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From behind bars, former PM Najib continues to rattle Malaysian politics with house arrest bid

Najib Razak’s legal campaign to serve out his jail sentence under house arrest has undercut Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s political prestige over his handling of the affair and pushed the monarchy into an awkward corner, said observers.

From behind bars, former PM Najib continues to rattle Malaysian politics with house arrest bid
Former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak, who had his jail sentence for corruption reduced from 12 to six years over the 1MDB fiasco, continues to traumatise Malaysian politics. (Photos: Reuters)
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KUALA LUMPUR: Najib Razak, Malaysia’s most famed incarcerated politician, is roiling the country’s political waters with his bid to serve out his six-year jail sentence under house arrest. 

But the high-stakes gambit, which analysts and lawyers noted has little legal basis for now, only serves to keep the country steeped in a political funk.

Najib’s latest political machinations have embarrassed Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who has been accused by supporters of the former premier of suppressing a controversial declaration of a house arrest by the country’s former king in a pardons decision that was issued just under a year ago.

NEW TWIST

On Saturday (Jan 11), the premier broke his silence over Najib's pardon application that the government had previously maintained was governed by the Official Secrets Act.

Anwar acknowledged that the addendum, issued in late January a year ago, was first sent to the then attorney-general, Ahmad Terrirudin Salleh.

“After the new Agong (king) ascended the throne, the AG then submitted it to Istana Negara (the palace),” he was quoted as saying by the local media. “That’s the situation. We didn’t hide it.” 

It was the latest twist in a saga that has stretched for a year and saw another major milestone mere days earlier.

In Jan last year, the ex-king halved Najib's original jail term for corruption and money laundering for illegally receiving about US$10 million from former 1MDB unit SRC International.

Last Monday, the Court of Appeal ruled that Najib can pursue his house arrest bid in the High Court - after his lawyer produced what he claimed was a written declaration from the previous king that the former premier be allowed to serve the remainder of his jail sentence at home.

The saga has caused friction in Anwar’s unity government, which comprises four coalitions, including the one headed by United Malays National Organisation (UMNO).

UMNO leaders aligned to Najib, who was the party’s former president, have called for the current king, Sultan Ibrahim, to grant the jailed politician, who is still facing other 1MDB-related corruption charges in the Malaysian courts, a full pardon.

This move has rankled the unity government’s other partners who insist that Najib had received a fair trial before he was convicted.

IMPLICATIONS

There are other serious complications. 

The Court of Appeal’s decision to overturn an earlier High Court ruling to dismiss Najib’s legal bid to push for the right to serve out the remainder of his jail sentence under house arrest has also raised the prospect of a potential constitutional crisis with the monarchy in the coming months.

One major legal issue is that the provision for house arrest does not exist in Malaysian law, although the government has said that it would consider passing a law to allow for home imprisonment in the future. 

The other bugbear is that Najib’s legal challenge is very likely to raise serious debate over the limits on the powers of monarchy over the country’s not-so-straightforward pardon process.

“It remains unclear how this very confusing situation will play out but the prospect that we might get a constitutional crisis out of this is very real,” said Khoo Boo Teik, former emeritus professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo and a seasoned Malaysian political analyst.

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is facing fresh political headaches with jailed former premier Najib Razak's aggressive legal challenges to serve the remainder of his jail sentence under house arrest (Photo: AP)

Amid all this noise, Najib’s prospects for serving his jail time under house arrest or obtaining a full pardon that would unshackle him from his legal troubles, are nowhere near the horizon, politicians, lawyers and the former premier’s own supporters noted.

But that has not stopped Malaysia’s warring political parties, particularly the country’s ethnic Malay politicians, from turning Najib's legal challenge into a hot-button issue that has put the Anwar government on the backfoot and raised questions about his administration’s management of the messy situation. 

STAYING POLITICALLY RELEVANT

“What happened this (past) week is a political boost for Najib to remain politically relevant with his supporters and does raise questions about how the (Anwar) government’s handling of the whole affair. But very little else changes,” said former Member of Parliament Charles Santiago, a politician from the Democratic Action Party that is part of the ruling coalition.

A senior lawyer, who is part of Najib's legal team and requested not to be named, added: “The courts will have to hear the house arrest addendum matter, and this could take another two to three years with appeals and other court delays.”

In any case, the ongoing ruckus has forced Anwar to change tact and weigh in on the issue on Saturday.

A day earlier, the Legal Affairs Division of the Prime Minister’s Department said in a statement that no additional documents related to the former premier’s pardon application had been filed with the government.

This marked the first time that the Anwar administration was providing tacit confirmation the addendum was a declaration that the former king made independently of the Pardons Board.

In a fresh twist on Monday, senior federal counsel Shamsul Bolhassan said the Malaysian government has made an oral application in the Malaysian High Court for a so-called “gag order” on the controversial Najib addendum issue to put a lid on any public debate.

The High Court has ordered the government to file a formal application before Jan 20. 

DIVISIVE FIGURE

Najib, who was sent to prison in August 2022 after the Federal Court, the highest judicial body, upheld his conviction for corruption and a 12-year jail sentence from the country’s Appeals Court and the High Court, remains a divisive figure in Malaysian politics.

That’s because of his lingering influence over UMNO.

While UMNO’s once near-monopoly over political power in Malaysia has waned sharply and its appeal among the country’s dominant ethnic Malay majority has slumped, the party continues to retain its influence by remaining as a partner in Anwar’s government.

But the UMNO of today is deeply fragmented, riddled with fractions.

These include one led by political warlords aligned to the current party president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, one of Malaysia’s two deputy premiers.

But other smaller factions believe that the party needs to move away from the former premier if it is to win back the support among Malaysians, particularly the Malay community. 

Najib remains a force because the faction he leads has ample financial resources to retain its influence in the patronage-driven UMNO and is able to ensure that the party under Ahmad Zahid does not abandon the ongoing political campaign to secure his freedom.

Najib has long insisted on his innocence to the corruption and money laundering charges over the 1MDB affair, which has also been part of a major investigation campaign carried out by the United States Department of Justice.

His UMNO faithful has repeatedly made claims that the former premier did not get a fair trial that stretched over nearly five years before he was sent to jail.

The seeds of the current controversy over the so-called house arrest addendum were sown late last year when the Najib faction in UMNO lobbied for a Pardons Board hearing before the outgoing king, Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billal Shah, left office.

Jailed premier Najib Razak's legal challenge over the decision to his pardon application is set to bring an unwelcome spotlight on the powers of Malaysia's royalty. (Photo: AP)

Under the country’s unique constitutional monarchy system, Malaysia’s nine sultans rotate on five-year terms as king.

In a move that caught many Malaysians by surprise, the then-King granted Najib clemency by reducing the former premier’s jail sentence by half to six years and slashing the fine imposed by the courts to RM50 million from RM210 million.

CNA was the first to break the news, citing sources including senior government officials.

Shortly after, fresh controversy brewed when the Najib faction claimed that former king, Al-Sultan Abdullah, had also decreed in a so-called addendum that the former premier serve the remainder of his sentence under house arrest.

MESSY POLITICS

From here on, the situation gets muddied in Malaysia’s messy politics, close associates of Anwar acknowledge. 

They say that the premier took the decision to play down the so-called addendum because he did not want to draw the royalty into a public political muddle.

The Malaysian High Court dismissed a challenge in July 2024 by Najib for a judicial review over the earlier Pardons Board decision on grounds that the existence of the addendum for the jailed former premier to serve the remainder of his sentence “was hearsay” as the defence did not produce any supporting evidence to back up its claim. 

The decision was overturned by the Court of Appeal when Najib’s lawyers produced a copy of a palace document on the matter.

The High Court will convene this week to fix fresh dates to hear Najib’s judicial review application over the house arrest addendum and lawyers tracking developments said that the issue over the limits of the ex-king’s authority in granting pardons and clemency will be central to the legal debate, raising the prospect of a constitutional dilemma.

“The problem for the mess in Malaysia stems from the parlous state of Malay politics, which is so divided and no single person, even Anwar, can provide direction. That is why the Najib issue keeps coming up,” said Khoo.

GOVERNMENT’S OPTIONS

The country’s warring ethnic Malay parties, particularly the right-wing Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) and the smaller Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu), together with pro-Najib elements in UMNO have seized on the ruling by the Court of Appeal to accuse the government of suppressing the so-called addendum delivered by the former king for Najib to serve out the remainder of his jail sentence under house arrest.

The PAS chief of the central Pahang state Rosli Abdul Jabar was quoted by the local media as saying that the efforts to conceal the much-debated Palace decree was tantamount to treason. 

“Actions tarnishing the authority of the institution of the Malay rulers cannot be ignored. Pahang PAS will continue to defend the sovereignty of the Pahang sultan and ensure that his decrees are respected, and the rights of Malaysians safeguarded,” Rosli said.

UMNO leaders have also come out to declare that they were ready to provide witness statements and also testify when the High Court hears Najib’s judicial review application again.

One government official familiar with ongoing discussions noted the Anwar administration is considering declassifying the documents and proceedings over Najib's pardon, which are now classified under the government Officials Secrets Act, and tabling an official report to Parliament, which will begin this year’s session in early February.

Source: CNA/lo(js)
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