Shadow Play Is Here To Stay

Kuala Lumpur (Dec 8 2021)

Throughout the world this year, leaders have stepped down due to failure in their administration or accepting responsibility for accusations of corruption and fraud.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s government resigned on Jan 15 following a parliamentary inquiry revealing that officials at the tax service department had wrongly accused families of fraud over childcare subsidies.

This led about 10,000 families to financial ruin as they were forced to repay tens of thousands of euros each resulting in unemployment, bankruptcies and divorces.

Estonia’s Prime Minister Juri Ratas resigned on Jan 13 over a corruption inquiry and was replaced by Kaja Kallas, who became the first female prime minister in the country.

This following a probe into Ratas’s ruling Center Party and its links with an Estonian businessman, Hillar Teder, to support the party with up to a million euros within a year – in return for the €39 million loan to Teder’s Porto Franco real estate development.

Later in January this year, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte stepped down following disputes within the governing alliance over the post-pandemic economic recovery package.

Conte was criticised for his blueprint on spending Italy’s €200 billion share of the EU’s post-pandemic recovery fund and his plans to manage it centrally.

The Covid-19 pandemic has killed more than 85,000 people in Italy during his tenure and with the highest annual death toll since World War II.

However, it is a totally different story here.

Earlier today the Court of Appeal granted "Bossku" or also known as former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak a stay of execution of the sentence following his guilty verdict in the SRC International Sdn Bhd case for the misappropriation of RM42 million into his personal account.

"Bossku" even went online to express his frustration soon after a three-man bench dismissed his appeal to set aside his conviction, a 12-year jail sentence and RM210 million fine on seven corruption charges.

Should he fail at his attempt at the Court of Appeal stage, he can always submit another appeal to the Federal Court.

An acquittal would allow "Bossku" to contest and defend the Pekan parliamentary seat in the General Election that must be held by 2023.

Najib took over the Pekan seat in 1976 from his late father and Malaysia's second prime minister, Tun Abdul Razak Hussein.

In shadow play, the flat images of the characters are manipulated by the puppeteers between a bright light and a translucent screen.

One wonders who are actually the puppeteer and the puppets (some are made from buffalo skin and hide) in the manner which the largest financial scam ever seen in Malaysia and one of the biggest in world history, is being handled.

While the common man (and women) is being thrown into jail for minor theft offences in the country faster than the speed of light, "Bossku" is still a free man.

As the puppet master continues to manipulate the puppets, we can only watch on and hope that some of that light behind the screen will fall on the proper execution of justice towards "Bossku".

Until then, the local double standard shadow play show will go on and on and on and on.....