KUALA LUMPUR – There are at least two online petitions calling for the government to rescind privileges afforded to former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, especially after the Court of Appeal upheld his conviction and sentence in relation to the SRC International Sdn Bhd case.
A petition that was started a month ago by Mohd Ashraf Mustaqim has about 15,000 signatures, while the petition by Azhdeen Valheru already has more than 4,300 signatures in two days.
Both petitions are urging the government to rescind privileges given to Najib as a former prime minister, saying that he has become a national embarrassment.
For example, he should no longer be allowed to receive privileges such as salaries, allowances, pension, bodyguard, outriders, and assistants, among others.
It also said that privileges paid by the people should be stopped, seeing he was found guilty of misappropriating public funds.
One of the petitions suggested that his titles be revoked as an effort to restore the dignity of the federal constitution and Rukun Negara.
Some signatories left comments slamming Najib being allowed to move freely in the country.
“A convicted criminal like Najib should be doing time in Sg Buloh instead of being allowed to galavant around making a mockery of our judiciary system,” said a signatory named Ailin Ton Isahak.
“It is about upholding the findings of four honourable judges. It is about not wasting the time of the federal court on frivolous grounds and taxpayers funds that have already been abused at enormous levels. Time to put the brakes and penalise the guilty party,” said Mathews George.
Meanwhile, Liza Abdul said Najib was already convicted but still allowed to roam free, and accorded allowance and VIP treatment.
On Wednesday, the appellate court found that the high court was correct to find Najib guilty for all charges involving corruption over SRC International funds.
Delivering a unanimous judgement, Court of Appeal judge Datuk Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil said there were no errors in findings by high court judge Nazlan Ghazali, given that the prosecution has proven elements of the offences beyond a reasonable doubt.
Among the significant rulings made by the Court of Appeal include that the trial judge had correctly found that Najib had been the shadow director of SRC International.
The Court of Appeal, Karim said, also referred to letters supporting arguments that the money received was actually donations by the Saudi royal family.
However, the bench found the letters unauthenticated and merely hearsay.
Karim said that it resulted in no national interest, but rather a national embarrassment.
The “national embarrassment” comment gave birth to a witty and suggestive social media hashtag: #KemaluanNegara.
The hashtag, which literally translates as #NationalEmbarrassment, has also become a trending topic on Twitter after the court upheld Najib’s guilty conviction and sentence of the related corruption charges Wednesday morning.
As at the time of writing, the trending #KemaluanNegara hashtag has amassed some 2,334 tweets to its name.
For those unfamiliar with Bahasa Malaysia, the word ‘kemaluan’ is a homonym which can either mean humiliation or embarrassment, or refer to a person’s genitals.
It is uncertain who originated the trending topic, but netizens jumped on the hashtag to tweet about the disgraced former prime minister while celebrating the double entendre. – The Vibes, December 10, 2021
