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By Mihar Dias (C) Copyright March 2023
Have you ever heard of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn authored by Mark Twain? It is a scathing satire on the entrenched attitudes in the Deep South particularly racism and freedom in 19th century USA.
The story goes, in St. Petersburg, on the banks of the Mississippi River, during the 1830s–1840s, Huckleberry "Huck" Finn comes into a considerable sum of money but is placed under strict guardianship of Widow Douglas and her sister, Watson who attempt to civilize him. Huck prefers to have adventures with his friend Tom Sawyer. His father, "Pap", an abusive alcoholic, tries to appropriate Huck's fortune. Pap kidnaps Huck and imprisons him in a cabin in the woods. To escape his father, Huck elaborately fakes his own murder and sets off downriver. He settles on Jackson's Island, where he reunites with Miss Watson's slave Jim, who ran away after overhearing she was planning to sell him. Huck decides to go downriver with Jim to Cairo, in the free state of Illinois.
The story goes on but suffice to say that its immense popularity went on to inspire songs like Moon River where the lyrics revives our memory of "My Huckleberry Friend and Me!" that becomes the subject of this brief column, My Bukhary Friend and Me.
The current corruption and money laundering charges levelled against Muhyiddin linked him to Tan Sri Syed Moktar Al Bukhary that the BERSATU President claimed to be a long time friend who would naturally lend him a helping hand to support his career as a politician, reminding us of a "considerable sum of money" that came into Huck's life in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
FinanceTwitter and Hussein Hamid have traced the connection between Muhyiddin, Syed Mokhtar and considerable sum of money that came into their lives all the way back to when Bersatu President was the Menteri Besar of Johor until his most recent appointment as PM8.
So, it is confirmed by the above two columnists that Muhyiddin and Syed Mokhtar are indeed friends as claimed by PM8. It is true Muhyiddin's friendship with Syed Mokhtar started a long time ago when the latter headed a company that went into property development on a large piece of land acquired by the state of Johor when the former was the Menteri Besar. You may read this special symbiotic relationship between the two in the columns by Hussein which started with an estate named Stamford belonging to three Chinese families Seet, Gan and Wang in 1998.
However, the friendship between Al Bukhary and Muhyiddin started even earlier in 1980s. In any case, Husssein's column is corroborated by financetwitter.com. If you were old enough in 1990s you would recall newspaper reports of the trials that went on between the owners of Stamford, Syed Mokhtar and the state of Johor that ended being settled out of court.
Anyway, last week Malaysia’s former 8th prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin was charged with four counts of abuse of power involving RM232.5 million (S$70 million) in the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court over projects awarded under his government’s stimulus programme and two counts of money laundering involving RM195 million.
He is also accused of using his position as former premier and BERSATU President to obtain RM232.5 million from three companies – Bukhary Equity, Nepturis and Mamfor – and an individual named Azman Yusoff between March 1, 2020, and Aug 20, 2021. Besides that, he is also accused of receiving RM120 million of proceeds from illegal activity from Bukhary Equity between Feb 25, 2021, and July 8, 2022.
The following Monday, Muhyiddin was charged yet with another count of receiving RM5 million funds, from Bukhary Equity Sdn Bhd, that are proceeds from unlawful activities on Jan 7 last year.
Muhyiddin has denied all the above charges.
It would take months to unravel the intricacies of the alleged crime if indeed there was any. But in the meantime, the story about the relationship between Syed Mokhtar and Muhyiddin Yassin makes interesting reading like the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
While Hussein Hamid merely gives a brief account of the relationship between the two, financetwitter.com went into great details alleging that Muhyiddin not only robbed money but someone's wife as well.
Go read these two articles. Do not worry about the truth at the moment. Let the courts decide that. But just enjoy the incredible story of Muhyiddin and his Bukhary friend and sing Moon River as per the lyrics provided below.
When you come to My Huckleberry Friend change it to Bukhary and you'll understand the true friendship between Muhyiddin and Syed Mokhtar, hopefully.
Moon river, wider than a mile
I'm crossing you in style some day
Oh, dream maker, you heart breaker
Wherever you're goin', I'm goin' your way
Two drifters, off to see the world
There's such a lot of world to see
We're after the same rainbow's end
Waitin' 'round the bend
My huckleberry friend
Moon river and me.
- Moon River lyrics. Source: Musixmatch.
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