With Dr Mahathir Muhammad coming under police investigation last week, the number of our living Prime Ministers that have or might see jail time has risen to four.
Of our six living prime ministers, one is currently in jail, one used to be in jail, one has been charged in court, and another is under police investigation.
Only Pak Lah and Ismail Sabri have yet to have a date with Sungai Buloh, Kajang, or Kamunting set so far, but only Pak Lah is genuinely off the hook.
As a rule of thumb, an ex-PM has to lose an election and fall out of favour with the serving Prime Minister before they face the possibility of spending some time in jail.
Although he has lost the election, and his relationship with the current DPM, Zahid Hamidi, is testy, Ismail Sabri is currently on the side of the ruling government. Suppose Ismail Sabri's relationship with Zahid Hamidi continues to deteriorate, and he ends up at loggerheads with the top echelon of Umno; Pak Lah might become our only living Prime Minister who will be spared jail time.
This sort of record that we have with our heads of government is the sort that would rival that of organized crime. Even the mafia and triad organizations do not have as many of their heads under investigation, prosecuted or behind bars as the head of our government.
What does having this kind of record say about our country?
If you look at it from the glass-is-half-empty point of view, having this kind of record is a sign that Malaysia might be getting close to being a failed state. A failed state is a basket case state where nothing can be done. There is no point in talking to a failed state because even if you agree on something today, there is no guarantee that what you decided today will be honoured tomorrow. If every succeeding Prime Minister is going to the extent of putting the preceding Prime Ministers in jail, what guarantees are there that the previous government's commitments will be honoured by the next government?
Seen in the glass is half full point of view; however, so many of our heads of government are looking at jail time could also be a sign that Malaysia is undergoing a reformation period. Reformation is almost always a stressful process. The status quo subject to reforms will always deny that it needs reform and resist any attempt to reform it. To tame it and make it more compliant with reforms, some status quo leaders will inevitably have to be made an example of.
If PMX Anwar Ibrahim intends to make good on the promises he made in the reformasi movement, punishing the leaders of the country who come from the pre-reformasi era or who follow the line of thinking of the pre-reformasi leadership might be both necessary and inevitable. A signal has to be sent to show that the old ways will no longer apply, and putting the leaders of the old ways in jail might be one of the best ways to send such a signal.
According to Hippocrates, the father of Western medicine, a crisis is a point in the progression of a disease which either leads to death or recovery. After a crisis, the patient will get better or continue to deteriorate until they die.
That so many of our serving and ex PM's have seen or might see jail time is a sign that Malaysia is currently in a crisis. If everything goes well, this crisis indicates that Malaysia is in a state of reformation that might cure it from the debilitating disease that it suffers from. If it goes badly, this crisis point means that the illness Malaysia suffers from has crossed a point of no return, and it will all be downhill from this point onwards.
Let us hope, for all our sakes, that it is the former rather than the latter that will come to pass.
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