Does Najib really believe that all Malaysians wake up this morning fully relieved that the twin mega scandals have disappeared into thin air?

If Malaysians wake up this morning with the feeling, hey presto, the 1MDB scandal has disappeared into thin air, then Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak would be fully vindicated with his upbeat 2016 New Year Message that he had delivered what he had promised in June last year that all the problems facing 1MDB will be resolved by the end of 2015.

If a poll is conducted among Malaysians, I dare say that there is not a single person who in the past year had been haunted and hounded by the 1MDB issue would feel on waking up this morning of being fully relieved of the pressures of the accountability, transparency, good governance and integrity dimensions and implications of the scandal.

In fact, the reverse is the case.

Najib’s twin RM2.6 billion “donation” and RM55 billion 1MDB mega scandals have by the end of the year become even bigger and more overwhelming than at any time of last year, as both mega scandals have achieved the virtually impossible feat of accumulating like a snowball even more questions than answers with each passing month!

This is why Malaysia has the dubious honour of being ranked third in the world’s “worst corruption scandals of 2015” by Washington Post’s foreignpolicy website, after FIFA and Nigeria, beating Honduras, Gautemala and Ghana, shortly after Wall Street Journal dropped its “last bombshell for the year” for Najib, with its report that Najib’s RM2.6 billion donation came from 1MDB.

Before delivery of his 2016 New Year Message, Najib would have known of the Wall Street Journal’s “bombshell” and the Washington Post’s “roll of dishonor” of third place to Malaysia for the world’s “worst corruption in 2015”, making the RM2.6 billion and 1MDB twin mega scandals top international corruption issues.

Why then did Najib make the claim in his New Year Message that 1MDB controversy had finally been put to rest – something even nobody in UMNO/BN camp would believe?

Najib could not be so naïve or cut off from the realities on the ground as to believe for a moment that the twin mega scandals could be completely laid to rest without full and satisfactory accounting or that there is no need for any more government explanation, accountability or responsibility?

Otherwise, Najib would be the world’s No. 1 delusionist or illusionist, putting David Copperfield to shame.

Unless Najib could offer an answer, this is a question Malaysians should be asking and pondering.

Yesterday, I had asked whether Malaysians can expect Najib to fully defend himself for bringing such unprecedented dishonour at the global level to Malaysia for being ranked third in the world’s “worst corruption in 2015” in his 2016 New Year Message.

This issue was completely ignored by Najib in his New Year Message.

Should Malaysians blame Najib or his speech writers for such a conspicuous omission, making Najib’s New Year Message a classic case of a government belabouring under a most debilitating denial syndrome.

Or is it because Najib has simply no decent answer to give to Malaysia’s third placing in the world’s “worst corruption in 2015” list?