Could PM Anwar end up shooting himself in the foot again with his latest action?
PM Anwar's recent statement that Putrajaya will not be filing a protest against fugitive businessperson Jho Low's application for pardon from United States President Donald Trump has sparked a heated public discourse in the country.
In fact, by dismissing it as a “non-issue” insofar as Malaysia is concerned, he may have also unwittingly left a huge question mark hanging over the entire episode.
Did he actually make the right call—or was it a major goof?
To compound matters, another news portal reported recently that Low – allegedly the brains behind the 1MDB global financial scandal – had sneaked into the country last year, purportedly as part of a high-level Chinese delegation. However, the country's Immigration Department has claimed that it was unaware of any such occurrence.
As expected, all this did not go down well with Anwar's chief ally, the DAP. Its national chairman, Gobind Singh Deo, cautioned that while the final decision on the fugitive businessman's audacious bid for presidential pardon rests with the US, Malaysia should make its formal position absolutely clear—that it wants those responsible for the 1MDB heist to face justice, regardless of who they are.
True, from a purely diplomatic angle, Anwar's statement may have been the correct one. However, given that the 1MDB scandal still remains a highly touchy and deeply shameful episode in the nation's chequered history, is it fair to expect those who once valiantly marched through the streets for justice to simply accept that narrative?
The RM2.6 billion 1MDB scandal!
Participants of the Bersih 4 rally brave the rain as they march in Kuala Lumpur in 2015. Credit Image: Malay Mail (Picture by Saw Siow Feng)
Understandably, PMX is also currently wrestling with the country's fuel subsidy crisis, which threatens to “explode” if the war in West Asia doesn't end soon. At the same time, no doubt, he is constantly haunted by the grim spectre of GE16 looming eerily on the horizon.
Still, the question remains: was Anwar naive to simply wave away Low’s application for pardon—albeit in the US—as if it has totally nothing to do with this country? Did it even cross his mind that it could potentially complicate future extradition efforts and become the crafty fugitive's ultimate "get out of jail card" to evade prosecution in this country?
Surprisingly, even former MCA strongman Ti Lian Ker had argued: “If 1MDB was truly a crime that devastated Malaysia’s reputation, robbed public trust and became the defining issue of national governance, why does the government now sound detached and passive over the possibility of the central fugitive walking away (free) through foreign political intervention?”
So, is cash still king?
Surely, to Low's critics, nothing could be more disgusting than to see him being allowed to “buy” his freedom with the very money he had allegedly embezzled from this country! And there are also fears that should Trump grant the fugitive a pardon, there is a possibility that it may hamper the proceedings of the remaining 1MDB and SRC International cases here. What if the US authorities decide they are no longer obliged to extend their full cooperation in the matter?
Of course, there is little Anwar can do should the unpredictable US president eventually pardon Low, but the general feeling is that the country should at least send an official protest note to the US government to express its deep concern and formal stance on the matter.
Truth be told, this latest controversy is certainly not going to endear PMX to some segments of his own Pakatan Harapan supporters—especially those who were instrumental in catapulting him to power. After all, wasn't the promise of bringing all those involved in the financial scandal to justice, one of his coalition's primary drawing cards in past general elections?
Will Anwar's passive stance on this issue be seen as yet another broken promise?
Incidentally, for UMNO, should Low succeed in securing a pardon, it could make a mockery of the party's “unofficial” narrative all along—that the notorious fugitive was the real mastermind behind the mega scandal, and that Najib was allegedly just a hapless, innocent victim.
However, the greater danger to PMX is that hardline factions within UMNO could intensify their push for Bossku's early release from prison on the grounds that if the suspected “ringleader” of the 1MDB mega scandal is allowed to walk out free, it's only fair that their ex-party president should also be released. If it does come to that, Anwar could come under intense pressure to obtain a Royal pardon for the jailed ex-PM. Hence, in a broader context, wouldn't Jho Low's potential pardon in the US actually turn out to be a major issue?
Main information source: Malaysiakini and Focus Malaysia.
JK Joseph (jtkingsworld@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact creator@newswav.com.