Looking at the way that Najib is defending himself in the ongoing 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) trial, where over RM2 billion of the government-owned company’s money allegedly entered his private AmIslamic bank accounts, it makes you wonder why Najib is even bothering to get himself released from prison via his Addendum claims.
Even if the addendum exists, it is only going to give him relief from his previous convictions.
Even if Najib gains relief from his prior convictions, from the way that his current case is going, I doubt it would matter by much at all, because even from a layman point of view, Najib’s explanation and defence of himself in his 1MDB trial is so utterly atrocious, that if I didn’t know better, I would even have accused him of trying to sabotage his own case.
So far, Najib has said that although he received hundreds and millions from people that he didn’t know, and although he never gave his bank account number to any one of them, or even know them in the first place, he never once bothered to ask them why they are giving him these millions or billions or how did they find out about his bank account number.
He also claims that he had simply assumed that the billions must have come from the late King of Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah, although he never once sent a thank you note to the king for giving him such an outlandish gift.
While previously, he had claimed under oath that he had never set foot on the 1MDB office, when shown a picture of him in the 1MDB office, he conveniently recanted his claim.
In the latest episode of his trial, he is now saying that he used RM 2.3 million from the billions that he received in his bank account to pay his speechmakers and social media management team, because he “did not want to burden the government.”
This does not only raise the question why did the King of Saudi Arabia giving Najib money to pay his speechwriter and social media team, it is also raising the question why Najib couldn’t use the speechwriters and communications team in the government department to handle his speech making and social media requirements, when prime ministers before and after him likely could.
If Najib took the purported Saudi donation money and gave it to flood victims or built an orphanage, sure, he can claim that what he received was a donation from the Saudi king, but how do you claim that what you received from the Saudi King is a donation, when you are using it to pay your speech writers and social media managers?
There are a million of people working for the government. AS a prime minister, Najib also created the biggest cabinet of ministers in Malaysia to date. If Najib wanted to, he could have created a ministry of speechwriting and social media management just to write speeches and manage the social media presence of the government. Despite that, Najib claims that he had to fork out money from his own pocket, which was filled by a foreign king in the first place, to write his speeches and manage his social media presence, not for his personal use, but to serve him in his capacity as the prime minister of Malaysia? How come?
Today at the high court, Najib is also claiming that he had confronted fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho (Jho Low) about his extravagant lifestyle, because he felt uneasy about the fugitive businessman's ostentatious behaviour, which had attracted widespread international media attention.
As to why Najib should care about how Jho Low leads his life, your guess is as good as mine, because Jho Low is neither a member of Najib’s family nor a person who has any position in the government or 1MDB.
It beggars belief that a former prime minister who did not see anything wrong in not asking the unknown people who are sending him billions of ringgit why they are sending him such huge sums of money, became so upset that Jho Low is leading an ostentatious lifestyle that he confronted Jho Low, when Jho Low is someone is neither Najib’s son or someone who has any role in the government or 1MDB.
How can Najib see the germ across the sea, but miss the elephant right in front of his eyes?
I might not be a lawyer or a judge, but from a layman’s point of view, I don’t see how any reasonable person will be able to find Najib to be innocent or misunderstood or framed after hearing his version of the story.
If Najib is deemed as innocent, we might as well legalise corruption, because no one can be found guilty of corruption.
Considering all this, when I ask myself why is Najib so spending so much resources and effort to prove that a royal addendum which will get him out of prison exists, when the chances are that even if he is released from prison to serve under house arrest due to the royal addendum, he is still likely going to find his way back to prison, on account of his other cases, the only reasonable answer I can think of, is that he might be doing it for the same reason a drowning person thrashes the water to keep their head above waters.
If you have to expend a lot of effort and energy to thrash the water in order to prevent yourself from drowning, chances are that you already know that you are going to drown.
So why do you do it?
Well I suppose when you are drowning, you can’t just be expected to go down without a fight. You have to do something, even when deep down, you yourself know it is pointless, and “rage and rage against the dying light before you can bring yourself to go gently into the night.”
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