SINGAPORE — Malaysia’s former prime minister Najib Razak has started serving his 12-year prison sentence, after a Federal Court on Tuesday (Aug 23) upheld his guilty verdict.
He was convicted in July 2020 for his role in the multi-billion dollar graft scandal at 1Malaysia Development Berhad , which has been dubbed the world’s largest kleptocracy case.
How will this affect Umno and the opposition in the upcoming Malaysian elections? Does Najib still have a role in politics? TODAY speaks to experts to find out.Since the Federal Court upheld Najib’s guilty verdict, hundreds of Najib’s supporters rallied on Wednesday outside the Malaysian national palace to seek a royal pardon.
Aside from a royal pardon, Najib’s options to escape his verdict are “very limited, if not non-existent”, said law professor Eugene Tan from Singapore Management University. Because of the magnitude of the 1MDB case, experts told TODAY it is unlikely Najib will receive a pardon in the near term because of existing public sentiments, though they do not rule out the chance of Najib being pardoned.
Ms Tan said that it will be difficult for him to stage a comeback as Umno’s president or the country’s prime minister as other Umno leaders jostle for these positions. He was imprisoned for corruption and sodomy in 1999 until his conviction was overruled in 2004, and again for sodomy in 2015 until he received aWhile Mr Anwar was in prison, his allies and family members helped him influence Malaysia’s politics. “We shouldn't just look at a person's political career, but people surrounding him… Najib’s children have spoken up,” said Dr Norshahril.
“Some think these leaders are innocent and politically persecuted… Others think they and the party itself are rotten and corrupt to the core and deserve to be jailed promptly,” he said. “But given some of the negative perceptions of PH’s performance in government among Malay voters in particular, this alone may not be sufficient for them to win the next general elections. PH does also have corruption allegations to contend with.”
However, Dr Oh said that PH’s supporters may have given up on “Malaysian politics in particular, and Malaysia in general, and would not come out to vote anymore”.Besides the former prime minister, Umno President Ahmad Zahid Hamidi is among key party members facing court charges. Malaysian United Democratic Alliance’s founding president Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman faces four charges of criminal breach of trust, misappropriation of funds and money laundering. He allegedly committed the offences while heading the Bersatu youth wing.Three counts of money laundering totalling RM27 million, involving SRC International
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