Essential to restore faith in law and order

THAT “April is the cruellest month”, the famous opening lines of T. S. Eliot’s poem, The Waste Land, struck me like lightning on Wednesday.

Datuk Seri Najib Razak, sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia, was in the defendant’s dock at the Kuala Lumpur High Court accused of criminal breach of trust.

A few hours earlier, Datuk Mah Weng Kwai, who chaired the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) enquiry into the disappearance of social activists Amri Che Mat and Pastor Raymond Koh, said the Commission had concluded that a pivotal arm of the Royal Malaysia Police had been complicit in the cases.

Eliot’s poem begins with the above famous lines which appear in the first section titled the “The Burial of the Dead”.

Malaysians are, however, not in a mood to bury the dead or forget the devastating happenings involving seemingly grand larceny and the disappearance of Amri and Koh. Neither are they likely to close these matters with Eliot’s “Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata/ Shantih, shantih, shantih” (controlled, charitable and compassionate or forgiving, and affirming peace, peace, peace).

Both of these acts of crime involving substantial state finances and the lives of two upright citizens were allegedly committed by high personages wielding high or the highest authority.

Due to the influence they wielded and their capacity to penalise or punish anyone who spoke out, only the boldest and most brilliant in Malaysia had dared to say anything about these cases. The lawyers who represented Amri and Koh deserve particular praise.

It took a gargantuan and unprecedented effort by Malaysians to unseat a ruling government for these two and other irregular matters to receive the proper attention of the lawful authority.

On April 3, 2019, Malaysia found not the solution but a map to plot a way out of this Byzantine labyrinth.

Navigating the ship of state out of this situation will not be easy given the strong headwinds, rough seas, some sly saboteurs at the controls and other factors, including a resigned acceptance by the population, some apathy and weak staying power in such quests.

From my perspective, these breaches of the law suggest that in the past decade, Malaysia became unwittingly a tinpot dictatorship typically found in Latin America (Jorge Rafael Videla in Argentina) and Africa (Sani Abacha in Nigeria) to name just two leaders.

I served in both of these countries as Malaysia’s ambassador and can say they have not recovered from their ordeals under these controversial leaders.

The government has a solemn responsibility to restore faith in our law and order and governance system.

Navigating the ship of state out of this situation will not be easy given the strong headwinds, rough seas and other factors.