BN.
While there are already signs of cracks within the ranks of the ruling party, with a number of ministers calling for a rapprochement between the two PMs to save the party, some analysts have commented that the lack of a credible replacement to the PM within Umno is also contributing to the status quo.
Ideally, they need a candidate who is a success story, a leader with an untainted past with the right credentials within the Umno family. Which is why the other scion of the Razak family, Nazir might be a man to watch.
One thing is clear though, given the trust deficit the incumbent PM or his replacement if that comes to pass will face; whichever way this ends, the days of Malaysian leaders living under a Brazen Sky concentrating all powers to a single person and treating all institutions of the state as subordinate to their will are fast coming to an end.
Ironically enough courtesy of the same man who contributed to their decline in the first place: Dr. M.
This crisis then may be remembered as giving birth to a true Malaysian democracy where the rule of law is implemented without fear or favour in the interests of the rakyat, not its leaders.
And a citizenry whose cynicism is replaced with a vigilant optimism
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
