Amid all this noise, Najib’s prospects for serving his jail time under house arrest or obtaining a full pardon that would unshackle him from his legal troubles, are nowhere near the horizon, politicians, lawyers and the former premier’s own supporters noted.
But that has not stopped Malaysia’s warring political parties, particularly the country’s ethnic Malay politicians, from turning Najib’s legal challenge into a hot-button issue that has put the Anwar government on the backfoot and raised questions about his administration’s management of the messy situation.
STAYING POLITICALLY RELEVANT
“What happened this (past) week is a political boost for Najib to remain politically relevant with his supporters and does raise questions about how the (Anwar) government’s handling of the whole affair. But very little else changes,” said former Member of Parliament Charles Santiago, a politician from the Democratic Action Party that is part of the ruling coalition.
A senior lawyer, who is part of Najib’s legal team and requested not to be named, added: “The courts will have to hear the house arrest addendum matter, and this could take another two to three years with appeals and other court delays.”
In any case, the ongoing ruckus has forced Anwar to change tact and weigh in on the issue on Saturday.
A day earlier, the Legal Affairs Division of the Prime Minister’s Department said in a statement that no additional documents related to the former premier’s pardon application had been filed with the government.
This marked the first time that the Anwar administration was providing tacit confirmation the addendum was a declaration that the former king made independently of the Pardons Board.
In a fresh twist on Monday, senior federal counsel Shamsul Bolhassan said the Malaysian government has made an oral application in the Malaysian High Court for a so-called “gag order” on the controversial Najib addendum issue to put a lid on any public debate.
The High Court has ordered the government to file a formal application before Jan 20.
DIVISIVE FIGURE
Najib, who was sent to prison in August 2022 after the Federal Court, the highest judicial body, upheld his conviction for corruption and a 12-year jail sentence from the country’s Appeals Court and the High Court, remains a divisive figure in Malaysian politics.
That’s because of his lingering influence over UMNO.
