M'sia student calls public donations to help Najib pay fine the 'stupidest thing' she's ever seen

A student of Universiti Malaya has sparked both praise and attacks after she said that people donating to former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak's fundraiser to spring him from prison was "the stupidest thing" she had seen in her life.

She underscored that Najib "clearly has a worldwide corruption case, 1MDB, and is clearly linked to corruption", as quoted by The New Straits Times.

Ummi Umairah Bakhit, 23, made these remarks during a recent young leaders' dialogue with the Kuala Lumpur World Trade Centre with former minister Khairy Jamaluddin, the Selangor chief minister, and the Johor chief minister.

On Sep. 18, Malaysia's Federal Territories Pardons Board allowed Najib to serve the remainder of his jail sentence under house arrest on several conditions, including that he pay a RM50 million (S$15.6 million) fine.

His party, United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), turned to the public to crowdfund the money.

The Najib Razak Solidarity Fund has received both support and backlash.

It raised RM634,562 (S$198,499) within the first three hours of its launch, and reached RM9.25 million (S$2.9 million) by Sep. 27.

However, the idea has also been ridiculed, with some of Najib's detractors sarcastically donating RM0.01 (S$0.0031).

Corruption

Speaking at the dialogue, Ummi highlighted a few corruption cases that involved Malaysian government institutions.

This included the recently uncovered financial mismanagement of Malaysia's Muslim pilgrimage fund Tabung Haji.

Ummi then expressed surprise that members of the public were willing to contribute towards the fine for the convicted Najib, and raised the issue of corruption and political accountability.

In response, Khairy said he believed that corruption should be discussed openly even if it involves their political leaders.

"We shouldn’t be afraid about talking about corruption," he said, as quoted by The Rakyat Post. "What is wrong is wrong. What you cannot defend, don’t defend."

Praise

Videos of Ummi's remarks have gone viral on social media, but responses have been divided.

A Threads user said to "give Ummi Umairah a medal" for her no-nonsense critique.

"It sounded harsh, but it’s the ugly truth," someone commented.

Under Ummi's Instagram post about the dialogue, many also expressed admiration and thanked her for speaking up.

Received threats and harassment

However, some also criticised Ummi for asking questions that they found inappropriate.

"You're asking about things that have not been settled even until now," one user wrote on Threads.

"Those sitting in front of you are smart people, so it's better that you ask things that are related [to students]."

Since the video circulated, Ummi has faced online harassment and threats on social media.

"Some of them also threatened me with expulsion from the university, harassed me, made comments about my physical appearance and much more," she said, as quoted by The New Straits Times.

But the economics major doubled down and added that she would not be intimidated.

She believed she had a responsibility to challenge public perceptions, and said her questions were relevant as one of the forum's themes was transformation.

According to her, Malaysia's Deputy Minister of Higher Education Adam Adli checked in on her and assured her that she would not face disciplinary action.