KUALA LUMPUR, July 4 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak, son of a beloved prime minister and a scion of political royalty, will face a barrage of criminal charges this morning that could send him to prison for years.
Just four years ago, he golfed with former US president Barack Obama.
Just last year, he met with US president Donald Trump in the White House.
But millions of voters threw the former prime minister and Barisan Nasional (BN) out of office a little under two months ago, triggering the series of events that led to his low-key arrest by Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officers from his home yesterday.
Najib, the son of former prime minister Tun Abdul Razak Hussein, hugged his family members and said goodbye to them before MACC officers drove him away from his Langgak Duta home to spend a night in remand.
His troubles began three years ago when US paper The Wall Street Journal broke a story on July 2, 2015 that a whopping US$681 million (RM2.6 billion) was deposited into the personal bank accounts of Malaysia’s top government official who was expected to safeguard public funds.
Then attorney-general Tan Sri Gani Patail was later removed on July 28, 2015, just as he was allegedly preparing to charge Najib in the 1MDB case.
Hours after the announcement by the chief secretary to the Government that Gani’s tenure was cut short for health reasons, Najib replaced his deputy Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin with Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and removed minister Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal in a Cabinet reshuffle, both of whom had been openly critical of Najib over the 1MDB scandal.
At least 10 countries around the world launched investigations on the Malaysian fund, focusing on possible money laundering and embezzlement.
The United States’ Department of Justice filed lawsuits to seize about US$1.7 billion in assets that it said had been bought with money misappropriated from 1MDB, including real estate in New York and southern California, artwork, and a luxury yacht.
The US lawsuits said US$681 (RM2.6 billion) of the stolen funds from 1MDB had been transferred to “Malaysian Official 1”‘s (MO1) account, though Najib reportedly insisted last week that the money was a donation from the Saudi royal family. He also pointed out that he had returned US$620 million back to the purported donor.
Part of the US$681 million, which was reportedly deposited in Najib’s accounts in March and April 2013 before the 13th general election in May, had been used, according to Najib himself, for campaigning in the poll. US$620 million was reportedly returned to the same source in August 2013.
Yet, instead of regaining the ground BN lost in the 2008 election when the coalition lost its parliamentary supermajority for the first time since 1969, BN ceded even more seats.
And it was that very sum of money that ostensibly caused BN to finally lose federal power for the first time, five years later in the May 9 election this year, even though the coalition allegedly rigged electoral boundaries and passed laws like the Anti-Fake News Act 2018 that critics said stifled dissent.
Najib helped bring old enemies like former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and former deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim together.
By campaigning against Najib and focusing on corruption scandals like 1MDB and high cost of living related to the Goods and Services Tax (GST), Pakatan Harapan (PH) comprising PKR, DAP, Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM), and Parti Amanah Negara banded together under Dr Mahathir’s leadership.
The Malay electorate might also had been reassured in voting for PH with former prime minister and ex-Umno president Dr Mahathir at the helm, who had previously advised Umno to reject Najib or risk losing the 2018 election.
When his advice was ignored, Dr Mahathir went on to form his own Malay party, PPBM. Subsequently, PH, a fledgling coalition comprising a couple of component parties only a few years old, ousted Umno, Malaysia’s “grand old party”, in the polls.
So today, Najib — the first Umno president to lose a general election and the first former prime minister to face criminal prosecution — will stand in the dock and face the entire weight of institutions that he once marshalled against his political enemies.
National newswire Bernama reported that Najib, who spent the night in remand, is expected to face over 10 counts of committing criminal breach of trust linked to the case of SRC International Sdn Bhd, a former subsidiary of 1MDB. It was previously reported that SRC International had allegedly transferred RM42 million into Najib’s account.
But this is just the beginning. Najib is expected to face more charges over the 1MDB scandal and his prosecution could take years, because the former PM has indicated he will mount a rigorous defence against the accusations thrown at him.
