Mahathir bin Mohamad, the 92-year old and seventh Prime Minister of Malaysia has gotten down to work on the very first day of assuming office with orders to ban overseas travel of the former protege turned nemesis Najib Razak, setting up an investigation team to look into the corruption allegations against the Najib government and was also looking for an early pardon to the jailed protege turned nemesis turned protege -- Anwar Ibrahim.
One of the very first moves Dr Mahathir has undertaken is to ban foreign travel by former prime minister Najib and his wife Rosmah Razak who were expected to depart on a private jet to the Indonesian capital of Jakarta. As messages flooded social media of how Mr Najib was going on a "short break" with his family on an Indonesian registered private jet, hundreds of dissatisfied people gathered at Kuala Lumpur airport from where the flight was to take off to prevent Mr Najib and his wife from heading out of the country.
Umesh Pandey is Editor, Bangkok Post.
Soon thereafter the immigration bureau came out to openly state the former premier was banned from leaving the country. Mr Najib came out to accept this fact in his Twitter account when he said that he was now aware of such a ban being in place.
There is no doubt that there are ways for Mr Najib and his wife to escape the country -- after all, they must have learnt a lesson or two from Thailand and the escape of two former prime ministers, Thaksin and Yingluck Shinawatra. It is yet to be known what the final outcome will be for Mr Najib and allegations of his benefiting by up to $681 million from the $4.5 billion that has reportedly gone missing from the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) project.
But reports are coming in that Dr Mahathir has approached some respected individuals to investigate the 1MDB case so that allegations of bias or political persecution are not put on his government. Now, if that is the truth there is a lot to learn from such a move by Dr Mahathir. If people with international credibility are put in charge of this investigation, it would go a long way to prove the probe was based on the facts rather than malice.
Thailand has learnt its lesson from the prosecution of two former prime ministers for their so-called corruption or dereliction of duty. Soon after the September 2006 coup that ousted the government of Thaksin Shinawatra, the incoming military junta -- or Council for National Security -- appointed a body that included members who were known to be anti-Thaksin to head the investigation, which eventually led to Thaksin getting an excuse to blame the investigation body as being biased.
The body that investigated Thaksin for his alleged wrongdoing included Kaewsan Athibodhi, a person who had openly joined the then anti-Thaksin protest group, the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD). How could anyone who openly goes on the protest stage against someone be part of a body set up to investigate that same person?
That logic beats any person with brains but I guess the Council for National Security under Gen Sonthi did not care about this issue and these small things gave Thaksin the opportunity to label the outcome of the investigation as biased.
All these steps are things that Thailand could learn from Dr Mahathir. But the second-time prime minister could also learn a lesson or two from Thailand as well.
Dr Mahathir sought to give Anwar Ibrahim an early pardon from his sentence that is set to end on June 8. Although everyone knows the charges against Anwar were politically motivated, initiating a pardon for a sentence that is set to end within days anyway could send the wrong signal. If the highest court of the country has sentenced Anwar to jail, the rule of the law needs to be respected or it puts a question mark on the entire judiciary and ultimately the monarchy.
Unlike Thailand's case whereby the culprit has escaped the country, Anwar has stuck around to face the charges, even as he denied any wrongdoing. He has served one sentence and is just days away from completing his second.
Having served his sentence, Anwar would emerge as a hero and not just as a person who was pardoned for things he did not do.
Anwar should resist any such moves because there have been many great leaders who have served cooked-up sentences and have later turned out to be statesmen. A pardon at this juncture could mean the monarchy has granted him the pardon under pressure from the party that won the polls.