Rudyard Kipling"
āWhen you're left wounded on Afganistan's plains and
the women come out to cut up what remains, Just roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains,
And go to your God like a soldierā
General Douglas MacArthur"
āWe are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.ā
āIt is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.ā āOld soldiers never die; they just fade away.
āThe soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.ā
āMay God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .ā āThe object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
āNobody ever defended, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
āIt is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.
The Soldier stood and faced God
Which must always come to pass
He hoped his shoes were shining
Just as bright as his brass
"Step forward you Soldier,
How shall I deal with you?
Have you always turned the other cheek?
To My Church have you been true?"
"No, Lord, I guess I ain't
Because those of us who carry guns
Can't always be a saint."
I've had to work on Sundays
And at times my talk was tough,
And sometimes I've been violent,
Because the world is awfully rough.
But, I never took a penny
That wasn't mine to keep.
Though I worked a lot of overtime
When the bills got just too steep,
The Soldier squared his shoulders and said
And I never passed a cry for help
Though at times I shook with fear,
And sometimes, God forgive me,
I've wept unmanly tears.
I know I don't deserve a place
Among the people here.
They never wanted me around
Except to calm their fears.
If you've a place for me here,
Lord, It needn't be so grand,
I never expected or had too much,
But if you don't, I'll understand."
There was silence all around the throne
Where the saints had often trod
As the Soldier waited quietly,
For the judgment of his God.
"Step forward now, you Soldier,
You've borne your burden well.
Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets,
You've done your time in Hell."
The judge noted
that his decision to clear Najib of wrongdoing and to instead choose the
āfantastical narrative of an unproven decisionā was the most telling
evidence that purportedly showed Apandiās alleged disinterest and
indifference to the rule of law and even common sense.
During the
trial, Apandi was questioned continuously by Lim's lawyers over
absolving Najib by accepting the argument that the amount of more than
RM2.6 billion that the former prime minister received was from a Saudi
royal.
āAlthough with the utmost respect, this court is pressed to
express its disdain to the sordid extent of the plaintiff's (Apandiās)
self-contradictory testimony, evasiveness, and outright untruth.
āIt
is not exactly rocket science to appreciate the issue of the RM2.6
billion (which Apandi had declared as a donation) would be the core and
fulcrum to his very own case swings and tilts by.
āIt would be a
grave remiss if the plaintiff were to avail himself to this court,
without being candid and without being fully equipped to the brim to
justify his magnanimous decision to prefer the donation narrative to
exonerate Najib,ā the judge noted.
Crucially, the judge asked:
āWhy would the attorney-general bend the truth about meeting and
recording a statement by the alleged donor?
āWhy would the
attorney-general declare to the world that his delegation has met the
donor (and obtained confirmation from the donor) while it was well
within his knowledge that his delegation did not even speak or meet with
the āfabledā donor?ā
In a tell-all press conference in 2016, Apandi waved sheets of āevidenceā he claimed exonerated Najib of any wrongdoing.
Then AG Mohamed Apandi Aliās press conference in 2016 clearing then prime minister Najib Abdul Razak of wrongdoing
Apandi
said that about US$620 million (RM2.35 billion) of the money Najib
received from alleged Arab donors had been returned to the Saudi royal
family because āit wasnāt usedā.
He suggested that there was no
evidence Najib was āeven aware of the transfer and that it was given by
the Saudi royal family without any consideration.ā
He also declared no criminal offence was committed and there was no need for Malaysia to request legal assistance from any foreign states to complete the investigation.
āFabled and fantastical donationā
But
Azimah noted: āThrough the entire breadth of the plaintiffās (Apandiās)
testimony, the plaintiff failed to give any cogent reasons behind his
perplexing insistence to adopt the donation narrative (while absolving
Najib) although he readily admitted that his Riyadh delegation utterly
failed in its mission to verify the truth behind the fabled and
fantastical donation.
āThe plaintiff further failed to afford any
sound justification behind his puzzling decision to bend the truth
regarding the supposed success of the Riyadh delegation (while in truth
and reality, the Riyadh delegation failed to speak or even meet with the
fabled donor).
āThe plaintiff also failed to explain his glaring
lack of proper knowledge behind the supposed evidence and statements the
Riyadh delegation collected, to the extent that the plaintiff could not
even remember the name of the fabled or famous donor he so intently
contended upon.ā
When the 1MDB scandal broke, Najib claimed the money was from an Arab prince for the 2014 general election.
In
a 2017 column, I wrote: āFrom day one, Najib has maintained the RM2.6
billion in his bank account was a personal donation from a Saudi prince
with no strings attached.
āBut this has been contradicted by the
US Department of Justice which claims the money was part of an elaborate
money-laundering scheme which involved many parties, including an
associate of the prime minister, Jho Low.
āIf the Saudi prince had
indeed remitted the money, surely he would have supporting documents
and if these are made public, the theories put forward by the DOJ can be
debunked.
āIt is as simple as that. With the entire hullabaloo
over the donation and rumblings among Malaysians, one phone call for the
documents would silence all the critics.ā
The findings of the
court demolish this theory that is continually espoused by Najib to his
followers who call him Bossku that the money in his bank was a donation.
Now that the theory of the Arab donor has been demolished by the court, what will his new mantra be?
