History is full of examples  where political leaders have faced these moments and failed to act or even to notice. The terrible catastrophe of World War Two need never have happened if those then in positions of power and responsibility had acted decisively when newly minted Reich Chancellor Hitler ordered his troops into the then Allied occupied Rhineland.

Before he ordered them to march he also ordered those in command to retreat if faced by even a platoon of Allied troops. There was no attempt to stop him and he knew that from that time on he could do whatever he wanted without any opposition.

History has excused those who ought to have stopped him by saying that the horrors of the first War should never be repeated and that voters would never support positive action. By the time that 1939 arrived many of those men were dead or in retirement, but the world was to pay a terrible price for their inaction.

That 1930’s situation is repeating itself in an eerily similar way in Malaysia today. For Hitler we have Najib and for the politicians of the thirties we have the Obamas and Camerons of today. They know perfectly well what Najib is and what he is doing and intends to do. Discovering that was a simple task for their diplomatic and intelligence services posted in Malaysia.

But, and it is a big but, there are perceived reasons for inaction and delay. It is not that they dont know exactly what a crook Najib is and what he intends to do to a country formerly a colonial responsibiity They do and so cannot plead ignorance to excuse inaction. No; as usual it is money that talks. Politicians depend on big money for support and the big money in Malaysia, the rubber, the tin, the oil; to say nothing of a possible take over threat from Beijing, all counsel a policy of look the other way.

So when, eventually, the international money laundering and theft enquiries will show Najib to be what he is: a massive crook, lttle or nothng will be done to prevent him from completing his well advanced project to turn his country into another Zimbawe. After all the Commonweath and the Third World are full of corrupt dictatorshps so why worry about one more? Especially so long as the profits keep rollong in.

So the lesson to be drawn? As Samuel Smiles so memorably said. “God helps those who help themselves and that is what Malaysia must now do if it is to avoid becoming another Zimbabwe.

Whatever past baggage Dr, Mahathir may be carrying, his attempt to stop Najib is clearly in the interest of everyone in Malaysia; Najib and his accomplices apart. Malaysians save yourselves. No one else is going to do it for you.