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By Mihar Dias
(C) Copyright September 2022
Our 65th Merdeka Day saw a fantastic turnout because this is the biggest gathering ever since the lockdown of the Coronavirus pandemic. I have never seen a bigger crowd than at this year's Merdeka Day celebration.
Hundreds of thousands turned up long before sunrise to line the streets leading to Merdeka Square to watch the parade.
Later, at home we watched foreigners streaming videos online capturing the spirit of celebrations among ordinary Malaysians on the streets.
The way they moved their cameras in and out of the crowd capturing the sights and sounds was most impressive making us wish we had the youthful energy to face the sea of humans who were out there to have fun after being locked up for the last few years.
The enthusiasm of ordinary Malaysians turning out to celebrate Merdeka that day overwhelmed foreign videographers and YouTubers on the scene, to no end.
On the other hand, August and September in the 65th year of our Merdeka will also be long remembered as two of the most glorious months in Malaysian history and politics that will likely overwhelm future Malaysians.
On 23rd August, just a week before we celebrated our 65th Merdeka, Najib went to jail and a few days after in September his wife Rosmah was also sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.
These two months will be long remembered as the most glorious in our history when good overcame evil when an independent judiciary rose above party politics to deliver justice fearlessly ignoring the power and influence of a couple of individuals who were considered most "untouchable" in the country until then.
Dickens too would have remarked this period as "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" in Malaysia's history.
After years of suffering under the yolk of an administration bent on cheating the rakyat through trickery and corruption the biggest culprits of them all were brought to justice and they were rightfully punished commensurate with the crimes committed.
However, in our euphoric moments, we are brought down to earth, disappointed with a group of 3000 of their supporters who believe our justice system is flawed and their dear leader did not get a fair trial.
They even demanded that their leader be pardoned by the King and that the decision to jail "bossku" for 12 years be reviewed by the court.
Also, their party chief directed every member to sign a petition to request the King for a pardon perhaps as a means to counter the signature campaign by an NGO against the pardon for their boss which had surpassed 120,000 at the last tally and is gaining momentum rapidly by the day.
Similarly, for his wife, being fined almost a billion ringgit and sentenced to jail for 10 years was too much for her. A day would have been sufficient said the self-appointed FLOM shedding tears (reports say it's crocodile's) in the dock after her conviction.
We'll know whether she'll be joining her husband perhaps in a year's time when she has exhausted all avenues to appeal against this court's decision.
But for now, we are enjoying the best of times in our history with these two kleptocrats punished for their crimes so much so we're willing to overlook the worst behaviour of their overzealous supporters whom Noam Chomsky would have categorised as being part of "The general population that doesn't know what's happening and it doesn't even know that it doesn't know".
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