And if Pakatan Harapan, PKR and Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim think that this will garner them support from Malays and bring in the Malay votes to ensure another term at the top office, they are going to be very sadly mistaken. The bare, bald figures don’t show that.

Let’s take each in turn. First, Najib has been unanimously found guilty of seven charges - one of abuse of power, three of criminal breach of trust and three of money laundering - involving RM42 million. He was jailed for 12 years and fined RM210 million.

Now here’s the rub. He was found guilty by a High Court judge and then unanimously by a three-member Court of Appeal and then by a five-member Federal Court, also unanimously.

kita orangbiasa : No blunder by any Malaysian government will be ever bigger than pardoning Najib.

Vijay47 : The obvious question here is, “On what grounds is Najib Razak’s pardon being sought?” Let us first consider the personality concerned. On the credit side, Najib Razak has never reflected any racial or religious fanaticism and by that measure has been a more balanced leader than we can say of current ones.

Of course years ago, he had indulged in some silat display complete with keris which could be chalked up to the exuberance of immature youth playing to the baying gallery. On the debit side, Najib Razak stole only a little bit of money. Okay, maybe more than a little bit. Alright, alright, a humongous amount!

It is for this crime of theft or misappropriation or defalcation or whatever that he has been sentenced to and is serving a prison sentence. It is here that a Pardon is being applied for. Again, on what grounds? What has the convict done or contributed to the nation that makes him deserving of his trespasses being forgiven?

The justification we hear the loudest is “Miscarriage of Justice”. How in heaven’s name can any man sane or not come to this rationalization? At every stage of his multi-level trials and from which he was granted every liberty of appeal, he had been found Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!

So how could anyone speak of “miscarriage?” The particularly deranged among his supporters say that there was a dissenting voice at Federal Court. Certainly there was. But the count was One out of Five! Again, how could anyone, however deranged, dare argue that one supersedes four!

In fact many would argue that Najib Armani Razak was accorded too soft the kid’s glove at every day of the hearings. On a gleeful triviality, we hold that he should have been dressed in the traditional purple or orange. Then we also have the countless inane reasons for which delays and postponements were requested and in the main, granted. (Fortunately, these did not include “For the family to enjoy a month-long vacation in London”!)

Ignoring the merits or otherwise, perhaps the most disturbing feature in this sad story is that there appears to be unholy haste to have the Pardon Application heard before the Ides of “the end of the month”. Why? Because 31st January 2024 heralds the Changing of the Royal Guard? This would be a most offensive slur on Their Majesties because it implies that they would exercise their regal imperatives differently, one more charitable than the other.

To end on a brief note, the Application suggests also that if you are influential enough and abetted by a gang of accomplices numerous enough, the law and national standing can take a back seat or be even thrown under the bus.