A veteran journalist today said Datuk Seri Najib Razak should not be prosecuted if he resigns. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, October 5, 2015.Datuk Seri Najib Razak should be given freedom from prosecution in return for his resignation, said veteran journalist Datuk A. Kadir Jasin amid public calls for Najib to leave office.
“I am saying it again. Let’s give him a safe passage. Let's make it easier for him to leave.
“We have to ask ourselves, which is more important – putting him on trial for alleged corruption or saving the country?” Kadir asked in his latest blog posting.
His suggestion comes as Najib’s opponents intensify a campaign to oust him with a possible no-confidence motion in Parliament in the middle of this month.
Najib’s staunchest opponent, former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, also wants him to go but admitted recently that it is hard to do so because Najib feared prosecution for alleged corruption.
“Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad wasn’t stating anything new when he said Najib won’t leave because he is afraid of being arrested and charged, and that the ringgit would recover if he resigns,” Kadir wrote.
Kadir said Najib is fearful he would be hauled to court if he resigns, and loses control of the police, Bank Negara and the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC).
He justified his argument by using examples of President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, and that of President Ferdinand Marcos and his wife Imelda of the Philippines.
Mugabe, 91, used underhanded tactics to cling to power for 35 years and his plundering of Zimbabwe left the country and its economy in tatters.
“The Zimbabwean dollar became a junk currency. Last June, it was withdrawn from circulation because even Zimbabweans did not want it,” Kadir wrote.
“Do we want him to do the Mugabe by staying on at whatever cost while the economy heads towards the abyss? Or we allow him a safe passage?”
In the case of the Philippines, Kadir said the Marcos couple left only after the United States and President Corazon Aquino guaranteed them safe passage.
But the effect of the couple’s 21 years of misrule made a lasting impact on the Philippines.
“(The Philippines) used to be better than us. It took only one bad leader and his wife to ruin it. Marcos had long gone, but the Philippines never really recovered from what he and his wife did.” – October 5, 2015.
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