Sophie Lemière

Opinion | Forget 1MDB, could Najib Razak be Malaysia’s next prime minister?

Three years after being booted from office amid a global financial scandal, the disgraced former leader’s brand, and that of his Umno party, is resurrecting

Najib’s second coming has parallels to Mahathir’s messianic return. In his case it is based on an appeal to nostalgia for a pre-Covid, more prosperous time

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Former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak gives a fist bump to a supporter on the campaign trail. Photo: Reuters

Sophie Lemière

Published: 8:00am, 6 Dec 2021Updated: 1:33pm, 6 Dec 2021

D-E-A-D. That was the state of former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak’s political career on May 10, 2018.

His party, the United Malays National Organisation (Umno), had just lost a general election for the first time since independence, ending 61 years of political monopoly.

On that day, Najib, heir to a long line of Umno leaders, faced the terrible fall of his party and of his own name.

The former prime minister is of noble descent and the second generation of Umno politicians: his father Tun Razak was the second prime minister, his uncle Hussein Onn was the third, and his cousin Hishammuddin Hussein has occupied several ministerial posts and was formerly minister of foreign affairs.

Many believed then that Najib, embedded in the 1MDB financial scandal, would be jailed within a few months.

In 2018, the new attorney general, Tommy Thomas, appointed by Najib’s rival Mahathir Mohamad, initiated the prosecution against Najib, who was soon charged on several counts of abuse of power and corruption.

Last year, Najib was sentenced to 12 years in jail and a US$50 million fine after being found guilty of criminal breach of trust, abuse of power and money laundering, a decision his lawyer appealed to the higher court.