The idea that Najib will be set free if victory favours BN in Johor was first mooted by Najib's son, who urged Najib's supporters to deliver BN a huge win in Johor in order to bring his father back into politics.
After Najib's son made that statement, even Anwar rode on the idea, by suggesting that the Johor election itself was an untimely event orchestrated by the "Free Najib" movement to get Najib out of jail.
Was the early Johor election really the result of an orchestration by the "Free Najib" movement?
I personally don't think so. I think the idea that the "Free Najib" group engineered the early Johor election was created after the fact.
In other words, even if the election had nothing to do with Najib, Najib's son probably linked the two events together to revive waning interest in the "Free Najib" movement.
As for Anwar, he probably tied the early election to the "Free Najib" movement after Najib's son made the association because he thought he could ride on the counter narrative to help PH secure victory in Johor on July 11.
In other words, I think that both Najib's son and Anwar were more interested in the utility of the narrative and counter narrative than in the truth when they tied Najib's fate to the Johor election.
But as for the question of whether the result of the Johor election will determine whether Najib will be released from jail, all I will say is this.
I think Najib will only be released from jail if BN wins the general election and forms the federal government in Putrajaya.
As to how the result of a general election can affect the course of a legal matter, when the administration of justice is supposedly bound by legal procedures and independent of who wins an election, I am not interested in speaking falsely to you about something that we all know to be true.
I think it goes without saying that we all know Anwar and Najib getting into legal trouble was more due to politics than law and order.
In Anwar didn't get in trouble with Mahathir and later became a threat to Najib, he would have never spent time in jail, no matter what he supposedly did.
The same goes with Najib - had he not lost the 2018 election, he would not be in jail today, even if siphoned twice what he has been convicted of siphoning.
Anwar was also later released from his legal troubles not because he was found innocent by the courts , but because he was victorious in an election.
For that same reason, it is when Najib's team finds electoral victories, that Najib will also find himself innocent and free, without anybody really making too much of a fuss as to what is the legality of it all.
This is the country that we live in, and we all know it, regardless of how much we try to withwash it with technicalities and legalities.
Will a major victory for BN in Johor result in BN eventually taking over Putrajaya?
First of all, let us discuss the possibility of BN gaining a major victory in Johor.
I don't know if this is going to happen because the race is extremely close in the hearts and minds of Johor voters.
I think the contest is so close that many Johoreans may not decide as to who they will vote for until they are standing in front of the ballot box.
But let's say Ong Kian Ming is right and BN does win 53 out of the 56 seats in Johor.
Even if that were to happen, I would still say that the battle for Putrajaya would remain a toss-up, and BN still might not enter that race as the favourite.
In a general election, I will put a Zahid Hamidi led BN's chances of seizing Putrajaya to be in third place, behind PH and PN.
But what if it comes to pass that against all odds, BN does emerge triumphant and Najib is released from jail as a result - what will that say about our country?
Well, to tell you the truth, I don't think it will say anything at all.
The world, ladies and gentlemen, is a troubled place.
Thailands Thaksin Shinawatra was locked up and released from jail recently and nobody really cared about the news.
Venezuela's Maduro is still locked up in a US prison.
Iran has multiple presidents and leaders slain in the last couple of years.
Considering all that, I certainly doubt that the affairs of Najib in Malaysia will amount to “ a hill of beans in this crazy world we live in.”
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