Shockwaves from trial of the decade

IT is the most political trial of the decade and everyone had an opinion on how it was going to end for Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Yet the shockwaves could be felt all over as the end grew nearer and it was felt most intensely in Umno.

The legal drama that unfolded in the courts last week had spilled over into Umno in a rather unexpected way.

Umno division chiefs convened at the party headquarters at the World Trade Centre (WTC) in a highly-charged meeting on Monday (Aug 22) to demand an explanation from the top party leadership on what had happened to Najib.

Actually, the rumblings in Umno had begun from the moment the Federal Court judges put their foot down on Najib’s application to admit fresh evidence and to disallow his new legal team more time to prepare submissions.

Legal practitioners say adjournments in the higher courts are rarely granted unless in exceptional circumstances and as such, the bar was already quite high for the Najib legal team.

But the Umno crowd does not see it in the same light. They say that the case involves a former premier and that justice must not only be done but seen to be done.

This was a highly political trial from day one and through every twist and turn.

Najib’s name evokes different emotions among different people and it is often terribly polemic.

Those who dislike him think the “kleptocrat” belongs in jail. Those who are for him are consumed with sympathy.

And those who try to be neutral are scolded by either sides.

But the reality has finally sunk in for the Umno rank-and-file that the end is near.

Last week, after Najib was left standing without legal representation, a few dozen Umno division chiefs sought a meeting with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob to voice their concerns.

The division chiefs are apparently under pressure from their Malay base, they are at a loss to explain to their grassroots.

Some of the Wanita Umno ladies, who are not versed in the law, are said to be so upset that they had threatened not to come out to vote in the general election.

As such, the Monday meeting was hastily scheduled to address these concerns and for the division chiefs to hear it from the horse’s mouth, that is, Najib.

The former premier spoke for close to an hour, explaining that he is not asking for his case to be dismissed.

Najib told the meeting there is no further avenue for appeal now that his case has reached the apex court and that his lawyers’ applications for time to prepare and submit new evidence were not unreasonable.

He told them he expects to be imprisoned by Friday.

The outcome of Monday’s Umno meeting can be aptly summed up as emotions over-riding rational thinking.

“Nobody talked about dropping the case as reported in some media. But the mood was heated especially after Najib spoke,” said an Umno division chief from the Federal Territory.

They demanded that the Prime Minister, who did not attend, come to explain to all of them.

Ismail Sabri initially agreed to turn up at 3pm, then moved it to 4pm and eventually he asked to meet only Najib, Umno’s top five and the state Umno chairmen at 5pm at Seri Perdana, the Prime Minister’s official residence in Putrajaya.

It is unclear what transpired at the meeting which ended shortly before the maghrib hour.

Just because Pakatan had intervened in cases involving their own leaders does not make it right for the current government to do likewise.

The judiciary has never been the same after the raw political power seen during Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s era and especially after the removal of Tun Dr Mohamed Salleh Abas as Lord President in 1988.

Those who attended the Seri Perdana meeting have been tight-lipped about what was discussed but the signs are that there was no solution.

A video of Ismail Sabri talking about how he does not intend to interfere in the judiciary has been going around and it looks like Najib will have to fight it out in court.

And this is a case where Najib is being tried by the court of law on the one hand, and the court of public opinion on the other.

The views expressed here are the writer’s own.