An addendum walks into a bar…

Nothing travels faster than the speed of light, with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws.

Douglas Adams, “Mostly Harmless”

We’re less than two weeks into 2025, and the year already feels like the title of this post: the start of a terrible joke.

First, it’s all those unnecessary police reports by PAS and their cohorts against Nga Kor Ming (“over the involvement of Muslims in a Christmas celebration on government premises“) and Hannah Yeoh (for the phrase “ambassador of God” in her 2014 book, “Becoming Hannah: A Personal Journey“).

So, I’m not exactly sure what law(s) the Minister of Housing and Local Government broke – other than pissing PAS off, which last I checked isn’t a crime – but I’m sure the country’s foremost political animal in religious clothing will conjur some obscurantism to justify their favorite pasttime.

As for the 69 reports filed against Hannah Yeoh, I guess it took PAS over 10 years to reach page 7 where the phrase “ambassador of God” (the book was published in 2014); I have witnessed many toddlers read faster than that, which begs the question what mental age PAS collectively has.

All told, despite the rapid industrialization these past few decades, I guess Malaysia is still an agrarian society, with all the rage farming going on. Unfortunate though that rage farming doesn’t offer any positive economic returns… because we sure have a lot of it these days.

So yeah, if anyone has ever wondered why PDRM can’t solve actual and real crimes more than they do, one of the probable reasons is they’re obligated to unnecessarily spend resources to process the multitude of police reports made over the most idiotic of reasons. Malaysians, it would seem, have forgotten the art of intelligent human engagement – you know, like normal human beings in most other parts of the world.

And then, as if the first week and a half of 2025 didn’t already have enough stupidity, we have this whole big brouhaha over the “Addendum Order” by the previous YDPA, in relation to the Pardons Board hearing to address Najib Razak’s sentence for his conviction in the SRC criminal breach of trust (CBT) and power abuse case. For which he was sentenced to 12 years in prison and a fine of RM 210 M (USD 46.6 M at current rates).

To quickly summarize (this AP report has more details): the Pardons Board on 29 January 2024 issued an order to halve Najib’s sentence, pursuant to the Board meeting on the Friday prior (26 January), chaired by the then YDPA (the current Sultan of Pahang). But not long after that Najib claims there was an Addendum Order granting him to serve the remainder of his sentence under house arrest. The Home Ministry, however, stated only the primary order was received by the Prisons Department, but not the so-called Addendum Order.

Fast forward through almost a year of political posturing and finger-pointing, participated by none other than UMNO–the primary actor, which has made the full pardon of their former president their raison d’être–and more recently Perikatan Nasional, jumping on the hot potato bandwagon, for the purpose of milking every drop of political mileage they can.

What the Court of Appeal this past Monday, 6 January 2025 ruled: that there is such an Addendum Order (or at least the Pahang palace’s affidavit that one exists), giving leave for Najib to further pursue this in the High Court. Note, however, that the actual addendum order was never submitted to the Court of Appeal, only an affidavit from the Pahang palace affirming its existence.

A tsunami’s worth of questions arise in my mind:

• If there was an Addendum Order (which the Appeals Court has now ruled into being), why wasn’t it mentioned in the official order by the Pardons Board?
• Being that there is currently no specific legislation that allows for sentences to be served under house arrest, although the Prisons Act 1995 allows the Home Minister to specify designated locations for detention, could the then YDPA even decree house arrest for Najib?
• When was the Addendum Order issued, and to whom was it addressed to and sent?
• Is the Addendum Order even legally valid?

Questions, questions, questions… well, it’s up to the High Court to decide, and some point for the actual Addendum Order to appear. We’ll just have to wait for the next episode in this ongoing political telenovela. That said, I did come across one article that discusses the constitutional and legal aspects of the Addendum Order (an article written by advocate/solicitor GK Ganesan); I leave it to you to read as a homework exercise.

The one silver lining to all this is the government, in particular PMX, has refrained from any undue interference. Many of course don’t buy this, wanting to believe that PMX is pulling strings left, right and centre, hence using him as a focal blame point for, among other things, “hiding the Addendum Order”, and even treason. But as the GK Ganesan article rightly states, there needs to be more transparency on the part of the Government.

The minutes of the Pardons Board would answer the question. We do not have it. The Government should disclose this information. This will eliminate unnecessary speculation.

It is not an ‘official secret’ (and why should it be?). It has nothing to do with national security. Nor is it related to political manoeuvring – or so we are told.  In the interest of transparency, there is all the more reason that such information should come before the public.

GK Ganesan, “Could the King – or the Pardons Board – insert an Addendum into a Pardon?“

In any case, that more or less sums the year so far.

Drama. Of Indonesian Sinetron levels, no less.

Sure there were a few other things that happened in the past nine or so days. But what I’ve shared here are the highlights. Or, if you must, lowlights.

Oh, wait… an ADDENDUM: And this time it’s once again about Malaysia’s favorite agrarian activity: RAGE FARMING (click on the image to view the news report)

And that’s not even touching on the absurdities the incoming POTUS has been spewing the last few days. Which, for the sake of not making this post longer than it already is, I shall leave untouched. For now.

On a more personal note, the year’s been okay to me so far. Then again, it’s only been less than a fortnight. While 2025 doesn’t exactly fill me with much optimism, whatever the year throws at me must be met with positivity; make the best of what’s good, and mitigate the damage of what’s bad. That’s my plan.

So…

an Addendum walks into a bar. Orders a drink. And then another, and another after that… At closing time the barman asks the Addendum to settle the evening’s consumption. Addendum points to its right and says, “Put it on their tab”.

And who should be sitting there if not the people of Malaysia…

I did warn you it was a terrible joke…