🇲🇾 Syed Saddiq goes down, but not without a fight

Hello friends!

Next week I’m going to have to raise my prices, I think. These subscriptions for everywhere else are smashing me (Bloomberg wants USD$35 a month, which is actually nuts).

So! If you’re umming/ahhing, get in now because it locks you in at US$60 annually going forward.

Thank you so much for your support, as always!

I’ve abandoned Singapore and Brunei this week because Malaysia is really going for it.

Erin

Syed Saddiq is a ‘martyr’ for the cause, say supporters

Last week, the Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman news was breaking as I was sending. Unlucky timing for myself, but with a week’s worth of analysis and reporting we’ve got a better picture (kinda) of what’s up. 

Syed Saddiq, the political boy wonder of Malaysia, is down and out. He was found guilty last week on four counts relating to corruption within Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu), his former party, and the youth wing. The court sentenced him to seven years in prison, a fine of 10 million ringgit and two strokes of the cane. He’s the first ever politician to cop a caning sentence which I think is jaw-dropping. How are you gonna hit this fella and not 1MDB-ing Najib Razak! It’s a deterrent, prosecutor Wan Shaharuddin said. 

He immediately resigned from his leadership of Muda, his party that was part of the coalition backing Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim but defected in outrage after 47 credible corruption allegations against Anwar’s pal Deputy Prime Minister Zahid Hamidi were dropped by the courts two months ago. 

So far, he’s done a good job of high-roading it (I’d be absolutely feral lashing out at all these old guys, if I were him). “I will use the court, the judicial system to clear my name. As a policymaker, I must trust the judiciary and I respect the court’s decision today because the judiciary is the last bastion for the people, including myself,” he told reporters last Thursday, as per the Star. An appeal was filed later that day. 

The response in Malaysian media has been very interesting. There seems to be a widespread bewilderment across the English-language coverage. Columnist Mariam Mokhtar took to both the Free Malaysia Today and Malaysiakini to work through and clarify the electorate’s response. In the immediate aftermath of the ruling, she wrote for Malaysiakini that while it may feel like ‘hope’ has gone for Malaysia’s future, abandoning Syed or his Muda party to the wolves would be a mistake. 

“Taking RM1.20, RM120, or RM1,200 which is not yours, is wrong, but those who have had their hands in the till since before Syed Saddiq was born have been allowed to escape. Why? Hence, handing Syed Saddiq this grossly excessive punishment will only serve to make him a martyr,” she wrote.

This week, she expands her argument that Syed’s sentence is grossly unfair to him — but also to the people! Malaysia has demanded tighter anti-corruption measures, but not only against specific lawmakers who are perceived to have ‘wronged’ their veteran colleagues.  

It’s a view backed up by the analysts. Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani told Channel News Asia that it is a bit hard to swallow after a year of others getting off. “Furthermore, (the verdict came) after Syed decided to pull his support from Anwar and became critical of the prime minister. This has led to allegations that sentencing was politically motivated as MUDA has long been viewed by leaders within PH to be undercutting its support from young and urban voters,” he said.

Still, don’t expect it to (further) destabilise Anwar’s government, he noted. “While Anwar’s credibility and public perception may be bruised, he will not be impacted politically as MUDA does not have the grassroots, nor does it have a significant number of seats at both the federal and state levels.” 

Speaking to the Straits Times, Dr Oh Ei Sun of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs isn’t so sure that Syed wasn’t singled out as a tall poppy who needed to be cut down by the Pakatan Harapan government: “His political image is already a very positive one, and this perceived martyrdom would add to that. But the problem is he doesn’t seem to be able to transform his positive personal image into concrete electoral support for his party, which is perceived as lacking in both direction and leadership.” 

Syed had previously said he believed the charges were retribution for not supporting Muhyiddin Yassin’s government — keep this in mind when you read further down!  

Tricky legal layers, but maybe some answers in mystery murder? 

Huge update in the Sirul Azhar Umar case this week. The former policeman was found guilty of the 2006 murder of Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu by a Shah Alam court in 2009, but Sirul fled to Australia to escape the death penalty. 

Two big legal changes in both Australia and Malaysia have large implications for Sirul. Australia’s High Court has (finally) knocked down indefinite detention as immigration policy, releasing Sirul from detention. BUT he cannot be deported as Australia won’t send someone who is facing the death penalty home. BUT the mandatory death penalty is on the way out in Malaysia with the commuting of death sentences underway. Sirul’s case has not been mentioned yet, but the Malaysian government has said he’s of course welcome to apply to have it commuted. 

So, Sirul’s options seem to be: languish in Australia’s immigration grey zone but in the community with his family in Canberra, or, potentially, serve a life sentence in a Malaysian prison. On top of all this — it’s not an ‘ordinary,’ if grisly, murder. Altantuya Shaariibuu worked as an interpreter for a former associate of Najib Razak and, in 2019, Sirul’s co-accused Azilah Hadri said the order to kill her came from the then-PM himself. 

Sirul has spent nine years in Australian immigration detention, avoiding much of the media frenzy relaunched by Azilah Hadri’s comments. What does he actually know, and will he ever tell all? I hope for Altantuya Shaariibuugiin’s family’s sake he does.

Elsewhere, former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad swung by the podcast hosted by Khairy Jamaluddin and Shahril Hamdan this week and it went about as can be expected. If you want to see some racial and religious hot takes from an elder statesman, click on through. I’m flagging it because 1) I think this is a very sad way for him to be spending the extra years he has been so blessed to be given and 2) it’s kinda funny that Khairy Jamaluddin, the former health minister booted from UMNO for demanding party boss Ahmad Zahid Hamidi should resign, is leaning on his connections so hard that he’ll be too influential in the next general election for UMNO to ignore him.  

Bersatu party cadres have spoken about being ‘coerced or bribed’ to join the Anwar government and the party wants to file a complaint. Party president Muhyiddin Yassin, who himself faced corruption charges from his period as prime minister that has since been dropped, said four lawmakers from Bersatu had been offered cash or threatened with legal action to fall in line with Anwar, Bloomberg reports. I’m not inclined to trust anyone involved here, so let’s wait and see.