Lessons From Zimbabwe, the Philippines and Togo

A Kadir Jasin

سْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ "In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful".

UPDATE, Oct 6 – Bernama reported a while ago that the Malay Rulers want the government to complete investigations relating to 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) as soon as possible and take appropriate stern action against those found to be implicated.

In a statement, the Rulers stressed that all concerned should extend "real and sincere" cooperation in order for the investigation to achieve its objectives.

"The findings of the investigation must be reported comprehensively and in a transparent manner so that the people will be convinced of the sincerity of the government which shall not at all conceal facts and the truth," they said.

The statement was released by the Keeper of the Rulers' Seal, Datuk Seri Syed Danial Syed Ahmad, after the pre-council meeting of the Conference of Rulers at Istana Negara today. The 239th meeting of the Conference of Rulers is scheduled for two days from tomorrow.

The statement said: "The failure to give convincing clarifications and answers is feared to have resulted in a crisis of confidence.

ORIGINAL POST
 

A EUROPEAN Union (EU) diplomat, who proudly told me that he “attended” both the Yellow and the Red Shirts demonstrations in Kuala Lumpur recently, thought I was joking when I said Malaysia could be heading in the direction of Zimbabwe or, worse, Togo.

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That struck the cord immediately with him because before being posted to Malaysia, he spent several years in Zimbabwe. He ought to know much more than I do about Zimbabwe. My only trip to that land-locked east African nation was way back in the 1980’s to report on the Non Alliance Conference.

Then its leader, President Robert Mugabe was still celebrated as a hero and a nation builder. By our standard, Zimbabwe was poor but by African standard it was not. It was one of the best-developed post-colonial nations in Africa.

Today, Mugabe is 91 years old. He has been in power for 35 years – first as Prime Minister and later President. He is tyrannical. Zimbabwe’s economy has literally collapsed. It no longer has its own currency. The war that Mugabe helped to perpetuate killed as many as 30,000 of his own people and displacing many more.

The Zimbabwean dollar became a junk currency. Last June it was withdrawn from circulation because even Zimbabweans did not want it. Today the government’s official currency is the US dollar while South African rand, Indian rupee and Chinese yuan are widely used. Chinese yuan is accepted because China is Zimbabwe’s big brother while the US dollar is preferred because Zimbabwe’s trade is large denominated in that currency. Some say its is because many big men water land (orang besar tanah air) of Zimbabwe keep their haul in US dollar.

The worthless Zimbabwean currency

(Datuk Seri) Idris Jala, when he was a minister, warned that Malaysia could become like Greece if subsidy was not gradually phased out. Many people were upset with him. Then things were not as bad as today.

His warning proved prophetic. If the present political and economic crises are not immediately solved, we could become like Greece or worse like Zimbabwe and Togo.

A Spooked PM Won’t Not Go

The Prime Minister, (Datuk Seri Mappadulung Daeng Matti­mung Karaeng Sanrobone) Mohd Najib Abdul Razak refuses to resign, confidence in the economy is declining, the ringgit is plunging, cost of living is rising, capital is fleeing, the people are seething, Umno is fracturing and the Barisan Nasional is dying.

When Mohd Najib took power as Prime Minister and Finance Minister in 2009 the ringgit was doing well after Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi removed the peg in 2005. RM rose steadily to around 3.30 from 2011 to the middle of last year. Since a year ago, however, it had fallen to as low a 4.70.

There is so much that we can blame the external factors for our predicament. We are suffering a major confidence crisis and trust deficit. Our strong economic fundamentals are being ignored by investors because they do not have confidence in our government.

It is for the above reasons that I had braved the possibility of being condemned by suggesting that we should allow him safe passage. 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?

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad wasn’t stating anything new when he said, Mohd Najib won’t leave because he is afraid of being arrested and charged, and that the ringgit would recover if he resigns.

Want To Be Like Zimbabwe?

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?

Let us put aside our thirst for his blood and set our focus on saving our country from ruin. The longer the current situation persists, the worse it is for us.

Mohd Najib needs executive protection

We all know that he would do all he could to stay put. He may be putting a brave face at home and abroad but deep in his heart he knows the moment he resigns or losses control of the AG’s Chamber, the police, the MACC and Bank Negara, he would be arrested and charged.

We see that in his desperation to be accepted, he is trying to sound in sync with the rakyat. Take his most recent statement in New York that 1MDB’s business model was too idealistic and it went into heavy debt financing. That’s what we have been saying all along. With the ringgit in free fall, 1MDB’s debt could have risen way about the reported RM42 billion.

We will all be damned by the future generations if we do nothing to stop this rot. We should be gravely concerned about our present and about the future of our children and grandchildren.

We can wait for the next general elections in 2017 or 2018 to force him out. Even that is not a sure thing. He might still win and by then it might be too late for the country.

Look at our neighbour the Philippines. It used to be better than us. It took only one bad leader and his wife to ruin it. Marco had long gone but the Philippines has never really recovered from what he and his wife did.

The singing couple Marcos and Emelda: They ruined the Philippines

 Marcos and his free-spending wife, Emelda would not have left on that night of Feb 25, 1986 had the US not guaranteed them their safety and President Corazon Aquino had not allowed them free passage.

Or our country could become like Togo. The west African country is the 26^th poorest country in the world. But in April, less than a month after the UNDP issued a report stating that the people of Togo were the least happy people in the world, its President, Faure Gnassingbe, was re-elected for a third term. His family has been in power for 48 years. His father, Gnassingbe Eyadema, took power in a coup in 1967. All over the world bad leaders get re-elected by enslaving the people and manipulating the electoral process.

Akhirulqalam: Let me categorically state that not all people around Mohd Najib are bad and rude. Yes, some are very bad and extremely rude. But most are decent men and women who themselves are not in total agreement with him. I met a couple of them at a wedding reception in Putrajaya on Oct 3. Special thank to (Datuk) Rohana Mahmood.

Historical anecdote from the Philippines: Prime Minister Cesar Virata contacted President Cory Aquino by phone. Mr. Virata informed Mrs. Aquino that he had just gotten a phone message from the Americans requesting him to be the "honest broker" in negotiating the departure of Mr. Marcos "in safety" from the Palace. Malacañang was already besieged by angry crowd. Virata asked President Aquino if she wanted to impose any "conditions". Mrs. Aquino replied, "Tell him it's okay to go - my only condition is that he leave the country."

Footnote: If you have time, watch the movie “Turks and Caicos” on Astro’s Cinemax. It is about unscrupulous American contractors who conspired with a rogue British spy to overcharge the British Government, laundered their loot in Turks and Caicos, and set up a secret fund for the British Prime Minister who has the ambition of becoming an international statesman. Like Caymen Islands, Turk and Caicos is an offshore financial centre or tax haven.

Wallahuaklam.