Most proper, honourable and patriotic thing Najib Razak could do is to renounce any political comeback as Prime Minister to save the country from any global embarrassment

I commend the forthright, appropriate, patriotic and courageous statement by the MP for Pasir Gudang, Hassan Abdul Karim following the outstanding speech by the Yang di Pertuan Agong that all religions denounce corruption which is a “cancer that can ruin civilisations” at the convocation ceremony of Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) in Shah Alam.

There is nothing more appropriate now than to remind Malaysians of the bane of corruption, in view of the following developments:

1. The court testimony of a former Ministry of Finance official that Malaysia still owes US$3 billion (RM13.3 billion) in debt as a result of a joint venture (JV) between 1MDB and Aabar Investments;
2. The statement by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Chief Commissioner, Azam Baki, that the total assets forfeited and returned to the Malaysian government last year were worth about RM5.1 billion, with 99.57 percent of it linked to 1MDB;
3. The description of the 1MDB scandal by the former United States Attorney-General Jeff Sessions as “kleptocracy at its worst” at the Global Forum on Asset Recovery in Washington in December 2017;
4. The recent revelation that the former Chief Secretary to the Government was paid RM30,000 a month for doing nothing in 1MDB and the shocking disclosure that this is not an isolated case in government-controlled companies (GLCs);
5. Malaysia’s trajectory in the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index in the last 27 years which, if not reversed, will result in Malaysia becoming one of the most corrupt nations in Asia; and
6. The appointment of Tan Sri Mohamad Salim Fateh Din on May 30, 2022 to replace Edmund Terence Gomez who resigned as a protest as a member of the MACC ‘s Consultation and Corruption Prevention Panel over the unresolved Azam-Gate in December last year. What is the use of the appointing Mohamad Salim, who is the executive vice chairman of Malaysian Resources Corporation Berhad (MRCB), when one of the urgent needs of the day is to clean up GLCs and GLICs (of which MRCB is one) to ensure that they are models of accountability, transparency and public integrity?

Malaysia’s system governance is founded on the principles of constitutional monarchy, parliamentary democracy, the doctrine of the separation of powers and the rule of law.

The Executive seems to have forfeited its constitutional role to lead a campaign against corruption in Malaysia, with constitutional monarchs assuming the role, such as the recent calls by the Deputy Yang Di Pertuan Agong Sultan Nazrain Shah and the Sultan of Selangor as well as the speech by the Yang di Pertuan Agong yesterday.

Will Parliament in its July/August meeting fill the role abdicated by the Executive to initiate an anti-corruption campaign, as illustrated by the absence of a discussion by the Cabinet yesterday on the need for a new campaign against corruption in Malaysia?

Be that as it may, there is one thing to be done.

The most proper, honourable and patriotic thing former Prime Minister Najib Razak could do is to renounce any political comeback as Prime Minister to save the country from any global embarrassment.

Will Najib do that and will the Barisan Nasional comprising UMNO, MCA and MIC, declare that they will never name Najib Razak as a future Prime Minister of Malaysia?