The Council of Najib
By Dreamweaver
Angry grey clouds scudded across the sky over the huge green
onion dome rising above the magnificent mock Moghul splendour of the prime
minister’s office in Putrajaya. Thunder boomed as the howling wind whipped up the
fluttering flags bringing with it the promise of rain. A late afternoon
thunderstorm was about to unleash its fury on the land below but deep in the
bowels of the building insulated from the capricious weather, a secret high
level meeting was in progress.
Its seven participants are among the most powerful people in
this nation of 28 million people. In the opulent chairman’s seat was the prime
minister Najib Razak himself, to his right the deputy prime minister, Muhyiddin
and to his left the ex-PM who would not retire, Tun Dr. Mahathir. The other
four were home minister Hishamuddin, law minister Nazri Aziz, information
minister Rais Yatim and the Attorney-General Gani Patail.
This was no ordinary Umno meeting called to discuss trite
affairs of state but to deliberate on something far more important; the alleged
violation of a private citizen’s back orifice which had engendered the
involvement of the highest level of government.
Anwar Ibrahim’s sodomy trial had stretched to almost six months and was
nearing its conclusion. A critical fork lay in the road ahead which required
their deliberation and so the Council of Najib was convened.
Mahathir was addressing them again in his commanding gravelly
tone, his authority no less diminished by his age or his retired status. “And I say it again, there are lots which
could have been done better. There should have been other actors to support
this case. In my time, we caught hold of three close associates of Anwar – his
speechwriter Munwar, his adopted brother Sukma and even his wife’s tailor Mior
– and we used the Special Branch to torture and extract false confessions from
them to implicate Anwar in homosexual relationships. You need all these to
support your case. I can’t understand why this wasn’t done this time! Have we
grown soft?”
Najib sighed. He had invited Mahathir because he hoped to tap
the old dictator’s experience in handling Anwar’s sodomy case 12 years ago but
the old man seemed more interested in haranguing them on their lack of
competence than in giving constructive criticism. “Tun”, he said evenly, “Times
have changed. We can’t be catching innocent men to extract false confessions
nowadays. It would create an unbearable scandal. The opposition is stronger
now. Look how much problems Teoh Beng Hock’s case caused us?”
“But what’s important now is that Anwar’s trial is nearing
the end and I’m sorry to say the prosecution hasn’t done a very good job
convincing the public. Saiful’s testimony was practically torn apart by the
defense. Grave doubts were casted on the DNA evidence by their experts and the
two medical reports saying no evidence of penetration really gave us hell.”
Najib looked accusingly at Gani Patail. “Anwar came up with
good alibis so the date and time of the offence had to be amended. This almost
destroyed our case. Only the sternest instruction to the judge to carry on
saved the day. I thought you had all the details taken care of, Gani?” he
demanded.
Gani Patail’s face turned pale and beads of sweat appeared on
his forehead despite the ample air-conditioning. “I-I-I knew about those
alibis, Datuk Seri. We fixed the date and time on the advice of the police who
said they can prove Anwar and Saiful were in the condo. We thought we could
threaten and intimidate the witnesses not to testify but it didn’t work.”
Mathathir snorted derisively. “Bah! This wouldn’t have
happened if I was in charge!”
Najib ignored the old man’s slight on his capability. “Now,
what I want to discuss, is it safe to convict Anwar?” he asked.
Mahathir’s eyes widened with an incredulous expression on his
wrinkled face.
Nazri spoke up. “Datuk Seri, in my opinion it is not safe to
convict him. Our intelligence units report that only a small minority of
hardcore Umno supporters believe he is guilty and only if we pay them. The huge
majority thinks Anwar is a victim of political conspiracy. It would do BN great
political damage to convict him.”
Mahathir looked like he was going to explode. “I-I can’t
believe I’m hearing this!” he sputtered.
Nazri ignored him and continued, “There’s also Tengku
Razaleigh. He’s been criticizing us like an opposition leader and even
challenging us to sack him. I fear it may be the last straw if we convict Anwar
and he may jump ship. This will give a huge psychological boost to the
opposition”
“Why don’t we label him gay?” asked Mahathir viciously. “And
you can join him in the opposition if you like.” There was clearly no love lost
between him and Nazri.
“There are limits even for us!” Nazri shot back angrily. “The
party will be destroyed. Don’t be surprised if even I jump ship before that
happens.”
“Calm down,” Najib said soothingly. I’m sure Tun is not
serious. About Tengku, we’ll cross the bridge if and when we come to it. He
looked sternly across at the information minister. “What happened? Didn’t our
newspapers and TV stations do good job?”
Rais Yatim fidgeted uncomfortably in his seat. “I’m sorry,
Datuk Seri. I’ve leaned heavily on the mass media we control to report the case
to our advantage to damage and humiliate Anwar. I’ve also warned, threatened
and cajoled the online world to step carefully but these bloggers seemed to
have no fear. Utusan and New Straits Times have done a good job but this devil
Anwar seems to be the Teflon Man which no dirt can stick”.
Mahathir growled again. “Compared to what our mass media did
in 1998, what Utusan and NST have done now is nothing. Nothing! Back then, they
really demonized and humiliated Anwar, no holds barred and no detail spared. We
kicked him hard with no right of reply but now we seem to have grown soft”.
“Times have changed now, Tun.” Rais replied respectfully.
“The public now have alternative news online and the mainstream media must
maintain some decorum of balanced reporting if they want to survive. In fact,
all the newspapers have reported a drop in circulation since the trial
started.”
“So what do you think if we convict him?” Najib asked.
“Well, it will be hard to convince the public although not
impossible,” said Rais, threading gingerly and trying to sense which answer
would please his boss. “I could send out more cyber troopers to counter the
online news and blogs. But the foreign press is really criticizing us. We can’t
control that. Overall, I would say…I think…we can control. The general election
is more than 2 years away and sentiment is sure to change by then.”
“Hah!” snorted Mahathir. “We had the 1999 election during
Anwar’s sodomy trial which was stopped for one month. I still managed to get
2/3 majority. It’s how you manage things, Najib, it’s how you manage things!”
stressed Mahathir, trying to pressure the prime minister.
“Times have changed but old minds still think the same. Old
ways may not work anymore,” remarked Nazri softly as if to nobody in
particular.
Mahathir turned to face Nazri, his eyes piercing like twin
daggers. Before he could speak, Najib stepped in. He was secretly grateful for
Nazri’s presence as a counterweight to Mahathir. “OK, what about civil unrest?
Any chance of mass demos?”
This was Hishamuddin’s call. “Cousin Najib,” he intoned
confidently, trying to flaunt his special relationship with the PM. “No fear of
that. I’ve ordered one container of tear gas which will be here soon. Another 5
water canon trucks are already in Port Klang. I’ve also procured longer and
stronger batons for the FRU whose numbers have been increased. I’ve been
spending the rakyat’s money wisely. We are ready,” he smirked.
“OK, but go easy on the people, Hisham”, said Najib. “We
don’t want too much violence. What do you think Muhyiddin?” he turned to his
deputy who had been unusually quiet.
“Well, Datuk Seri, I think Tun Mahathir is right,” answered
Muhyiddin. “We should just go ahead and convict him. After all the time and
effort we can’t let Anwar get away just like that.” He glanced at the old man
with a slight smile as Mahathir looked appreciatively at him.
The camaraderie between the two men was not lost on Najib. He
would have to watch his back carefully against his deputy now. “OK, we convict.
There will be anger, there will be outrage. We will be slammed left, right and
centre. We need a diversion to score some brownie points with the people. Can
anybody think of something?”
Outside the sky cried sheets of rain and the wind wailed in
frenzied anguish. A tremendous bolt of lightning brightened the room for an
instant and a deafening crash of thunder rend the air as if an angry god had
roared its disapproval.
“Why don’t we prosecute Lingam?” offered Nazri. “The public
has been baying for him to be charged. It will also take some pressure off the
A-G.”
At this, Mahathir slammed the table. “Lingam is my lawyer. I
will not allow it!” he roared.
Najib was quick to soothe the old man. “You must understand
Nazri, if we put Lingam on trial we also put Tun Mahathir on trial. He
appointed the judges. Any other ideas?”
“How about charging a big fish in PKFZ?” asked Gani Patail.
“Chan Kong Choy the ex-transport minister exceeded his authority to issue two
letters of guarantee.”
Najib thought for a while before he said, “No, it’s too
messy. Ling Liong Sik before him also signed a letter of guarantee and we would
have to prosecute him as well. This may collapse MCA. And don’t forget these
big fishes may squeal. There are many in our party who would prefer things to
be under wraps.”
“I have an idea, cousin Najib,” Hishamuddin spoke up. “We
could sacrifice Samy Vellu. MACC has a file on him two inches thick from the
Maika Telekom share scandal to AIMST university and stealing land for Tamil
school among others. The Indians hate him but he refuses to go so it will be
like killing two birds with one stone. The best thing is that he can’t pull
down anybody from our party.”
Everybody agreed this was a good idea. There were chortles
all around that the ‘old mandore’ was going to get it.
“What about the sentence?” asked Najib. “How long?”
“We don’t want the backlash to be too much,” said Nazri.
“Just 6 months will be enough to disqualify him for running for public office
for 5 years.”
“Six months!” sneered Mahathir sarcastically. “Listen to this
small boy talk. All this work for 6 months! In my time, Anwar was sentenced to
9 years for sodomy and that was to be served consecutively to 6 years for abuse
of power. If some fool judges hadn’t overturned the sodomy conviction, he would
still be in jail right now.”
“I’m thinking 3 years,” said Najib.
Gani Patail said, “Please note, Datuk Seri, every prisoner is
entitled to 1/3 remission for good behavior. 3 years means he will be out in 2
years. This means he will be out to organize the opposition against us in the
13th general election.”
“Aaah…,” exclaimed Najib, “I hadn’t thought of that. I think
we should settle for 5 years then”.
Mahathir frowned and looked like he was about to say
something but thought better of it.
“It’s decided then,” Najib continued. “Anwar will be
sentenced to 5 years jail. Hah! The opposition had its day in court but we won
the final round.” There were grins, back slaps and congratulations all around.
At that moment there was a furious knocking on the door. When
the door was opened an aide rushed in, his hair disheveled and his face ashen.
In between gasps he said, “Datuk Seri…Datuk Seri…bad news! Saiful Bukhari has
been struck by lightning! He is still alive but he is deaf, dumb and paralyzed.
His face is twisted into a grotesque expression.”
Najib rose from his chair, his face frozen in shock and his
mouth opened in silent horror. The room seemed to rotate slowly and the voices
of the others meld into babbling incoherence. A soft chuckling sound like
coming from a great distance penetrated into his consciousness. In that sharp,
stabbing moment, he knew he had lost.
