Firstly, the people must never stop their inquisitorial and prosecutorial mindset. “They must reject any attempts to prospectively blackmail them.”
Secondly, members of the new incoming government must take note of that.
Mahathir “did it” was being used as a defence, alleged the MP. “If Mahathir had kept quiet, the dirt he created won’t be unearthed, runs the theory. He’s now being demonised and even labeled as suffering from the mad leader’s disease.”
The tactic was now used by all the sycophantic and brown-nosed supporters of the Prime Minister, added Ariff. “Mahathir did it, so it’s no sin if the current Prime Minister does it, runs the argument. Mahathir, it’s said, squandered RM100 billion and distributed them through his proxies.”
“If what Mahathir did was accepted, using the same principle, what Najib does, ought to be accepted as normal, argue the Prime Minister’s people.”
However, pointed out Ariif, a problem presents itself at once i.e. to reveal what took place during Mahathir’s time must also reveal what the ministers under him did. “Well, all the ministers made hay while the Mahathir sun shone.”
“That includes Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak too.”
The Najib apologists, noted Ariff, claim that what Najib and his underlings do was justifiable because Mahathir and his underlings did the same things during his 22-year reign. “This argument is currently being made.”
“It’s prospective blackmail to shut us up by warning that they will stir up the shit done by Mahathir in the past.”
Don’t let us stop you, pleaded Ariff with Najib’s people. “Please stir it, so that the people will know what Umno really stood for. We love this country more than we love Umno.”
“I was laughing when former Kedah Menteri Besar Mukhriz Mahathir said that he did not take a certain course of action because he loves Umno.”
Well, reiterated Ariff, “we love Malaysia more than we love Umno”.
In order to stop people from asking and investigating further, continued Ariff, the people are being told that Mahathir stole this and that. “Again, by threatening to unearth what Mahathir did, it’s hoped that further unearthing of what Najib did, will stop.”
So, while Najib’s boys want to crucify Mahathir, the man who can walk on water, they forget that the old man may have even further damaging material on their boss, warned Ariff. “So, we hope Mahathir will come out with new fireworks.”
“After all, he has said that he has never given up his efforts to kick out Najib.”
The thieves cannot use Mahathir as a shield because the man of the hour isn’t Mahathir, argued Ariff. “It’s Najib. The whole world is investigating and closing in on Najib, not Mahathir.”
The MP noted that the other side of prospective blackmailing was the retrospective approach. “This approach admits and acknowledges the wrongs and excesses of the current regime but asserts and insists, that if a new government comes into power, they will do the same things (wrongdoing).”
“So why rock the boat? Why replace Najib? It’s said that those who come after him will do the same and even perhaps worse things.”
The answer is they won’t, assures Ariff, at least not for a few decades, even if they did. “By then we would have put in a system that will not allow excesses and transgressions to repeat themselves.”
“The people will not allow a new incoming government to do it (wrongdoing).”
The people, armed with heightened political awareness and reasserting new found rights, will not allow a new government to repeat the same excesses, reiterated Ariff. “The new government too, riding on the tide of a revulsion against injustice, will be disciplined by its own internal values from doing what the replaced administration did.”
To borrow a legal concept, stressed Ariff, they will be estoppeled from doing so.
Read More: Prospective and Retrospective Blackmail