On July 28th, the court convicted Najib Razak, the former prime minister who co-founded and oversaw a 1mdb fund, on seven crimes related to the scandal, including abuse of power, breach of trust, and money laundering. He was condemned to 12 years in prison and fined RM210 million by the court.
A Monet painting and a superyacht. A translucent piano and diamond jewellery. Many of the items purchased with the $4.5 billion that the US Department of Justice claims vanished between 2009 and 2015 from 1mdb, a sovereign-wealth fund, were pretty flamboyant. According to The Economist, at least six countries have launched investigations into the incident.
However, even behind bars, the former prime minister is not exactly ‘out of touch’ with the rakyat. From the start of his imprisonment, Najib Razak has been constantly active on social media. This is obviously against the prison rules where convicts are prohibited from having communication devices such as phones and recorders.
Recently, Najib Razak raised his worry on Facebook over the spike in the price of the giant fast-food chain Mcdonald's since 2017. According to Najib Razak's post, the cost of numerous popular McDonald's items has risen significantly in recent years. The legendary Big Mac at McDonald's began at RM8.60 in December 2017 and has since increased by 56% to RM13.40. However, what I found more worrying is the convicted prime minister is freely online even though he is behind bars. What does this say about our country?
That is not the only example of Najib Razak receiving VIP treatment even behind bars. Zahid Hamidi recently visited his convicted friend and described in detail how he brought along Najib’s favorite food for them to eat together. Zahid exposed himself as he revealed that he spend two hours with Najib during his visit.
In this revelation, three of the prison rules might have been broken; visitors are prohibited from bringing in food and drinks, and they are not permitted to speak with the convicts face to face but must do it over the phone while separated by a glass divider. They are also limited to 45 minutes visits and are closely monitored by jail authorities and wardens.
"Why was the story different when Zahid paid a visit to Najib?" Isn't the country's judicial system unequal? Have mercy on the other inmates as well." said Rafique Rasyid.
Asyiqin Razak 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 Newswav.