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She Promised Him Power - The Mona Fandey Case · Missing Context

• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Late one night in July 1993, a black Mercedes leaves the lights of Kolalumpur, Malaysia behind and heads east toward the hills of Bahang.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: The highway leads to narrower roads.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Rubber plantations stretch into the darkness.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Old mining land lies beyond them where prospectors once searched for gold.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: The fenced villas become larger and fewer.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Eventually, the car slows before a pair of tall iron gates.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: Beyond them sits a walled compound hidden from the road.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: The villa inside is unfinished.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: One wing stands roofless.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: Piles of sand and cement wait where a room is ready to be built.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Inside the car is Datuk Maslan Etris, a rising Malaysian politician.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: For a moment everything is quiet.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: Then the gates begin to open.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: Maslan drives inside.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: He parks, gets out of the car, straightens his shirt, and walks toward the house.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: The front door opens before he knocks.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: Several people are already waiting for him.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: Oil lamps burn near the entrance.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: The large living room has no windows, only doorways disappearing into other parts of the building.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: A portrait of a smiling woman wearing an elaborate headdress hangs on one wall, half lit by the lamps.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: The smell of flowers hangs heavily in the warm night air.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Maslan notices glass jars lining shelves on the walls.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Some contain thick black liquid.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: Others appear to hold preserved organs suspended beneath the surface.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Bundles of hair like fibers sit beside amulets wrapped in yellow cloth.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: The woman from the portrait greets him warmly.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Her name is Mana Fande.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: She leads him through the house into the kitchen.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: A raised concrete slab dominates the center of this room.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Folded yellow cloth rests besides what looks like a ceremonial sword.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: Now none of this is surprising to Maslan.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: The kitchen looks exactly as he'd been told it would.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: One final ritual remained.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: After tonight, he would receive three mystical objects set to transform his future.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: His influence would grow.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: His political career would accelerate.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: He'd even been told what to wear.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: So he came, alone, believing he was stepping into the next chapter of his life.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, it would be the last night he was ever seen alive.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: This is Missing Context.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Stories from Asia and the Asian Diaspora.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: On 18 July 1993, one of Maslan's political colleagues reported him missing.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: The following day, his wife filed her own report.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: For more than a week, family members, colleagues, and government officials had been trying to reach him.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: He'd missed meetings, he'd stopped returning calls.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Some wondered whether he'd traveled overseas without telling anyone.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps the pressures of his political career had just become too much.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: His family dismissed the idea almost immediately.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: Maslan was ambitious.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: He had six children.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: He was a family man, not someone who simply disappeared.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Police opened a missing person investigation.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: And what detail stood out almost instantly?
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: Shortly before vanishing, Maslan had withdrawn around 300,000 Malaysian ringgit, roughly 120,000 US dollars at the time.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: Newspapers and the evening news carried brief reports.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: An elected politician had disappeared.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: Police were appealing for information.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: A few days later, detectives followed one lead back to a secluded compound behind a pair of iron gates.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: What they uncovered would become one of the most infamous murder investigations in Malaysian history.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: Within days, newspapers across the country were carrying the same photograph and the same name, Mona Fande.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: Headlines called her a witch, a sorceress, a Bomo.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: Her photographs unsettled people.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: She looked less like someone accused of orchestrating a brutal murder, and more like someone posing for a magazine interview.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Across Malaysia, one question kept popping up.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: Why would an internationally educated politician, a man trusted with public office, place his future in Mana Fande's hands?
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: To answer that, we have to begin with Malaysia in the early 1990s.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: Malaysia in the early 1990s felt as though it were changing by the month.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: New expressways cut across the country.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: Construction cranes crowded the skyline around Kolalumpur.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: Factories expanded so quickly that workers arrived from neighboring countries to fill jobs local industries could no longer fill on their own.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: Everywhere there was a sense that the country was becoming something new.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: Malaysia bole.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: Malaysia can.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: The slogan appeared on billboards, in newspaper ads, and political speeches.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: It reflected a growing confidence that Malaysia could compete with any country in the world.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yet, while skylines changed and highways stretched further each year, many older beliefs remained firmly in place.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: Modern hospitals, for example, stood right alongside traditional healers.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: 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.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: For centuries, Bomo's had occupied many roles in Malaysian society.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: They prepared herbal remedies, they prayed over sick children, interpreted dreams, they helped families navigate grief, illness, or conflict.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: To many Malaysians, they were healers, counselors, spiritual advisors.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: But Sal Bomos promised much more.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: A struggling business could prosper with the right rituals.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: A marriage could be saved.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: A rival could lose influence.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: Promises like these carried particular appeal in a country where fortunes and political careers could change remarkably quickly.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: Politicians sought this certainty too.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: Election campaigns have notoriously attracted people, offering an advantage over uncertain outcomes.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: Politicians around the world have been known to carry lucky charms or talismans in their pockets.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: In Malaysia, stories circulated for decades that candidates from different political parties consulted spiritual practitioners before important elections.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: Some politicians dismissed those stories.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: Others laugh them off.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: Some simply refuse to answer.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: The rumors endured regardless.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: And among Malaysia's better known Bomos, one name surfaced over and over again.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: Specifically among the country's wealthy and politically connected.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: Mana Fande.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: The remarkable thing about Mana was that she hadn't inherited the role of Bomo.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: She hadn't come from a long line of spiritual practitioners.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: Mana had planned a very different life for herself.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: She'd wanted to become a singer.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: 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.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: During the 1980s, she actually pursued a career in music.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: She recorded several albums, she performed on television.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Mana sang in nightclubs and entertainment venues around the country.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: And for a while it looked as though she might succeed.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: A handful of her songs actually became pretty familiar.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: People recognized her.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: But the career she wanted never fully took off.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: Many performers eventually accept that and move on.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: Mana, though, never did.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: Her husband, Mohammed Afandi Abdul Rahman, recognized something valuable in his wife.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: She could hold a room.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: People watched her.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: They listened to her, remembered her.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: Together, husband and wife built a career around selling those qualities.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: By the late 1980s, Mona and Afandi had begun presenting themselves as spiritual practitioners.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: They offered rituals, ceremonies, consultations.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: But Mona wasn't selling the image most Malaysians associated with a village Bomo.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: She crafted an image that was as seductive as it was disturbing.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: Clients came seeking talismans set to attract influence, or theatrical rituals promising wealth and political fortunes.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: Photographs of Mona reinforced the message.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: She appeared in brightly colored designer clothes, heavy gold jewelry, perfectly styled hair.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: She smiled easily for photographs making eye contact with the camera.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: Pamphlets advertising her services carried glamorous portraits, more reminiscent of an entertainer than a healer.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: Clients visited her lavish bungalows, saw imported cars parked outside, heard stories of overseas travel.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: The message was pretty unmistakable.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever Mona was doing and offering, it appeared to be working.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: That image was pretty significant among people whose own reputations depended on appearance.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: Young socialites knocked on Mona's door, seeking permanence rituals, believing they enhanced beauty, charisma, and social standing.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: 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.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: Every influential client became another recommendation.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: Every recommendation brought another influential visitor through the gates.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: By the time Maslan Idris first heard Monafande's name, she'd become something quite unusual in Malaysia's spiritual world.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: A rare, wealthy woman operating among male Bomos, comfortably moving with politicians, business families, and social elites.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: Someone whose reputation traveled through the country's influential circles for years, before most normal, ordinary Malaysians had heard her name.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: By 1993, Datuk Maslan Idris was 49 years old.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: 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.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: Politics had rewarded him.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: Just not enough.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: Maslan represented a rural consistency in Pahang.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: Winning elections there had earned him influence within the state, but the capital Kuala Lumpur still felt a long way away.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: He wanted more.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: The chief ministership of Pahang.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: From there, perhaps national politics.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: Ambition in politics is very normal.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: Almost every politician believes the next promotion is just within reach.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: The difficulty is that politics offers very few guarantees.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: One election can transform a career completely.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: The next can quickly end it.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: Sometime during those years, Maslan heard about Mona Fande.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly how remains unclear.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: A few accounts say another politician mentioned her.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: Others suggest a businessman may have made the introduction.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: It led to Maslan eventually driving through Mona's gates as a client, a believer.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: Over the months that followed, he returned again and again.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: Court testimony would later establish that he traveled with Mona and Afandi on several occasions.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: He met their assistant, Jura Mi Hassan as well.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: Preparations were discussed, payments negotiated, future rituals were arranged.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: The promises grew steadily larger.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: A talisman would strengthen his political future.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: Special ceremonies would remove unseen obstacles.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: Eventually, according to the prosecution, Mana promised something extraordinary.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: She told Maslan he could indeed become chief minister.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: Power, influence, recognition.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: All of this, Maslan believed, was just beyond his grasp.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: There was, however, one condition.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: Spiritual work of this magnitude wasn't cheap.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: According to evidence presented during the trial, Mana eventually asked for two point five million Malaysian ringgits.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: That was nearly a million US dollars at the time.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: Part cash, part land.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: Maslan agreed.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: That decision often surprises people today.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: Why would an experienced politician hand over so much money?
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps because by then Mana's success seemed difficult to argue with.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: She wasn't asking him to visit a wooden hut deep inside a forest.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: She welcomed him into her large homes.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: Mana exuded prosperity and success.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: And if her methods had made her wealthy, perhaps they could do the same for Maslan.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: By July 1993, Maslan didn't appear to be questioning Mana's abilities at all.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: He was preparing for the final ceremony.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: The one she promised would change everything.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: On the night of july second, nineteen ninety three, Maslan returned to the compound.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: This time, Mana gave him very specific instructions.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: Wear black, come alone.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: Bring the remaining payment.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: Trust the process completely.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: Every ritual he had undergone before this one had required rules, certain clothes, certain prayers, certain objects.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: This was simply another step.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: Inside the house, preparation had already been made.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: Court exhibits later showed jars filled with dark liquids, bundles wrapped in yellow cloth, ceremonial objects arranged around the room.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: According to testimony presented during the trial, Mana told Maslan the ritual would only succeed if he followed every instruction exactly.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: He was led into the kitchen, asked to lie face down on the raised slab.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: A cloth was placed over his eyes.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: The explanation was pretty simple.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: He mustn't see what happens next.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: Many spiritual traditions ask participants to surrender control, to trust, to submit.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: So Maslan remained still.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: Mana then began chanting.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: She wiped his body with a towel, then leaned close.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: Money will soon fall from the sky, she whispered.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: His future was about to change.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: Moments later, according to the court's findings, Juraimi Hassan, Mana's assistant, stepped forward carrying an axe.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: The first blow struck Maslan from behind.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: He never had the chance to defend himself.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: Several more blows followed.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: By the time the attack ended, the politician who believed he was about to secure extraordinary power lay dead inside Mana's kitchen.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: His head severed.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: The following morning, the sun rose like every other day.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: Traffic moved through Kolalumpur, government offices opened, meetings began.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: Maslan failed to appear.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: At first nobody panicked.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: Politicians travel unexpectedly, schedules change, but days passed.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: Calls to Maslan's office went unanswered.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: His family became increasingly concerned.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: Colleagues started asking questions.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: A missing person report was finally filed.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: Police began reconstructing his final movements.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: Who had he met?
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: Who had seen him last?
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: Why had Maslan withdrawn hundreds of thousands of ringgit shortly before disappearing?
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: For several days, investigators had little to work with.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: Then the investigation took an unexpected turn.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: Juraimi Hassan, the young man who worked closely with Mana and Afandi, was arrested on an unrelated drug offense.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: According to investigators, Juraimi believed police had actually come for him because of Maslan.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: He began talking.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: His panicked confession transformed the entire investigation.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: He described the killing, the burial, the compound.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: And most importantly, he told police exactly where to dig.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: The missing politician's case was no longer a disappearance.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: It had become a homicide investigation.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: Police arrived at the compound carrying shovels.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: The bungalow looked much as it always had.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: The iron gates, the unfinished walls, the gardens.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: But there was a distinct metallic smell around the building.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: Jarimi led investigators toward a small shed set back from the main house.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: Fresh concrete covered part of the ground.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: He pointed.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: Officers put on their gloves and masks, and the team began digging.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: The concrete came away first, then the soil beneath it.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: It didn't take very long.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: According to investigators, the first human remains appeared less than two meters below the surface.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: A head in a black plastic bag.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: Then more remains.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: The body had been cut into eighteen pieces before being buried.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: Nearby investigators recovered clothing, personal belongings, and other items later linked to Maslan.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: The missing politician had finally been found.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: Only not in the way anyone had hoped.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: Inside the bungalow, investigators moved room by room.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: Cupboards were emptied, documents photographed.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: The kitchen where the ritual had supposedly taken place became one of the most important crime scenes in Malaysia.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: Police seized ceremonial objects, knives and axe, jars filled with dark viscous liquid, amulets.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: Forensic teams photographed everything.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: Some of those objects would later appear repeatedly during the trial.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: Others would become part of the mythology that quickly began growing around Mona Fande.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: News traveled quickly.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: By evening, journalists were already gathering outside the compound, scrambling to get pictures and submit articles.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: The story had completely changed.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: This was no longer about a missing politician.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: It was about murder, a very brutal, strange murder.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: 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.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: Those descriptions sold papers.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: They also made the case seem almost supernatural.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: But if you strip away the headlines, what investigators had uncovered was something much more recognizable.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: A politician desperate for power and certainty, and three people willing to exploit that desperation.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: 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.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: 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.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, they saw a woman openly beaming at the camera.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: Photographers crowded the courthouse steps.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: Mana smiled directly at them.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: When her hands were not cuffed, she waved.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes she laughed.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: Reporters later remarked that she seemed to revel in the attention.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: These photographs appeared everywhere: front pages, television broadcasts, magazine covers.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: For many Malaysians, that smile became impossible to separate from the case itself.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: As the trial took place, the prosecution began laying out its evidence.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: 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.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: One witness after another slowly reconstructed what had happened.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: According to prosecutors, this had never been a ritual that had just spiraled out of control.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: It had been a planned killing motivated by greed and money.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: Mona denied it.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: So did Afandi.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: They blamed Juraimi.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: He'd suddenly become aggressive in the middle of a routine ritual and attacked Maslan.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: Juraimi admitted taking part but claimed that he'd acted while under Mona's spiritual influence.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: He pointed to Mona and Afandi as the masterminds.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: They had instructed he kill Maslan.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: They'd ordered he remain in the bungalow for days to skin and bury the body parts.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: And while Juraimi carried out the couple's instructions, Mona and Afandi had gone shopping in Kuala Lumpur with Maslan's money.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: The prosecution documented that the couple used Maslan's money for a new car, jewelry, clothes, and a facelift for Mona.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: 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.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: So he was murdered.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: The defense and prosecution offered very different versions of the same night.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: The judges ultimately accepted the prosecution's account.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: Outside court, though, people weren't only discussing the evidence.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: They were discussing Mona herself.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: How could someone accused of something so brutal appear so calm?
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: Some believed she genuinely expected to be acquitted.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: Others were terrified of her.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: 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.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: But that's not what happened.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: Mastan Idris wasn't cut off from modern Malaysia.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yet, when politics offered no guarantees, he still went looking for someone who claimed they could provide one.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: And he wasn't the only one who did this.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: For decades, rumors circulated that politicians, business owners, and entertainers consulted BOMOs before elections, major investments, or important career decisions.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because there will always be people willing to listen to someone who says, I can guarantee what nobody else can.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: Especially if the person making that promise already looks successful.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: And that was Mona's real gift.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: Not supernatural power or spiritual inclination, but presentation.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: She understood that people rarely buy certainty from someone who appears uncertain themselves.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: So she surrounded herself with visible success.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: Large houses, luxury cars, designer clothes, photographs with important people.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: She'd already learned this years earlier as a performer.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: And perhaps that's why one image from this case became almost impossible for Malaysia to forget.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't the bungalow, or the grave, or even the courtroom.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: It was Mona herself walking past photographers after her arrest, hair carefully styled, lipstick perfectly applied, smiling widely.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: As though she were arriving for a film premiere instead of standing trial for murder.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: That smile is so unsettling because it feels impossible, incongruous.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: How could someone accused of an act so brutal look this composed?
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like she's enjoying herself.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: But in another sense, it was exactly what Mona had been doing all along.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: She'd spent years performing confidence, perfecting it, hankering for public adoration.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: So even after everything collapsed around her, she never stopped performing in the limelight.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: In November 2001, eight years after Maslan Itris disappeared, Mona Fande, her husband Mohammed Afandi Abdul Rahman, and their assistant Jeremy Hassan were executed.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: Long before sunrise, hundreds of people gathered outside the prison walls.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: Many had traveled across the country.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: They came because they still could not believe the story.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: Others simply wanted to witness the end of a case that had consumed Malaysia for almost a decade.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: There was very little to see, though.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: The prison gates remained closed.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: The executions happened inside, away from cameras.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: A few hours later, three bodies left the prison.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: There was no spectacle, no final miracle, no mysterious escape.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: The bungalow in Pahan, where Maslan had been murdered, slowly emptied.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: Construction stopped.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_00: The rooms where politicians, businessmen, and celebrities had once waited for consultations fell silent.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: The concrete covering the burial site remained.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: The gates rusted.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: Grass reclaimed the compound.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: It was eventually torn down.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: The villas nearby were also abandoned, some clearly having been attempted to be burnt down.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: Today, very little suggest that one of Malaysia's most infamous murder cases unfolded here.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_00: But locals point to the abandoned lot when asked about the female Bomba who used to live in the area.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's easy to remember Mona Fande as something supernatural.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: That version of the story is quite dramatic.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_00: But nothing prosecutors presented in court required magic.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: What this case required was belief.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_00: Belief that success could be accelerated, that power could be bought, that uncertainty could disappear if the right person performed the right ritual.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_00: Mana did not invent those beliefs, but she decided to capitalize on them.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: She recognized that politicians, business owners, and wealthy families often wanted exactly the same thing everyone else wanted.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_00: Reassurance.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_00: The difference was that they could afford to pay for it.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_00: And Mana understood something else.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: 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.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: They would assume they already had worked.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: 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.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: That may be the most eerie part of this case.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_00: Maslan Idris wasn't an isolated man.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: He was financially successful.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: He was a public official.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yet even he became convinced that someone could guarantee what politics never could.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: Power.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: History is full of people who promise such certainty.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: Certainty in elections, in business, in love, in health.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_00: The names change, but the promises rarely do.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: More than thirty years later, the Mona Fandy case lives on in Malaysia because it forces us to confront an uncomfortable truth.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: Intelligence does not make people immune to persuasion.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: Money doesn't make people immune to persuasion.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_00: Success does not protect people from wishful thinking.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_00: Maslan Idris drove through those iron gates believing he was about to secure the future he desired.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, he became part of one of Malaysia's most enduring criminal cases.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_00: This is missing context.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_00: 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.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'll see you next Wednesday.