Haze In M’sia Is So Bad, Najib Cancelled Court Session Due To Eye Infection

Indonesia’s back at it again.

A yearly participant in the ‘Hey Look Let’s Spawn Some Hellfires!’ game, Indonesia has again been ravaged by forest fires, with 474 registered hotspots in Kalimantan and 387 hotspots in Sumatera as of Tuesday (10 September 2019).

Now I know what you’re thinking:

“Isn’t Singapore a yearly participant in the ‘Hey Look It’s Haze Again Get Indoors Before You Choke To Death’? Should we be worried? I’ve five N95 masks at home. Are they enough? Or should I steal my sister’s pads? Will probably smell funky, but if they work they work, right?”

Well, thankfully for us, there’s no need to steal your sister’s pads. Yet. Because apparently, it’s our neighbour across the causeway that’s bearing the full brunt of it.

And by full brunt I mean full brunt, because the haze was reportedly so bad that Najib kena eye infection.

True story by the way. Not some Reddit story posted by Anonymoususer91.

Haze In M’sia Is So Bad, Najib Cancelled Court Session Due To Eye Infection

Indonesia’s burning…

And Malaysia’s suffering.

According to reports, Malaysia’s haze situation has become so bad that it was forced to shut more than 400 schools in the eastern state of Sarawak. It also issued half a million face masks to the area to fight poor air quality.

On Friday (6 September 2019), the country sent a diplomatic note urging Indonesia to take immediate action to address the fires. What resulted, however, was more of a blame game than anything else, stuff you can read here.

But I’m digressing; Najib’s eye is at stake here, and so I shall hurry to prioritise him. But before I start, here’s a quick backstory:

So lest you’re unaware, Datuk Seri Najib Razak has been turning up in court for his 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) corruption trial, since August.

11 September was supposed to be the seventh day of his trial.

In a cruel twist of fate, however, things got complicated. According to Malay Mail, Najib was unable to attend due to an…

Eye infection.

“I had a call this morning about 7.30am from my client and wife,” Najib’s lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah reportedly told the judge before the proceedings began.

“But the news is that the conjunctivitis has revisited and I think it’s because of yesterday’s outing that he went to and the haze does not help.”

After the revelation, Shafee told the judge that Najib had requested to see a doctor as soon as possible, but the specialist located at the Gardens Midvalley could only see him at 10:30am.

In response, the judge responded by saying that it was “unfortunate” that Najib could not attend court, and added that the trial would continue next Tuesday (17 September 2019) as a two-day medical certificate had been issued.

OoO, MC~

It’s Apparently Not Najib’s First Time Either

According to Malay Mail, a scheduled trial on 14 August had to be paused for three days, because Najib had submitted a medical certificate for suspected infectious conjunctivitis in both eyes.

Najib’s currently on trial for the 1MDB case, his second in tow. He’s facing 25 charges in this case: four counts of abusing his position for his own financial benefit amounting to almost RM2.3 billion (which allegedly stemmed from 1MDB), and the resulting 21 counts of money-laundering.

His trial is currently scheduled to run from Monday to Thursday every week until mid-November (excepting public holidays).

Around 40 of Najib’s ardent supporters had turned up for the trial to show their support.

“Many people still support Bossku Najib. We want to show Datuk Seri (Najib) our support for him. Hopefully this small gesture of encouragement will help him through such a long trial,” a supporter told Malay Mail.

When they learnt that Najib would not be able to make it, they dispersed and left the Kuala Lumpur Court Complex.

Don’t Rest On Your Laurels Just Yet, Though

Malaysia’s suffering right now.

And we might just be next.

So be on your toes and keep healthy.

We don’t wish to report any local eye infection cases if possible, thank you.