Malaysia’s Judiciary Boosts Reputation on Najib Verdict

Years of reform appointments pay off

Bossku and the former “first lady of shopping”

Amid the relative detritus of Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s struggling government, one bright thing stands out, and that’s the performance of the country’s judiciary, which seems to have found its bearings after the years of political destruction by former premier Mahathir Mohamed and others.

Last week, former premier Najib Razak – erstwhile Bossku – was ordered jailed on December 26 for a further 15 years and given a massive US$2.8 billion fine for power abuse and money laundering in the biggest trial of the multibillion-dollar 1MDB scandal. a ruling that could have big political ramifications.

Two days earlier, a high court had denied the 72-year-old one-time kingmaker, scion of an illustrious family, the privilege of serving out his remaining 12-year sentence, cut to six by the Federal Territories Pardons Board, on another felony under house arrest as his family waited in the belief he would be freed.

There is still conjecture that he could be liberated from his cell, which is equipped with a laptop and Internet access through which he is reportedly working on a PhD in Kuala Lumpur’s Kajang Prison, after the conclusion of that sentence in August of 2028, and pardoned by the Council of Rulers. But only about 100 UMNO supporters showed up to protest the new sentence, reportedly queueing for nasi lemak distributed by women supporters.

Nasi lemak

Najib, his associate Low Taek Jho, the financial whiz – who is still on the run – and others stole at least US$4.5 billion from the state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd, which Najib co-founded in 2009 during the first of his nine years in power. But that was hardly the first of his depredations. His uncle, the country’s third prime minister Hussein Onn, once told a reporter one of his biggest disappointments was finding out that, in his words, his own nephew, Najib, despite his elite English education and privileged position as the son of the country’s second prime minister, had begun dipping his “his fingers into the pie” when he became chief minister of Pahang from 1982 to 1986 at age 29 and later as education and defense minister.

After he married Rosmah Mansor, his grasping second wife, who so far has escaped punishment, the two in political corridors became known as Bonnie & Clyde after the famed gunslinging US depression-era bandits who terrorized the Midwest.

Bossku and Jho Low

Najib’s most famous role – or infamous one – before the 1MDB scandal was his integral part in the purchase of a billion dollars of French Scorpene submarines as defense minister that were never effective in the South China Sea’s relatively shallow coastal waters, and in which a US$140 million kickback was steered via a close associate, Abdul Razak Baginda, into UMNO coffers and which resulted, among other things, in the murder of an allegedly blackmailing Mongolian translator and party girl by two of Najib’s bodyguards, who signed sworn statements saying he ordered them to do it.

A long list of his other defense ministry purchase scandals – and others by Rosmah, alleged to have spent millions on luxury goods using funds from the 1MDB state fund, fueling public anger – can be found in Asia Sentinel’s archives.

“In the last 20 years, the judiciary has had a fairly decent track record, especially since the appointment of Zaki Azmi as Chief Justice,” said a longtime political analyst. “In Najib’s case, as his own lawyer Shafee Abdullah said, he has lost every step of the way. Rightly so.” Although all 47 charges for corruption and abuse of power against Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Zahid Hamidi and against Rosmah for money laundering and tax evasion were dropped because the attorney general, who is appointed by the Prime Minister, withdrew the charges, “it’s important to make this distinction. The judiciary does work in Malaysia.”

Anwar’s unacknowledged 2024 attempt to engineer an ally, the former attorney general, the 56-year-old Ahmad Terrirudin Salleh, onto the bench as chief justice, failed after the Conference of Rulers unofficially made it known that it would be vetoed. The respected Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh, although a one-time UMNO deputy chief, was ultimately appointed in accordance with the constitution, following the Prime Minister’s advice and after consultation with the rulers conference.

“Since the late 1980s, Malaysia’s Judiciary faced nearly two difficult decades in which its reputation for probity and speedy delivery of decisions declined dramatically,” according to a World Bank report. In late 2008, during the reign of the late Prime Minister Ahmad Abdullah Badawi, who succeeded Mahathir and with the appointment of a new Chief Justice, Malaysia began a reform program. “While corruption does not appear to be the major complaint of court users, the reform program also worked to target and eliminate what does occur. The program drew on some less successful experiences attempted earlier in the decade, and was further shaped by individual judges’ exposure to successful programs in other common law countries.”

The World Justice Project agreed, saying that while for the seventh year in a row the rule of law has eroded in 57 percent of countries surveyed in 2024, “Malaysia is among the minority of countries to see its WJP Rule of Law Index score increase this year.”

The Najib case reflects that. “The judge carefully and meticulously demolished all the arguments that Najib had been hiding behind for years. He was shown to be complicit right from the start and then went out of his way to engineer a great cover-up of his criminal behavior. This has stripped him of any pretensions that he was just a good man who was mislead,” said a former top government official.

“Even Najib’s lawyer’s attempt to suggest that by rejecting the addendum, the judge was challenging the position of the Malay rulers. That too didn’t gain much traction. At the end of the day, the big winner was justice in Malaysia. Despite tremendous political pressures, the judges held firm throughout the trials. There were times when the government itself appeared to cast doubts on the integrity of the courts but they held firm. It’s a huge victory for Malaysia.”

Since the verdict, calls have been growing for Anwar to reopen the cases against Zahid Hamidi and others and clean house. It is unlikely to happen because to keep him in line, Anwar needs the Discharge Not Amounting to an Acquittal (DNAA) granted to him, a legal term meaning the accused is freed from current charges but can be recharged later if new evidence emerges, unlike a full acquittal, which ends the case. Zahid could be recharged if he gets rebellious.

Zahid on his way to court

“In any case I think neither Anwar nor Zahid wants to see Najib freed any time soon because he could complicate things for them. Eventually, I expect he will get a pardon after he has served the remaining three years of his sentence on the earlier case,” said the former official.

“Also it is unlikely that any other senior politician will face jail time. The case against Najib was a consequence of unique circumstances following Mahathir’s return to power. It was a one-time thing in my opinion. Politicians have no stomach for robust legal action against other politicians - it set a bad precedent. They use the MACC only to pressure and put their opponents on the defensive. Once they are brought to heel (like Ismail Sabri) deals are made and the case is closed.”

“Government itself appeared to cast doubts on the integrity of the courts but they held firm,” the former official said. “It’s a huge victory for Malaysia and for integrity.”