WEBVTT
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Late one night in July 1993, a black Mercedes leaves the lights of Kolalumpur, Malaysia behind and heads east toward the hills of Bahang.
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The highway leads to narrower roads.
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Rubber plantations stretch into the darkness.
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Old mining land lies beyond them where prospectors once searched for gold.
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The fenced villas become larger and fewer.
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Eventually, the car slows before a pair of tall iron gates.
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Beyond them sits a walled compound hidden from the road.
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The villa inside is unfinished.
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One wing stands roofless.
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Piles of sand and cement wait where a room is ready to be built.
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Inside the car is Datuk Maslan Etris, a rising Malaysian politician.
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For a moment everything is quiet.
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Then the gates begin to open.
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Maslan drives inside.
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He parks, gets out of the car, straightens his shirt, and walks toward the house.
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The front door opens before he knocks.
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Several people are already waiting for him.
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Oil lamps burn near the entrance.
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The large living room has no windows, only doorways disappearing into other parts of the building.
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A portrait of a smiling woman wearing an elaborate headdress hangs on one wall, half lit by the lamps.
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The smell of flowers hangs heavily in the warm night air.
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Maslan notices glass jars lining shelves on the walls.
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Some contain thick black liquid.
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Others appear to hold preserved organs suspended beneath the surface.
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Bundles of hair like fibers sit beside amulets wrapped in yellow cloth.
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The woman from the portrait greets him warmly.
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Her name is Mana Fande.
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She leads him through the house into the kitchen.
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A raised concrete slab dominates the center of this room.
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Folded yellow cloth rests besides what looks like a ceremonial sword.
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Now none of this is surprising to Maslan.
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The kitchen looks exactly as he'd been told it would.
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One final ritual remained.
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After tonight, he would receive three mystical objects set to transform his future.
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His influence would grow.
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His political career would accelerate.
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He'd even been told what to wear.
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So he came, alone, believing he was stepping into the next chapter of his life.
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Instead, it would be the last night he was ever seen alive.
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This is Missing Context.
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Stories from Asia and the Asian Diaspora.
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On 18 July 1993, one of Maslan's political colleagues reported him missing.
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The following day, his wife filed her own report.
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For more than a week, family members, colleagues, and government officials had been trying to reach him.
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He'd missed meetings, he'd stopped returning calls.
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Some wondered whether he'd traveled overseas without telling anyone.
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Perhaps the pressures of his political career had just become too much.
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His family dismissed the idea almost immediately.
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Maslan was ambitious.
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He had six children.
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He was a family man, not someone who simply disappeared.
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Police opened a missing person investigation.
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And what detail stood out almost instantly?
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Shortly before vanishing, Maslan had withdrawn around 300,000 Malaysian ringgit, roughly 120,000 US dollars at the time.
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Newspapers and the evening news carried brief reports.
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An elected politician had disappeared.
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Police were appealing for information.
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A few days later, detectives followed one lead back to a secluded compound behind a pair of iron gates.
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What they uncovered would become one of the most infamous murder investigations in Malaysian history.
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Within days, newspapers across the country were carrying the same photograph and the same name, Mona Fande.
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Headlines called her a witch, a sorceress, a Bomo.
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Her photographs unsettled people.
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She looked less like someone accused of orchestrating a brutal murder, and more like someone posing for a magazine interview.
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Across Malaysia, one question kept popping up.
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Why would an internationally educated politician, a man trusted with public office, place his future in Mana Fande's hands?
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To answer that, we have to begin with Malaysia in the early 1990s.
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Malaysia in the early 1990s felt as though it were changing by the month.
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New expressways cut across the country.
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Construction cranes crowded the skyline around Kolalumpur.
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Factories expanded so quickly that workers arrived from neighboring countries to fill jobs local industries could no longer fill on their own.
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Everywhere there was a sense that the country was becoming something new.
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Malaysia bole.
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Malaysia can.
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The slogan appeared on billboards, in newspaper ads, and political speeches.
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It reflected a growing confidence that Malaysia could compete with any country in the world.
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Yet, while skylines changed and highways stretched further each year, many older beliefs remained firmly in place.
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Modern hospitals, for example, stood right alongside traditional healers.
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New businesses opened with bank loans and carefully written business plans, but some of their owners still sought a Bomo's blessing before opening their doors for the first time.
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For centuries, Bomo's had occupied many roles in Malaysian society.
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They prepared herbal remedies, they prayed over sick children, interpreted dreams, they helped families navigate grief, illness, or conflict.
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To many Malaysians, they were healers, counselors, spiritual advisors.
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But Sal Bomos promised much more.
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A struggling business could prosper with the right rituals.
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A marriage could be saved.
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A rival could lose influence.
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Promises like these carried particular appeal in a country where fortunes and political careers could change remarkably quickly.
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Politicians sought this certainty too.
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Election campaigns have notoriously attracted people, offering an advantage over uncertain outcomes.
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Politicians around the world have been known to carry lucky charms or talismans in their pockets.
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In Malaysia, stories circulated for decades that candidates from different political parties consulted spiritual practitioners before important elections.
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Some politicians dismissed those stories.
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Others laugh them off.
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Some simply refuse to answer.
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The rumors endured regardless.
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And among Malaysia's better known Bomos, one name surfaced over and over again.
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Specifically among the country's wealthy and politically connected.
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Mana Fande.
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The remarkable thing about Mana was that she hadn't inherited the role of Bomo.
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She hadn't come from a long line of spiritual practitioners.
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Mana had planned a very different life for herself.
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She'd wanted to become a singer.
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Before she became one of Malaysia's most notorious Bomos, Mana Fandey had imagined a life on stage, being adored by millions across the country.
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During the 1980s, she actually pursued a career in music.
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She recorded several albums, she performed on television.
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Mana sang in nightclubs and entertainment venues around the country.
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And for a while it looked as though she might succeed.
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A handful of her songs actually became pretty familiar.
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People recognized her.
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But the career she wanted never fully took off.
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Many performers eventually accept that and move on.
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Mana, though, never did.
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Her husband, Mohammed Afandi Abdul Rahman, recognized something valuable in his wife.
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She could hold a room.
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People watched her.
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They listened to her, remembered her.
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Together, husband and wife built a career around selling those qualities.
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By the late 1980s, Mona and Afandi had begun presenting themselves as spiritual practitioners.
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They offered rituals, ceremonies, consultations.
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But Mona wasn't selling the image most Malaysians associated with a village Bomo.
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She crafted an image that was as seductive as it was disturbing.
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Clients came seeking talismans set to attract influence, or theatrical rituals promising wealth and political fortunes.
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Photographs of Mona reinforced the message.
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She appeared in brightly colored designer clothes, heavy gold jewelry, perfectly styled hair.
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She smiled easily for photographs making eye contact with the camera.
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Pamphlets advertising her services carried glamorous portraits, more reminiscent of an entertainer than a healer.
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Clients visited her lavish bungalows, saw imported cars parked outside, heard stories of overseas travel.
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The message was pretty unmistakable.
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Whatever Mona was doing and offering, it appeared to be working.
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That image was pretty significant among people whose own reputations depended on appearance.
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Young socialites knocked on Mona's door, seeking permanence rituals, believing they enhanced beauty, charisma, and social standing.
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Politicians discreetly called the number a trusted colleague had given them, asking about amulets set to strengthen public support or improve their chances at the ballot box.
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Every influential client became another recommendation.
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Every recommendation brought another influential visitor through the gates.
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By the time Maslan Idris first heard Monafande's name, she'd become something quite unusual in Malaysia's spiritual world.
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A rare, wealthy woman operating among male Bomos, comfortably moving with politicians, business families, and social elites.
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Someone whose reputation traveled through the country's influential circles for years, before most normal, ordinary Malaysians had heard her name.
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By 1993, Datuk Maslan Idris was 49 years old.
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He had returned to Malaysia after earning an MBA in the United States and built a respectable political career inside UMNO, the party that had governed the country since independence.
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Politics had rewarded him.
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Just not enough.
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Maslan represented a rural consistency in Pahang.
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Winning elections there had earned him influence within the state, but the capital Kuala Lumpur still felt a long way away.
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He wanted more.
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The chief ministership of Pahang.
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From there, perhaps national politics.
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Ambition in politics is very normal.
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Almost every politician believes the next promotion is just within reach.
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The difficulty is that politics offers very few guarantees.
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One election can transform a career completely.
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The next can quickly end it.
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Sometime during those years, Maslan heard about Mona Fande.
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Exactly how remains unclear.
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A few accounts say another politician mentioned her.
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Others suggest a businessman may have made the introduction.
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It led to Maslan eventually driving through Mona's gates as a client, a believer.
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Over the months that followed, he returned again and again.
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Court testimony would later establish that he traveled with Mona and Afandi on several occasions.
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He met their assistant, Jura Mi Hassan as well.
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Preparations were discussed, payments negotiated, future rituals were arranged.
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The promises grew steadily larger.
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A talisman would strengthen his political future.
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Special ceremonies would remove unseen obstacles.
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Eventually, according to the prosecution, Mana promised something extraordinary.
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She told Maslan he could indeed become chief minister.
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Power, influence, recognition.
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All of this, Maslan believed, was just beyond his grasp.
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There was, however, one condition.
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Spiritual work of this magnitude wasn't cheap.
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According to evidence presented during the trial, Mana eventually asked for two point five million Malaysian ringgits.
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That was nearly a million US dollars at the time.
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Part cash, part land.
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Maslan agreed.
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That decision often surprises people today.
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Why would an experienced politician hand over so much money?
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Perhaps because by then Mana's success seemed difficult to argue with.
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She wasn't asking him to visit a wooden hut deep inside a forest.
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She welcomed him into her large homes.
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Mana exuded prosperity and success.
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And if her methods had made her wealthy, perhaps they could do the same for Maslan.
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By July 1993, Maslan didn't appear to be questioning Mana's abilities at all.
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He was preparing for the final ceremony.
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The one she promised would change everything.
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On the night of july second, nineteen ninety three, Maslan returned to the compound.
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This time, Mana gave him very specific instructions.
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Wear black, come alone.
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Bring the remaining payment.
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Trust the process completely.
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Every ritual he had undergone before this one had required rules, certain clothes, certain prayers, certain objects.
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This was simply another step.
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Inside the house, preparation had already been made.
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Court exhibits later showed jars filled with dark liquids, bundles wrapped in yellow cloth, ceremonial objects arranged around the room.
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According to testimony presented during the trial, Mana told Maslan the ritual would only succeed if he followed every instruction exactly.
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He was led into the kitchen, asked to lie face down on the raised slab.
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A cloth was placed over his eyes.
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The explanation was pretty simple.
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He mustn't see what happens next.
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Many spiritual traditions ask participants to surrender control, to trust, to submit.
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So Maslan remained still.
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Mana then began chanting.
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She wiped his body with a towel, then leaned close.
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Money will soon fall from the sky, she whispered.
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His future was about to change.
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Moments later, according to the court's findings, Juraimi Hassan, Mana's assistant, stepped forward carrying an axe.
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The first blow struck Maslan from behind.
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He never had the chance to defend himself.
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Several more blows followed.
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By the time the attack ended, the politician who believed he was about to secure extraordinary power lay dead inside Mana's kitchen.
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His head severed.
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The following morning, the sun rose like every other day.
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Traffic moved through Kolalumpur, government offices opened, meetings began.
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Maslan failed to appear.
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At first nobody panicked.
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Politicians travel unexpectedly, schedules change, but days passed.
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Calls to Maslan's office went unanswered.
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His family became increasingly concerned.
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Colleagues started asking questions.
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A missing person report was finally filed.
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Police began reconstructing his final movements.
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Who had he met?
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Who had seen him last?
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Why had Maslan withdrawn hundreds of thousands of ringgit shortly before disappearing?
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For several days, investigators had little to work with.
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Then the investigation took an unexpected turn.
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Juraimi Hassan, the young man who worked closely with Mana and Afandi, was arrested on an unrelated drug offense.
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According to investigators, Juraimi believed police had actually come for him because of Maslan.
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He began talking.
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His panicked confession transformed the entire investigation.
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He described the killing, the burial, the compound.
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And most importantly, he told police exactly where to dig.
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The missing politician's case was no longer a disappearance.
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It had become a homicide investigation.
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Police arrived at the compound carrying shovels.
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The bungalow looked much as it always had.
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The iron gates, the unfinished walls, the gardens.
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But there was a distinct metallic smell around the building.
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Jarimi led investigators toward a small shed set back from the main house.
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Fresh concrete covered part of the ground.
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He pointed.
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Officers put on their gloves and masks, and the team began digging.
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The concrete came away first, then the soil beneath it.
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It didn't take very long.
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According to investigators, the first human remains appeared less than two meters below the surface.
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A head in a black plastic bag.
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Then more remains.
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The body had been cut into eighteen pieces before being buried.
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Nearby investigators recovered clothing, personal belongings, and other items later linked to Maslan.
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The missing politician had finally been found.
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Only not in the way anyone had hoped.
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Inside the bungalow, investigators moved room by room.
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Cupboards were emptied, documents photographed.
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The kitchen where the ritual had supposedly taken place became one of the most important crime scenes in Malaysia.
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Police seized ceremonial objects, knives and axe, jars filled with dark viscous liquid, amulets.
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Forensic teams photographed everything.
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Some of those objects would later appear repeatedly during the trial.
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Others would become part of the mythology that quickly began growing around Mona Fande.
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News traveled quickly.
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By evening, journalists were already gathering outside the compound, scrambling to get pictures and submit articles.
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The story had completely changed.
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This was no longer about a missing politician.
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It was about murder, a very brutal, strange murder.
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Newspapers called Mana a witch, a sorceress, a woman who practiced black magic, who used oil extracted from the chins of corpses for her ceremonies.
00:24:46.480 --> 00:24:49.680
Those descriptions sold papers.
00:24:50.240 --> 00:24:53.839
They also made the case seem almost supernatural.
00:24:54.480 --> 00:25:01.839
But if you strip away the headlines, what investigators had uncovered was something much more recognizable.
00:25:02.720 --> 00:25:11.359
A politician desperate for power and certainty, and three people willing to exploit that desperation.
00:25:12.160 --> 00:25:27.279
Money, land, greed, the court would ultimately conclude that while there was no proof that black magic had killed Maslan, there was plenty of evidence that the three people had.
00:25:30.400 --> 00:25:42.799
When Mona Fandi appeared in court for the first time, many Milesians expected someone who looked defeated, or at least someone who tried to hide from the public.
00:25:43.759 --> 00:25:48.799
Instead, they saw a woman openly beaming at the camera.
00:25:49.920 --> 00:25:52.960
Photographers crowded the courthouse steps.
00:25:53.279 --> 00:25:56.160
Mana smiled directly at them.
00:25:56.640 --> 00:25:59.920
When her hands were not cuffed, she waved.
00:26:00.240 --> 00:26:02.079
Sometimes she laughed.
00:26:02.559 --> 00:26:07.519
Reporters later remarked that she seemed to revel in the attention.
00:26:07.920 --> 00:26:14.799
These photographs appeared everywhere: front pages, television broadcasts, magazine covers.
00:26:15.200 --> 00:26:22.079
For many Malaysians, that smile became impossible to separate from the case itself.
00:26:26.000 --> 00:26:30.960
As the trial took place, the prosecution began laying out its evidence.
00:26:31.279 --> 00:26:45.039
Maslan's repeated visits, the money, the promises, the confession given by Juraimi, the remains recovered from the compound, forensic evidence linking Maslan to the property.
00:26:45.920 --> 00:26:51.119
One witness after another slowly reconstructed what had happened.
00:26:51.359 --> 00:26:57.359
According to prosecutors, this had never been a ritual that had just spiraled out of control.
00:26:58.160 --> 00:27:03.200
It had been a planned killing motivated by greed and money.
00:27:03.759 --> 00:27:05.920
Mona denied it.
00:27:06.160 --> 00:27:07.839
So did Afandi.
00:27:08.000 --> 00:27:09.680
They blamed Juraimi.
00:27:10.319 --> 00:27:16.000
He'd suddenly become aggressive in the middle of a routine ritual and attacked Maslan.
00:27:16.559 --> 00:27:23.519
Juraimi admitted taking part but claimed that he'd acted while under Mona's spiritual influence.
00:27:23.759 --> 00:27:27.440
He pointed to Mona and Afandi as the masterminds.
00:27:27.680 --> 00:27:29.839
They had instructed he kill Maslan.
00:27:30.160 --> 00:27:36.480
They'd ordered he remain in the bungalow for days to skin and bury the body parts.
00:27:36.799 --> 00:27:46.559
And while Juraimi carried out the couple's instructions, Mona and Afandi had gone shopping in Kuala Lumpur with Maslan's money.
00:27:48.960 --> 00:27:57.839
The prosecution documented that the couple used Maslan's money for a new car, jewelry, clothes, and a facelift for Mona.
00:27:59.119 --> 00:28:11.200
That Maslan had begun to backtrack on the agreed payment, that the couple did not have confidence that he would hand over the land title documents he'd carried with him that July night.
00:28:11.920 --> 00:28:14.319
So he was murdered.
00:28:16.160 --> 00:28:20.799
The defense and prosecution offered very different versions of the same night.
00:28:21.119 --> 00:28:25.920
The judges ultimately accepted the prosecution's account.
00:28:28.000 --> 00:28:32.640
Outside court, though, people weren't only discussing the evidence.
00:28:32.880 --> 00:28:35.519
They were discussing Mona herself.
00:28:36.000 --> 00:28:40.880
How could someone accused of something so brutal appear so calm?
00:28:41.759 --> 00:28:45.920
Some believed she genuinely expected to be acquitted.
00:28:46.240 --> 00:28:49.279
Others were terrified of her.
00:29:02.079 --> 00:29:14.480
Because if this were only about supernatural beliefs, it would be so easy to dismiss it as old superstition, or even a strange story from the 1990s.
00:29:15.200 --> 00:29:16.960
But that's not what happened.
00:29:17.279 --> 00:29:22.000
Mastan Idris wasn't cut off from modern Malaysia.
00:29:22.480 --> 00:29:30.720
Yet, when politics offered no guarantees, he still went looking for someone who claimed they could provide one.
00:29:31.680 --> 00:29:34.160
And he wasn't the only one who did this.
00:29:34.640 --> 00:29:45.920
For decades, rumors circulated that politicians, business owners, and entertainers consulted BOMOs before elections, major investments, or important career decisions.
00:29:47.440 --> 00:29:55.759
Because there will always be people willing to listen to someone who says, I can guarantee what nobody else can.
00:29:57.200 --> 00:30:02.240
Especially if the person making that promise already looks successful.
00:30:03.119 --> 00:30:05.839
And that was Mona's real gift.
00:30:06.240 --> 00:30:11.839
Not supernatural power or spiritual inclination, but presentation.
00:30:12.640 --> 00:30:19.759
She understood that people rarely buy certainty from someone who appears uncertain themselves.
00:30:20.319 --> 00:30:23.759
So she surrounded herself with visible success.
00:30:24.079 --> 00:30:30.079
Large houses, luxury cars, designer clothes, photographs with important people.
00:30:30.960 --> 00:30:34.880
She'd already learned this years earlier as a performer.
00:30:37.440 --> 00:30:45.279
And perhaps that's why one image from this case became almost impossible for Malaysia to forget.
00:30:46.240 --> 00:30:52.079
It wasn't the bungalow, or the grave, or even the courtroom.
00:30:52.400 --> 00:31:05.519
It was Mona herself walking past photographers after her arrest, hair carefully styled, lipstick perfectly applied, smiling widely.
00:31:06.240 --> 00:31:12.640
As though she were arriving for a film premiere instead of standing trial for murder.
00:31:15.119 --> 00:31:22.160
That smile is so unsettling because it feels impossible, incongruous.
00:31:22.720 --> 00:31:28.720
How could someone accused of an act so brutal look this composed?
00:31:29.200 --> 00:31:31.599
Like she's enjoying herself.
00:31:33.279 --> 00:31:38.799
But in another sense, it was exactly what Mona had been doing all along.
00:31:39.039 --> 00:31:45.599
She'd spent years performing confidence, perfecting it, hankering for public adoration.
00:31:46.480 --> 00:31:53.599
So even after everything collapsed around her, she never stopped performing in the limelight.
00:31:56.799 --> 00:32:11.680
In November 2001, eight years after Maslan Itris disappeared, Mona Fande, her husband Mohammed Afandi Abdul Rahman, and their assistant Jeremy Hassan were executed.
00:32:12.640 --> 00:32:17.440
Long before sunrise, hundreds of people gathered outside the prison walls.
00:32:17.680 --> 00:32:20.480
Many had traveled across the country.
00:32:20.720 --> 00:32:24.799
They came because they still could not believe the story.
00:32:25.680 --> 00:32:32.319
Others simply wanted to witness the end of a case that had consumed Malaysia for almost a decade.
00:32:33.599 --> 00:32:36.160
There was very little to see, though.
00:32:36.480 --> 00:32:38.640
The prison gates remained closed.
00:32:38.799 --> 00:32:42.480
The executions happened inside, away from cameras.
00:32:43.039 --> 00:32:46.720
A few hours later, three bodies left the prison.
00:32:48.000 --> 00:32:52.880
There was no spectacle, no final miracle, no mysterious escape.
00:32:53.839 --> 00:32:59.440
The bungalow in Pahan, where Maslan had been murdered, slowly emptied.
00:32:59.839 --> 00:33:01.519
Construction stopped.
00:33:01.759 --> 00:33:08.640
The rooms where politicians, businessmen, and celebrities had once waited for consultations fell silent.
00:33:09.119 --> 00:33:12.799
The concrete covering the burial site remained.
00:33:13.359 --> 00:33:15.440
The gates rusted.
00:33:16.319 --> 00:33:18.880
Grass reclaimed the compound.
00:33:19.119 --> 00:33:20.880
It was eventually torn down.
00:33:21.119 --> 00:33:26.799
The villas nearby were also abandoned, some clearly having been attempted to be burnt down.
00:33:27.759 --> 00:33:34.720
Today, very little suggest that one of Malaysia's most infamous murder cases unfolded here.
00:33:35.680 --> 00:33:43.519
But locals point to the abandoned lot when asked about the female Bomba who used to live in the area.
00:33:46.160 --> 00:33:50.640
It's easy to remember Mona Fande as something supernatural.
00:33:51.119 --> 00:33:54.319
That version of the story is quite dramatic.
00:33:54.960 --> 00:33:59.279
But nothing prosecutors presented in court required magic.
00:33:59.839 --> 00:34:02.720
What this case required was belief.
00:34:03.440 --> 00:34:13.519
Belief that success could be accelerated, that power could be bought, that uncertainty could disappear if the right person performed the right ritual.
00:34:14.719 --> 00:34:20.960
Mana did not invent those beliefs, but she decided to capitalize on them.
00:34:21.199 --> 00:34:29.679
She recognized that politicians, business owners, and wealthy families often wanted exactly the same thing everyone else wanted.
00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:31.280
Reassurance.
00:34:32.239 --> 00:34:35.920
The difference was that they could afford to pay for it.
00:34:36.960 --> 00:34:39.920
And Mana understood something else.
00:34:40.960 --> 00:34:59.039
She understood it that if she looked successful, if influential people kept arriving at her gates, if each satisfied client quietly recommended another, people would stop asking whether her promises worked.
00:34:59.519 --> 00:35:02.480
They would assume they already had worked.
00:35:02.800 --> 00:35:12.400
All she needed was a few parts of her clients' lives to go well, and she could chalk this up to her blessed amulets or ceremonies.
00:35:14.079 --> 00:35:18.079
That may be the most eerie part of this case.
00:35:18.800 --> 00:35:22.000
Maslan Idris wasn't an isolated man.
00:35:22.320 --> 00:35:24.320
He was financially successful.
00:35:24.639 --> 00:35:26.400
He was a public official.
00:35:26.880 --> 00:35:32.559
Yet even he became convinced that someone could guarantee what politics never could.
00:35:32.960 --> 00:35:33.760
Power.
00:35:34.480 --> 00:35:37.599
History is full of people who promise such certainty.
00:35:37.840 --> 00:35:41.519
Certainty in elections, in business, in love, in health.
00:35:41.840 --> 00:35:46.079
The names change, but the promises rarely do.
00:35:48.480 --> 00:35:57.360
More than thirty years later, the Mona Fandy case lives on in Malaysia because it forces us to confront an uncomfortable truth.
00:35:58.000 --> 00:36:02.239
Intelligence does not make people immune to persuasion.
00:36:03.119 --> 00:36:06.480
Money doesn't make people immune to persuasion.
00:36:06.800 --> 00:36:10.400
Success does not protect people from wishful thinking.
00:36:11.119 --> 00:36:18.079
Maslan Idris drove through those iron gates believing he was about to secure the future he desired.
00:36:19.039 --> 00:36:25.440
Instead, he became part of one of Malaysia's most enduring criminal cases.
00:36:29.199 --> 00:36:31.440
This is missing context.
00:36:31.599 --> 00:36:33.199
Thank you for listening.
00:36:33.440 --> 00:36:43.519
If you found the story meaningful, follow the show wherever you listen and consider sharing it with someone who enjoys true crime and looks beyond the headlines.
00:36:43.760 --> 00:36:45.679
I'll see you next Wednesday.
00:00:09.759 --> 00:00:22.079
Late one night in July 1993, a black Mercedes leaves the lights of Kolalumpur, Malaysia behind and heads east toward the hills of Bahang.
00:00:23.839 --> 00:00:26.559
The highway leads to narrower roads.
00:00:26.800 --> 00:00:29.920
Rubber plantations stretch into the darkness.
00:00:30.239 --> 00:00:36.479
Old mining land lies beyond them where prospectors once searched for gold.
00:00:37.840 --> 00:00:41.840
The fenced villas become larger and fewer.
00:00:42.479 --> 00:00:47.920
Eventually, the car slows before a pair of tall iron gates.
00:00:49.359 --> 00:00:54.240
Beyond them sits a walled compound hidden from the road.
00:00:54.719 --> 00:00:57.520
The villa inside is unfinished.
00:00:57.759 --> 00:01:00.159
One wing stands roofless.
00:01:00.560 --> 00:01:05.519
Piles of sand and cement wait where a room is ready to be built.
00:01:06.480 --> 00:01:13.519
Inside the car is Datuk Maslan Etris, a rising Malaysian politician.
00:01:14.239 --> 00:01:16.959
For a moment everything is quiet.
00:01:17.680 --> 00:01:20.879
Then the gates begin to open.
00:01:22.319 --> 00:01:24.480
Maslan drives inside.
00:01:24.879 --> 00:01:33.200
He parks, gets out of the car, straightens his shirt, and walks toward the house.
00:01:34.799 --> 00:01:37.599
The front door opens before he knocks.
00:01:37.920 --> 00:01:40.719
Several people are already waiting for him.
00:01:41.040 --> 00:01:44.480
Oil lamps burn near the entrance.
00:01:45.200 --> 00:01:52.159
The large living room has no windows, only doorways disappearing into other parts of the building.
00:01:52.799 --> 00:02:00.959
A portrait of a smiling woman wearing an elaborate headdress hangs on one wall, half lit by the lamps.
00:02:01.760 --> 00:02:06.319
The smell of flowers hangs heavily in the warm night air.
00:02:07.519 --> 00:02:12.479
Maslan notices glass jars lining shelves on the walls.
00:02:12.719 --> 00:02:15.439
Some contain thick black liquid.
00:02:15.840 --> 00:02:21.280
Others appear to hold preserved organs suspended beneath the surface.
00:02:22.719 --> 00:02:28.400
Bundles of hair like fibers sit beside amulets wrapped in yellow cloth.
00:02:29.360 --> 00:02:32.560
The woman from the portrait greets him warmly.
00:02:32.879 --> 00:02:35.120
Her name is Mana Fande.
00:02:36.560 --> 00:02:40.159
She leads him through the house into the kitchen.
00:02:40.960 --> 00:02:45.199
A raised concrete slab dominates the center of this room.
00:02:45.520 --> 00:02:51.199
Folded yellow cloth rests besides what looks like a ceremonial sword.
00:02:52.400 --> 00:02:56.080
Now none of this is surprising to Maslan.
00:02:57.039 --> 00:03:00.560
The kitchen looks exactly as he'd been told it would.
00:03:01.599 --> 00:03:05.039
One final ritual remained.
00:03:05.759 --> 00:03:12.719
After tonight, he would receive three mystical objects set to transform his future.
00:03:13.199 --> 00:03:15.280
His influence would grow.
00:03:15.599 --> 00:03:18.400
His political career would accelerate.
00:03:18.879 --> 00:03:21.759
He'd even been told what to wear.
00:03:22.560 --> 00:03:31.759
So he came, alone, believing he was stepping into the next chapter of his life.
00:03:32.719 --> 00:03:39.520
Instead, it would be the last night he was ever seen alive.
00:03:44.159 --> 00:03:46.719
This is Missing Context.
00:03:47.039 --> 00:03:50.560
Stories from Asia and the Asian Diaspora.
00:03:54.719 --> 00:04:01.599
On 18 July 1993, one of Maslan's political colleagues reported him missing.
00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:05.360
The following day, his wife filed her own report.
00:04:06.080 --> 00:04:12.560
For more than a week, family members, colleagues, and government officials had been trying to reach him.
00:04:12.800 --> 00:04:16.399
He'd missed meetings, he'd stopped returning calls.
00:04:16.879 --> 00:04:21.040
Some wondered whether he'd traveled overseas without telling anyone.
00:04:21.279 --> 00:04:25.920
Perhaps the pressures of his political career had just become too much.
00:04:27.040 --> 00:04:30.639
His family dismissed the idea almost immediately.
00:04:30.959 --> 00:04:32.800
Maslan was ambitious.
00:04:33.040 --> 00:04:34.639
He had six children.
00:04:34.959 --> 00:04:39.600
He was a family man, not someone who simply disappeared.
00:04:40.800 --> 00:04:43.680
Police opened a missing person investigation.
00:04:44.319 --> 00:04:47.839
And what detail stood out almost instantly?
00:04:48.879 --> 00:05:00.399
Shortly before vanishing, Maslan had withdrawn around 300,000 Malaysian ringgit, roughly 120,000 US dollars at the time.
00:05:02.000 --> 00:05:05.839
Newspapers and the evening news carried brief reports.
00:05:06.079 --> 00:05:08.879
An elected politician had disappeared.
00:05:09.199 --> 00:05:11.839
Police were appealing for information.
00:05:13.600 --> 00:05:23.360
A few days later, detectives followed one lead back to a secluded compound behind a pair of iron gates.
00:05:24.480 --> 00:05:32.720
What they uncovered would become one of the most infamous murder investigations in Malaysian history.
00:05:33.439 --> 00:05:42.480
Within days, newspapers across the country were carrying the same photograph and the same name, Mona Fande.
00:05:43.680 --> 00:05:48.319
Headlines called her a witch, a sorceress, a Bomo.
00:05:49.279 --> 00:05:52.160
Her photographs unsettled people.
00:05:52.720 --> 00:06:02.319
She looked less like someone accused of orchestrating a brutal murder, and more like someone posing for a magazine interview.
00:06:03.120 --> 00:06:07.199
Across Malaysia, one question kept popping up.
00:06:07.839 --> 00:06:18.240
Why would an internationally educated politician, a man trusted with public office, place his future in Mana Fande's hands?
00:06:19.439 --> 00:06:25.759
To answer that, we have to begin with Malaysia in the early 1990s.
00:06:28.800 --> 00:06:34.399
Malaysia in the early 1990s felt as though it were changing by the month.
00:06:34.639 --> 00:06:37.680
New expressways cut across the country.
00:06:38.000 --> 00:06:42.560
Construction cranes crowded the skyline around Kolalumpur.
00:06:42.800 --> 00:06:53.519
Factories expanded so quickly that workers arrived from neighboring countries to fill jobs local industries could no longer fill on their own.
00:06:54.000 --> 00:06:58.639
Everywhere there was a sense that the country was becoming something new.
00:06:59.120 --> 00:07:00.639
Malaysia bole.
00:07:01.279 --> 00:07:02.399
Malaysia can.
00:07:02.959 --> 00:07:08.720
The slogan appeared on billboards, in newspaper ads, and political speeches.
00:07:09.120 --> 00:07:15.600
It reflected a growing confidence that Malaysia could compete with any country in the world.
00:07:17.040 --> 00:07:26.560
Yet, while skylines changed and highways stretched further each year, many older beliefs remained firmly in place.
00:07:27.279 --> 00:07:33.040
Modern hospitals, for example, stood right alongside traditional healers.
00:07:33.600 --> 00:07:45.680
New businesses opened with bank loans and carefully written business plans, but some of their owners still sought a Bomo's blessing before opening their doors for the first time.
00:07:47.439 --> 00:07:52.319
For centuries, Bomo's had occupied many roles in Malaysian society.
00:07:52.720 --> 00:08:03.920
They prepared herbal remedies, they prayed over sick children, interpreted dreams, they helped families navigate grief, illness, or conflict.
00:08:04.480 --> 00:08:10.720
To many Malaysians, they were healers, counselors, spiritual advisors.
00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:15.839
But Sal Bomos promised much more.
00:08:16.879 --> 00:08:22.480
A struggling business could prosper with the right rituals.
00:08:23.120 --> 00:08:25.040
A marriage could be saved.
00:08:25.600 --> 00:08:28.639
A rival could lose influence.
00:08:29.920 --> 00:08:40.000
Promises like these carried particular appeal in a country where fortunes and political careers could change remarkably quickly.
00:08:41.039 --> 00:08:44.240
Politicians sought this certainty too.
00:08:44.639 --> 00:08:52.000
Election campaigns have notoriously attracted people, offering an advantage over uncertain outcomes.
00:08:52.480 --> 00:08:59.279
Politicians around the world have been known to carry lucky charms or talismans in their pockets.
00:08:59.840 --> 00:09:10.080
In Malaysia, stories circulated for decades that candidates from different political parties consulted spiritual practitioners before important elections.
00:09:10.960 --> 00:09:13.919
Some politicians dismissed those stories.
00:09:14.320 --> 00:09:16.240
Others laugh them off.
00:09:16.639 --> 00:09:19.279
Some simply refuse to answer.
00:09:20.080 --> 00:09:23.279
The rumors endured regardless.
00:09:24.720 --> 00:09:31.840
And among Malaysia's better known Bomos, one name surfaced over and over again.
00:09:33.200 --> 00:09:38.000
Specifically among the country's wealthy and politically connected.
00:09:38.799 --> 00:09:40.080
Mana Fande.
00:09:41.759 --> 00:09:47.600
The remarkable thing about Mana was that she hadn't inherited the role of Bomo.
00:09:48.320 --> 00:09:52.320
She hadn't come from a long line of spiritual practitioners.
00:09:53.120 --> 00:09:57.039
Mana had planned a very different life for herself.
00:09:57.440 --> 00:10:00.639
She'd wanted to become a singer.
00:10:03.679 --> 00:10:15.360
Before she became one of Malaysia's most notorious Bomos, Mana Fandey had imagined a life on stage, being adored by millions across the country.
00:10:15.679 --> 00:10:20.159
During the 1980s, she actually pursued a career in music.
00:10:20.399 --> 00:10:24.799
She recorded several albums, she performed on television.
00:10:25.200 --> 00:10:29.679
Mana sang in nightclubs and entertainment venues around the country.
00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:33.759
And for a while it looked as though she might succeed.
00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:37.679
A handful of her songs actually became pretty familiar.
00:10:37.919 --> 00:10:39.759
People recognized her.
00:10:40.559 --> 00:10:44.000
But the career she wanted never fully took off.
00:10:44.639 --> 00:10:48.720
Many performers eventually accept that and move on.
00:10:49.279 --> 00:10:51.600
Mana, though, never did.
00:10:53.200 --> 00:11:00.559
Her husband, Mohammed Afandi Abdul Rahman, recognized something valuable in his wife.
00:11:00.960 --> 00:11:02.720
She could hold a room.
00:11:03.039 --> 00:11:04.480
People watched her.
00:11:04.720 --> 00:11:07.759
They listened to her, remembered her.
00:11:08.720 --> 00:11:14.559
Together, husband and wife built a career around selling those qualities.
00:11:15.279 --> 00:11:22.399
By the late 1980s, Mona and Afandi had begun presenting themselves as spiritual practitioners.
00:11:22.799 --> 00:11:26.799
They offered rituals, ceremonies, consultations.
00:11:27.919 --> 00:11:33.519
But Mona wasn't selling the image most Malaysians associated with a village Bomo.
00:11:34.320 --> 00:11:39.200
She crafted an image that was as seductive as it was disturbing.
00:11:39.840 --> 00:11:48.639
Clients came seeking talismans set to attract influence, or theatrical rituals promising wealth and political fortunes.
00:11:48.960 --> 00:11:53.039
Photographs of Mona reinforced the message.
00:11:53.440 --> 00:12:00.559
She appeared in brightly colored designer clothes, heavy gold jewelry, perfectly styled hair.
00:12:00.799 --> 00:12:05.200
She smiled easily for photographs making eye contact with the camera.
00:12:05.759 --> 00:12:14.320
Pamphlets advertising her services carried glamorous portraits, more reminiscent of an entertainer than a healer.
00:12:15.360 --> 00:12:24.799
Clients visited her lavish bungalows, saw imported cars parked outside, heard stories of overseas travel.
00:12:25.759 --> 00:12:28.720
The message was pretty unmistakable.
00:12:29.200 --> 00:12:34.799
Whatever Mona was doing and offering, it appeared to be working.
00:12:36.080 --> 00:12:42.559
That image was pretty significant among people whose own reputations depended on appearance.
00:12:42.960 --> 00:12:52.559
Young socialites knocked on Mona's door, seeking permanence rituals, believing they enhanced beauty, charisma, and social standing.
00:12:53.039 --> 00:13:05.759
Politicians discreetly called the number a trusted colleague had given them, asking about amulets set to strengthen public support or improve their chances at the ballot box.
00:13:06.639 --> 00:13:10.639
Every influential client became another recommendation.
00:13:11.120 --> 00:13:15.840
Every recommendation brought another influential visitor through the gates.
00:13:17.440 --> 00:13:27.200
By the time Maslan Idris first heard Monafande's name, she'd become something quite unusual in Malaysia's spiritual world.
00:13:28.000 --> 00:13:38.159
A rare, wealthy woman operating among male Bomos, comfortably moving with politicians, business families, and social elites.
00:13:39.279 --> 00:13:51.039
Someone whose reputation traveled through the country's influential circles for years, before most normal, ordinary Malaysians had heard her name.
00:13:52.320 --> 00:13:57.600
By 1993, Datuk Maslan Idris was 49 years old.
00:13:58.080 --> 00:14:10.559
He had returned to Malaysia after earning an MBA in the United States and built a respectable political career inside UMNO, the party that had governed the country since independence.
00:14:11.360 --> 00:14:13.679
Politics had rewarded him.
00:14:14.320 --> 00:14:16.159
Just not enough.
00:14:17.440 --> 00:14:21.759
Maslan represented a rural consistency in Pahang.
00:14:22.320 --> 00:14:31.200
Winning elections there had earned him influence within the state, but the capital Kuala Lumpur still felt a long way away.
00:14:31.840 --> 00:14:33.200
He wanted more.
00:14:34.159 --> 00:14:36.399
The chief ministership of Pahang.
00:14:36.879 --> 00:14:40.240
From there, perhaps national politics.
00:14:41.519 --> 00:14:44.639
Ambition in politics is very normal.
00:14:44.879 --> 00:14:50.000
Almost every politician believes the next promotion is just within reach.
00:14:50.639 --> 00:14:55.919
The difficulty is that politics offers very few guarantees.
00:14:56.480 --> 00:15:00.080
One election can transform a career completely.
00:15:01.360 --> 00:15:03.759
The next can quickly end it.
00:15:04.960 --> 00:15:09.679
Sometime during those years, Maslan heard about Mona Fande.
00:15:10.720 --> 00:15:13.600
Exactly how remains unclear.
00:15:13.840 --> 00:15:18.000
A few accounts say another politician mentioned her.
00:15:18.240 --> 00:15:22.000
Others suggest a businessman may have made the introduction.
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It led to Maslan eventually driving through Mona's gates as a client, a believer.
00:15:30.480 --> 00:15:35.120
Over the months that followed, he returned again and again.
00:15:36.000 --> 00:15:42.720
Court testimony would later establish that he traveled with Mona and Afandi on several occasions.
00:15:43.039 --> 00:15:46.559
He met their assistant, Jura Mi Hassan as well.
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Preparations were discussed, payments negotiated, future rituals were arranged.
00:15:54.799 --> 00:15:58.000
The promises grew steadily larger.
00:15:58.960 --> 00:16:01.919
A talisman would strengthen his political future.
00:16:02.240 --> 00:16:06.000
Special ceremonies would remove unseen obstacles.
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Eventually, according to the prosecution, Mana promised something extraordinary.
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She told Maslan he could indeed become chief minister.
00:16:18.320 --> 00:16:21.919
Power, influence, recognition.
00:16:22.559 --> 00:16:27.919
All of this, Maslan believed, was just beyond his grasp.
00:16:29.120 --> 00:16:31.759
There was, however, one condition.
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Spiritual work of this magnitude wasn't cheap.
00:16:37.039 --> 00:16:45.279
According to evidence presented during the trial, Mana eventually asked for two point five million Malaysian ringgits.
00:16:45.840 --> 00:16:49.360
That was nearly a million US dollars at the time.
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Part cash, part land.
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Maslan agreed.
00:16:57.039 --> 00:17:00.320
That decision often surprises people today.
00:17:00.639 --> 00:17:05.200
Why would an experienced politician hand over so much money?
00:17:06.000 --> 00:17:11.759
Perhaps because by then Mana's success seemed difficult to argue with.
00:17:12.319 --> 00:17:16.640
She wasn't asking him to visit a wooden hut deep inside a forest.
00:17:17.119 --> 00:17:19.839
She welcomed him into her large homes.
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Mana exuded prosperity and success.
00:17:24.160 --> 00:17:30.880
And if her methods had made her wealthy, perhaps they could do the same for Maslan.
00:17:32.960 --> 00:17:39.200
By July 1993, Maslan didn't appear to be questioning Mana's abilities at all.
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He was preparing for the final ceremony.
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The one she promised would change everything.
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On the night of july second, nineteen ninety three, Maslan returned to the compound.
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This time, Mana gave him very specific instructions.
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Wear black, come alone.
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Bring the remaining payment.
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Trust the process completely.
00:18:08.559 --> 00:18:17.200
Every ritual he had undergone before this one had required rules, certain clothes, certain prayers, certain objects.
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This was simply another step.
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Inside the house, preparation had already been made.
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Court exhibits later showed jars filled with dark liquids, bundles wrapped in yellow cloth, ceremonial objects arranged around the room.
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According to testimony presented during the trial, Mana told Maslan the ritual would only succeed if he followed every instruction exactly.
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He was led into the kitchen, asked to lie face down on the raised slab.
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A cloth was placed over his eyes.
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The explanation was pretty simple.
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He mustn't see what happens next.
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Many spiritual traditions ask participants to surrender control, to trust, to submit.
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So Maslan remained still.
00:19:16.880 --> 00:19:19.839
Mana then began chanting.
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She wiped his body with a towel, then leaned close.
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Money will soon fall from the sky, she whispered.
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His future was about to change.
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Moments later, according to the court's findings, Juraimi Hassan, Mana's assistant, stepped forward carrying an axe.
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The first blow struck Maslan from behind.
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He never had the chance to defend himself.
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Several more blows followed.
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By the time the attack ended, the politician who believed he was about to secure extraordinary power lay dead inside Mana's kitchen.
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His head severed.
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The following morning, the sun rose like every other day.
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Traffic moved through Kolalumpur, government offices opened, meetings began.
00:20:24.799 --> 00:20:27.680
Maslan failed to appear.
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At first nobody panicked.
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Politicians travel unexpectedly, schedules change, but days passed.
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Calls to Maslan's office went unanswered.
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His family became increasingly concerned.
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Colleagues started asking questions.
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A missing person report was finally filed.
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Police began reconstructing his final movements.
00:20:57.039 --> 00:20:58.400
Who had he met?
00:20:59.119 --> 00:21:00.799
Who had seen him last?
00:21:01.920 --> 00:21:09.279
Why had Maslan withdrawn hundreds of thousands of ringgit shortly before disappearing?
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For several days, investigators had little to work with.
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Then the investigation took an unexpected turn.
00:21:19.920 --> 00:21:28.319
Juraimi Hassan, the young man who worked closely with Mana and Afandi, was arrested on an unrelated drug offense.
00:21:28.799 --> 00:21:34.880
According to investigators, Juraimi believed police had actually come for him because of Maslan.
00:21:35.680 --> 00:21:37.279
He began talking.
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His panicked confession transformed the entire investigation.
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He described the killing, the burial, the compound.
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And most importantly, he told police exactly where to dig.
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The missing politician's case was no longer a disappearance.
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It had become a homicide investigation.
00:22:06.720 --> 00:22:10.160
Police arrived at the compound carrying shovels.
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The bungalow looked much as it always had.
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The iron gates, the unfinished walls, the gardens.
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But there was a distinct metallic smell around the building.
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Jarimi led investigators toward a small shed set back from the main house.
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Fresh concrete covered part of the ground.
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He pointed.
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Officers put on their gloves and masks, and the team began digging.
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The concrete came away first, then the soil beneath it.
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It didn't take very long.
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According to investigators, the first human remains appeared less than two meters below the surface.
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A head in a black plastic bag.
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Then more remains.
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The body had been cut into eighteen pieces before being buried.
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Nearby investigators recovered clothing, personal belongings, and other items later linked to Maslan.
00:23:16.480 --> 00:23:20.160
The missing politician had finally been found.
00:23:21.440 --> 00:23:25.680
Only not in the way anyone had hoped.
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Inside the bungalow, investigators moved room by room.
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Cupboards were emptied, documents photographed.
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The kitchen where the ritual had supposedly taken place became one of the most important crime scenes in Malaysia.
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Police seized ceremonial objects, knives and axe, jars filled with dark viscous liquid, amulets.
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Forensic teams photographed everything.
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Some of those objects would later appear repeatedly during the trial.
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Others would become part of the mythology that quickly began growing around Mona Fande.
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News traveled quickly.
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By evening, journalists were already gathering outside the compound, scrambling to get pictures and submit articles.
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The story had completely changed.
00:24:25.119 --> 00:24:28.079
This was no longer about a missing politician.
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It was about murder, a very brutal, strange murder.
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Newspapers called Mana a witch, a sorceress, a woman who practiced black magic, who used oil extracted from the chins of corpses for her ceremonies.
00:24:46.480 --> 00:24:49.680
Those descriptions sold papers.
00:24:50.240 --> 00:24:53.839
They also made the case seem almost supernatural.
00:24:54.480 --> 00:25:01.839
But if you strip away the headlines, what investigators had uncovered was something much more recognizable.
00:25:02.720 --> 00:25:11.359
A politician desperate for power and certainty, and three people willing to exploit that desperation.
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Money, land, greed, the court would ultimately conclude that while there was no proof that black magic had killed Maslan, there was plenty of evidence that the three people had.
00:25:30.400 --> 00:25:42.799
When Mona Fandi appeared in court for the first time, many Milesians expected someone who looked defeated, or at least someone who tried to hide from the public.
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Instead, they saw a woman openly beaming at the camera.
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Photographers crowded the courthouse steps.
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Mana smiled directly at them.
00:25:56.640 --> 00:25:59.920
When her hands were not cuffed, she waved.
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Sometimes she laughed.
00:26:02.559 --> 00:26:07.519
Reporters later remarked that she seemed to revel in the attention.
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These photographs appeared everywhere: front pages, television broadcasts, magazine covers.
00:26:15.200 --> 00:26:22.079
For many Malaysians, that smile became impossible to separate from the case itself.
00:26:26.000 --> 00:26:30.960
As the trial took place, the prosecution began laying out its evidence.
00:26:31.279 --> 00:26:45.039
Maslan's repeated visits, the money, the promises, the confession given by Juraimi, the remains recovered from the compound, forensic evidence linking Maslan to the property.
00:26:45.920 --> 00:26:51.119
One witness after another slowly reconstructed what had happened.
00:26:51.359 --> 00:26:57.359
According to prosecutors, this had never been a ritual that had just spiraled out of control.
00:26:58.160 --> 00:27:03.200
It had been a planned killing motivated by greed and money.
00:27:03.759 --> 00:27:05.920
Mona denied it.
00:27:06.160 --> 00:27:07.839
So did Afandi.
00:27:08.000 --> 00:27:09.680
They blamed Juraimi.
00:27:10.319 --> 00:27:16.000
He'd suddenly become aggressive in the middle of a routine ritual and attacked Maslan.
00:27:16.559 --> 00:27:23.519
Juraimi admitted taking part but claimed that he'd acted while under Mona's spiritual influence.
00:27:23.759 --> 00:27:27.440
He pointed to Mona and Afandi as the masterminds.
00:27:27.680 --> 00:27:29.839
They had instructed he kill Maslan.
00:27:30.160 --> 00:27:36.480
They'd ordered he remain in the bungalow for days to skin and bury the body parts.
00:27:36.799 --> 00:27:46.559
And while Juraimi carried out the couple's instructions, Mona and Afandi had gone shopping in Kuala Lumpur with Maslan's money.
00:27:48.960 --> 00:27:57.839
The prosecution documented that the couple used Maslan's money for a new car, jewelry, clothes, and a facelift for Mona.
00:27:59.119 --> 00:28:11.200
That Maslan had begun to backtrack on the agreed payment, that the couple did not have confidence that he would hand over the land title documents he'd carried with him that July night.
00:28:11.920 --> 00:28:14.319
So he was murdered.
00:28:16.160 --> 00:28:20.799
The defense and prosecution offered very different versions of the same night.
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The judges ultimately accepted the prosecution's account.
00:28:28.000 --> 00:28:32.640
Outside court, though, people weren't only discussing the evidence.
00:28:32.880 --> 00:28:35.519
They were discussing Mona herself.
00:28:36.000 --> 00:28:40.880
How could someone accused of something so brutal appear so calm?
00:28:41.759 --> 00:28:45.920
Some believed she genuinely expected to be acquitted.
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Others were terrified of her.
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Because if this were only about supernatural beliefs, it would be so easy to dismiss it as old superstition, or even a strange story from the 1990s.
00:29:15.200 --> 00:29:16.960
But that's not what happened.
00:29:17.279 --> 00:29:22.000
Mastan Idris wasn't cut off from modern Malaysia.
00:29:22.480 --> 00:29:30.720
Yet, when politics offered no guarantees, he still went looking for someone who claimed they could provide one.
00:29:31.680 --> 00:29:34.160
And he wasn't the only one who did this.
00:29:34.640 --> 00:29:45.920
For decades, rumors circulated that politicians, business owners, and entertainers consulted BOMOs before elections, major investments, or important career decisions.
00:29:47.440 --> 00:29:55.759
Because there will always be people willing to listen to someone who says, I can guarantee what nobody else can.
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Especially if the person making that promise already looks successful.
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And that was Mona's real gift.
00:30:06.240 --> 00:30:11.839
Not supernatural power or spiritual inclination, but presentation.
00:30:12.640 --> 00:30:19.759
She understood that people rarely buy certainty from someone who appears uncertain themselves.
00:30:20.319 --> 00:30:23.759
So she surrounded herself with visible success.
00:30:24.079 --> 00:30:30.079
Large houses, luxury cars, designer clothes, photographs with important people.
00:30:30.960 --> 00:30:34.880
She'd already learned this years earlier as a performer.
00:30:37.440 --> 00:30:45.279
And perhaps that's why one image from this case became almost impossible for Malaysia to forget.
00:30:46.240 --> 00:30:52.079
It wasn't the bungalow, or the grave, or even the courtroom.
00:30:52.400 --> 00:31:05.519
It was Mona herself walking past photographers after her arrest, hair carefully styled, lipstick perfectly applied, smiling widely.
00:31:06.240 --> 00:31:12.640
As though she were arriving for a film premiere instead of standing trial for murder.
00:31:15.119 --> 00:31:22.160
That smile is so unsettling because it feels impossible, incongruous.
00:31:22.720 --> 00:31:28.720
How could someone accused of an act so brutal look this composed?
00:31:29.200 --> 00:31:31.599
Like she's enjoying herself.
00:31:33.279 --> 00:31:38.799
But in another sense, it was exactly what Mona had been doing all along.
00:31:39.039 --> 00:31:45.599
She'd spent years performing confidence, perfecting it, hankering for public adoration.
00:31:46.480 --> 00:31:53.599
So even after everything collapsed around her, she never stopped performing in the limelight.
00:31:56.799 --> 00:32:11.680
In November 2001, eight years after Maslan Itris disappeared, Mona Fande, her husband Mohammed Afandi Abdul Rahman, and their assistant Jeremy Hassan were executed.
00:32:12.640 --> 00:32:17.440
Long before sunrise, hundreds of people gathered outside the prison walls.
00:32:17.680 --> 00:32:20.480
Many had traveled across the country.
00:32:20.720 --> 00:32:24.799
They came because they still could not believe the story.
00:32:25.680 --> 00:32:32.319
Others simply wanted to witness the end of a case that had consumed Malaysia for almost a decade.
00:32:33.599 --> 00:32:36.160
There was very little to see, though.
00:32:36.480 --> 00:32:38.640
The prison gates remained closed.
00:32:38.799 --> 00:32:42.480
The executions happened inside, away from cameras.
00:32:43.039 --> 00:32:46.720
A few hours later, three bodies left the prison.
00:32:48.000 --> 00:32:52.880
There was no spectacle, no final miracle, no mysterious escape.
00:32:53.839 --> 00:32:59.440
The bungalow in Pahan, where Maslan had been murdered, slowly emptied.
00:32:59.839 --> 00:33:01.519
Construction stopped.
00:33:01.759 --> 00:33:08.640
The rooms where politicians, businessmen, and celebrities had once waited for consultations fell silent.
00:33:09.119 --> 00:33:12.799
The concrete covering the burial site remained.
00:33:13.359 --> 00:33:15.440
The gates rusted.
00:33:16.319 --> 00:33:18.880
Grass reclaimed the compound.
00:33:19.119 --> 00:33:20.880
It was eventually torn down.
00:33:21.119 --> 00:33:26.799
The villas nearby were also abandoned, some clearly having been attempted to be burnt down.
00:33:27.759 --> 00:33:34.720
Today, very little suggest that one of Malaysia's most infamous murder cases unfolded here.
00:33:35.680 --> 00:33:43.519
But locals point to the abandoned lot when asked about the female Bomba who used to live in the area.
00:33:46.160 --> 00:33:50.640
It's easy to remember Mona Fande as something supernatural.
00:33:51.119 --> 00:33:54.319
That version of the story is quite dramatic.
00:33:54.960 --> 00:33:59.279
But nothing prosecutors presented in court required magic.
00:33:59.839 --> 00:34:02.720
What this case required was belief.
00:34:03.440 --> 00:34:13.519
Belief that success could be accelerated, that power could be bought, that uncertainty could disappear if the right person performed the right ritual.
00:34:14.719 --> 00:34:20.960
Mana did not invent those beliefs, but she decided to capitalize on them.
00:34:21.199 --> 00:34:29.679
She recognized that politicians, business owners, and wealthy families often wanted exactly the same thing everyone else wanted.
00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:31.280
Reassurance.
00:34:32.239 --> 00:34:35.920
The difference was that they could afford to pay for it.
00:34:36.960 --> 00:34:39.920
And Mana understood something else.
00:34:40.960 --> 00:34:59.039
She understood it that if she looked successful, if influential people kept arriving at her gates, if each satisfied client quietly recommended another, people would stop asking whether her promises worked.
00:34:59.519 --> 00:35:02.480
They would assume they already had worked.
00:35:02.800 --> 00:35:12.400
All she needed was a few parts of her clients' lives to go well, and she could chalk this up to her blessed amulets or ceremonies.
00:35:14.079 --> 00:35:18.079
That may be the most eerie part of this case.
00:35:18.800 --> 00:35:22.000
Maslan Idris wasn't an isolated man.
00:35:22.320 --> 00:35:24.320
He was financially successful.
00:35:24.639 --> 00:35:26.400
He was a public official.
00:35:26.880 --> 00:35:32.559
Yet even he became convinced that someone could guarantee what politics never could.
00:35:32.960 --> 00:35:33.760
Power.
00:35:34.480 --> 00:35:37.599
History is full of people who promise such certainty.
00:35:37.840 --> 00:35:41.519
Certainty in elections, in business, in love, in health.
00:35:41.840 --> 00:35:46.079
The names change, but the promises rarely do.
00:35:48.480 --> 00:35:57.360
More than thirty years later, the Mona Fandy case lives on in Malaysia because it forces us to confront an uncomfortable truth.
00:35:58.000 --> 00:36:02.239
Intelligence does not make people immune to persuasion.
00:36:03.119 --> 00:36:06.480
Money doesn't make people immune to persuasion.
00:36:06.800 --> 00:36:10.400
Success does not protect people from wishful thinking.
00:36:11.119 --> 00:36:18.079
Maslan Idris drove through those iron gates believing he was about to secure the future he desired.
00:36:19.039 --> 00:36:25.440
Instead, he became part of one of Malaysia's most enduring criminal cases.
00:36:29.199 --> 00:36:31.440
This is missing context.
00:36:31.599 --> 00:36:33.199
Thank you for listening.
00:36:33.440 --> 00:36:43.519
If you found the story meaningful, follow the show wherever you listen and consider sharing it with someone who enjoys true crime and looks beyond the headlines.
00:36:43.760 --> 00:36:45.679
I'll see you next Wednesday.
