Another Sultan's turn for a birthday here today (which means a public holiday in the particular state concerned). On this occasion it is the Sultan Ibrahim Ibni Almarhum Sultan Iskandar, the Sultan of both territorially and economically the largest state in the federation—Johor down in the south. In rather ceremonially stiff and awkward oval portraits, the Sultan and his wife are presented in full regalia of sashes, medals, tiara and cap-crown, epaulettes and sabre in the former's case, in the morning's newspaper notices. An initial count had eight and one-half full page spreads of congratulatory notices taken out by various enterprises and associations. The assumption had been that the second half of the newspaper—The New Straits Times in this case—would not be the place for any more. In fact the final count of congratulatory notices on the occasion of the Sultan's birthday today was thirty-three and one half pages in total (specifically: seven full page colour; eight full page B/W; eighteen half page B/W; and two quarter page B/W), congratulating the Sultan on the attainment of his fifty-fourth year. Construction companies, marine and heavy engineering, transport concerns, energy interests, various holding companies, the newspaper itself, investment houses, agricultural enterprises, boat builders, business luminaries and notables, golf and country clubs, hotel and supermarket interests, KFC, tertiary ed. sectors, planters (palm oil) and Dutch interests. A great number of people wishing to convey particular and public salutations. A couple of weeks ago an evidently much less significant Sultan attracted less than a third of this number of notices, at least in this particular English language newspaper.
The Sultans are of course still very powerful in this federation. Mahathir, the internationally well-known and long-serving PM before last, is thought to have performed some much needed clipping of wings of the Sultans. Earlier in the year the Sultan Iskander of Johor came under notice for the purchase of a vanity number-plate for a price of around $US200k from memory. A political commentator of some kind who suggested this might be somewhat extravagant given the still real poverty in the country was quickly and loudly hailed down, by one of the Sultan's sons among others. (One of the chaps in the cafe this morning reported tales which may or may not be true of this Sultan not taking kindly to being overtaken by heedless subjects on the motor-ways on the Peninsular.) In the royal way, on his birthday the Sultan bestowed various honours for public virtue and sacrifice, among the recipients on this occasion the Sultan's Princess daughter and her four younger brothers. (A competent spin-doctor-PR consultant clearly in need in the southern principality.)
The front page of this morning's newspaper featured our own Bob Carr (husband of a local) declining to become involved in monitoring the forthcoming general election after an appeal from the Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who has alleged possible fraud and corruption. No thanks, said Bob. Sorry. Afghanistan and Iraq are one thing; a rising regional player and trading partner of some account quite another entirely.
More raw politics within this morning's pages too: hearings here are continuing at the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission into Israeli atrocities against the Palestinians. Witnesses, orphans and widows are giving evidence of the brutality suffered in Gaza; terrible stories and detailing highly unlikely to make it into Western newspapers. Certainly nothing of this kind of Commission could ever possibly be staged by any close ally of the US and Israel. A reminder in the same article covering the hearings recalled the convictions of George W. Bush and Anthony L. Blair for crimes against humanity here this time last year.
This is a country of some weight and heft now in international relations, twenty plus million people, a growing energy and mining sector, with a certain level of confident independent thinking evident. A Muslim country of course despite a sizable minority population, where because of an understandable perception of threat and contest, matters Islamic are always sharpened more acutely than in neighbouring Indonesia.
The morning newspaper reading now takes place at another cafe which serves the best coffee in Malaysia, according to a long-term resident who was introduced to the place by the author, dear Reader. Nothing better than helping the locals better acquaint themselves with their own habitat. In fairness, in this case the cafe had only been open a fortnight, the discovery resulting from one of the lucky stumbles that have been highlights of the eighteen month passage.
As the morning of the Sultan's birthday wore on, the chap who had earlier added the comment on the said Sultan's expectation of precedence on the roads began to provide further back-story on the political scene here. How is it that one continues to be surprised by intimations of the most vicious and heinous skullduggery that invariably is acted out at the upper reaches of politics and power? Simple ingrained naivety and nothing else has to be the answer. Can it really be the case that our own politics is any less murky, any less corrupt and deadly than that of so-called rogue nations?
The real surprise in this morning's dark political tale was the direct implication of the currently serving PM Najib here, facing election within the next few months and seemingly doing well in the polls. For some reason too it has again taken a good while for the penny to drop and the realization to arrive that, like in so many other places, in Malaysia one is confronted by a dynastic regime and entrenched circles of power. In fact Najib is none other than the son of the founder of the Malaysian federated states in the post-colonial period—Tun Abdul Razak, the most revered luminary of the old guard. As Australian schoolchildren might recall from their hodge-podge history lessons of the sixties, Tun Abdul Razak was the fellow in the funny hat, thick black-rimmed glasses and showing a rather dark oily complexion. Another royal then this Najib, of the newer stripe; and indeed much more powerful than the old regional Sultans, who were no doubt creations of the British in the first place.
Slowly, as the chap telling the story at the cafe went on, the lurid tale vaguely came back from the meager reportage of the time. Australian newspapers certainly did not provide it much coverage. In France and Europe more broadly, it may have been different. It is an old story of a powerful politician—Najib was Deputy PM and Defense Secretary at the time—a pretty young girl (Mongolian in this case), and an important Defense contract. In this case developments allegedly led to attempted extortion and finally murder and an elaborate cover-up. The purchase of two new submarines was being negotiated in Paris. Najib employed a French translator/interpreter. The Mongolian beauty also had brains: she aided the process of negotiations. Perhaps she had indeed been promised the $US500k that was touted as her subsequent demand. Given the huge sums involved—one hundred and fourteen million Euros secret commission on the deal—such a payoff might have been a simple matter had not the girl presented a larger danger. Naturally sex is a side-issue in the tale: in the pictures the poor girl looks fairly irresistible. There is some suggestion Najib's wife took personal responsibility for the liquidation of the extortionist-blackmailer; that she was present in person when the girl was shot. In order to cover tracks properly, a particular explosive was subsequently used to atomize the corpse. Against the odds, fragments of tissue found in a forest area near a dam outside Kuala Lumpur enabled DNA testing for identification.
The bank account details pointing to the payment of secret commissions were uncovered by the French side. Key witnesses presenting highly incriminating evidence and sworn testimony eventually made retractions and quickly went to ground, one particular crucial fellow proving completely untraceable. Even last year the suggestion of a mooted re-trial was said to be pending.
The court case provided the usual hoop-jumping. So far as Najib is concerned, case unproven. A host of circumstantial factors prove nothing on their own of course. Fragments of a young corpse blown to pieces by a highly controlled explosive substance; unsubstantiated presence of the said translator in Paris in the official documents; Najib’s personal body-guard detail convicted; paper trail difficult to follow, the money the same. One must pause in final judgment. In all the photographs the scion of Tun Abdul Razak—in the shadows of the tower named after him, once the tallest in Asia, we all live in Georgetown—Najib presents cherubic innocence. Very difficult to imagine the man out of costume.
That such a matter might possibly be buried by the prevailing forces here in Malaysia should not come as too much of a surprise. If Western political interests can be advanced by war-mongering media that usually passes as independent and remote from government, then a more or less sufficiently well-concealed political killing in a frontier setting should not astonish. Certainly the case raised against the Opposition leader Anwar—homosexual trysts with a driver or butler—can be seen in an altogether different light in this new context.
Our brutalities and corruptions are different to their brutalities and corruptions. Circumstances, local conditions, phases of development, historical arrangements and alignments, our sophistications and refinements, produce outcomes of a different order. Our Reserve Bank currency affair, our Wheat Board affair, our refugee policies, our participation in the Anglo-American pushes presented to the public by earnest former choir-boys far, far more adept and polished than Mr. Najib, enable us to bury and manipulate matters without the recourse to blatant political murder.
Does our innocence down on the remote great southern island continent stand up to scrutiny?
Equally surprising to have the former leaders Bush and Blair convicted of major crimes here, while on the other hand the local PM can avoid some very serious cross-examination. (Fruitless attempts were made to have Najib give evidence at the relevant trials.)
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