Anwar welcomes Najib's apology for 1MDB fiasco, M'sia speculates about house arrest for ex-PM

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has said on Oct. 25, 2024 that he "welcomes" his predecessor Najib Razak’s apology for the “1MDB fiasco”.

Jail and trials

On Oct. 24, the former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak apologised for his “mishandling” of the 1MDB scandal, according to the Malay Mail.

Najib is serving a six-year jail term for his corruption and money laundering related to SRC International, a unit of 1MDB.

This was reduced in February 2024 from 12 years and the fine that he was facing was slashed from S$59 million to S$14 million.

But Najib is also facing four counts of abuse of power and 21 counts of money laundering involving RM2.28 billion (S$648 million) from 1MDB.

On Oct. 30 he will be in court again to find out if he has a case to answer, in which case he will need to enter a plea, or if he will essentially be acquitted.

Apologise unreservedly

With just under a week before that court date, Najib released a statement via his son Nizar Najib.

In Malaysia, prisoners are not allowed to speak directly to the public.

In the statement, Najib said that he was still in “deep shock” after finding out the extent of the “wretched and unconscionable shenanigans, and illegal things that happened in 1MDB”.

He said that it “pains” him “every day to know that the 1MDB debacle happened under my watch as minister for finance and prime minister.”

“For that, I would like to apologise unreservedly to the Malaysian people.”

However, he said he was not legally responsible for the scandal, that he had already been “punished politically” and that he was “clearly not the mastermind” behind 1MDB.

He also said he did not collaborate with Low Taek Jho, otherwise known as Jho Low.

Low is accused of misappropriating more than US$4.5 billion (S$6.1 billion) in funds from 1MDB, along with other associates.

Placing the blame for the scandal squarely on Low, Najib said that he should not be held “legally responsible” for things he “did not initiate or knowingly enable” and prayed that the “judicial process will, in the end, prove his innocence”.

Welcoming

Incumbent Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim was asked about Najib’s apology on Oct. 25 by a Malaysian reporter after Friday prayers.

Free Malaysia Today quoted Anwar as saying “I welcome it” (terima baik).

This comes after a provision related to house arrest was presented in Anwar’s 2025 budget on Oct. 20.

While house arrest provisions were not in Anwar’s budget speech, they were in the written portion, and still part of the budget.

Because of this, speculation has been rife that the house arrest provisions were drafted with Najib in mind, as reported by MalaysiaKini.

Rejection

It was reported earlier in the year that Najib was meant to be granted house arrest by the outgoing Agong, but this has not yet come to pass, although it has also not been denied by Anwar’s government.

What has been denied is that the Malaysian government’s plans for new house arrest laws are related to Najib, with Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil rejecting the notion that the bill relates to any individual, as reported by the New Straits Times.

Instead, the move stems from many considerations.

Fahmi said that Malaysia was studying the approach of other countries towards “restorative justice”, as could been by the country’s moratorium on death sentences, and allowing judge’s discretion.

He also said that another government priority was to reduce prison overcrowding, citing 87,000 inmates in Malaysian prisons despite a capacity of only 74,000.

A pilot project involving 5,000 individuals had seen promising results.

Speculative rumors

Nonetheless, the proximity of the bill, Najib’s apology, and his trial have set tongues wagging.

It also comes just as Najib's daughter Nooryana Najib, who has been prominent in calling for her father's release, has been appointed to the board of directors of the Malaysia External Trade Development Cooperation.

This was announced on Oct. 16, the same week as the house arrest bill was announced, and has sparked a wave of accusations of nepotism, albeit mainly amongst Malaysia's opinion column writers.

There was much speculation about a full pardon for Najib in the run-up to his sentence being halved.

Malaysian wags are furiously connecting dots, but whether a clearer picture emerges remains to be seen.

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Top image via Najib Razak/Facebook