"The media and press both in Malaysia and Thailand had demonized both ex-prime ministers, in attempts to decouple them from their traditional support bases. Narratives such as ‘Thaksin was worse than Hitler’, and ‘Najib is the king of the kleptocrats’, were used to destroy their reputations."
Yeah, there's also the "demonisation" by the courts of law that found Najib couldn't explain why he had 42 million in his account.
Small matter, right? It was just a smear campaign by the press.
The Agong has nothing to gain by pardoning Najib. Such a move will draw instant negative reaction from the public -- the thinking public that is, and it will diminish the respect and loyalty now enjoyed by the Malaysian royals. Malaysia is teetering on the brink of ... something. It's hard to describe exactly what, but it's there nonetheless. Non-Muslim and non-Malay Malaysians are growing weary of hearing about Malay privileges and religion all the time. Releasing Najib would destroy any faith in the rule of law, or what's left of it, that regular citizens have. There are no upsides to releasing Najib. And if the Johor sultan actually told Anwar that Najib should not be the only VIP in prison, implying that he should be released, then we will soon see what public rage looks like.
Malaysians rarely question authority, but this is not something that those in power should expect to continue. A lot of little things are tipping the scale of public contentment to the point where kinetic action should be expected. This will not turn out well for the country.
Your pieces so far have been rich in titles but little on substance. But this piece stands out for it has no value for any intellectual discourse whatsoever. A crook is still a crook by any other names, and a modern day Robin Hood, they're certainly not. Please don't be delusional like Umno's pea-brain supporters and shrinking in size.
"The media and press both in Malaysia and Thailand had demonized both ex-prime ministers, in attempts to decouple them from their traditional support bases. Narratives such as ‘Thaksin was worse than Hitler’, and ‘Najib is the king of the kleptocrats’, were used to destroy their reputations."
Yeah, there's also the "demonisation" by the courts of law that found Najib couldn't explain why he had 42 million in his account.
Small matter, right? It was just a smear campaign by the press.
The Agong has nothing to gain by pardoning Najib. Such a move will draw instant negative reaction from the public -- the thinking public that is, and it will diminish the respect and loyalty now enjoyed by the Malaysian royals. Malaysia is teetering on the brink of ... something. It's hard to describe exactly what, but it's there nonetheless. Non-Muslim and non-Malay Malaysians are growing weary of hearing about Malay privileges and religion all the time. Releasing Najib would destroy any faith in the rule of law, or what's left of it, that regular citizens have. There are no upsides to releasing Najib. And if the Johor sultan actually told Anwar that Najib should not be the only VIP in prison, implying that he should be released, then we will soon see what public rage looks like.
Malaysians rarely question authority, but this is not something that those in power should expect to continue. A lot of little things are tipping the scale of public contentment to the point where kinetic action should be expected. This will not turn out well for the country.
Your pieces so far have been rich in titles but little on substance. But this piece stands out for it has no value for any intellectual discourse whatsoever. A crook is still a crook by any other names, and a modern day Robin Hood, they're certainly not. Please don't be delusional like Umno's pea-brain supporters and shrinking in size.