December 11, 2024
KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has refused to confirm or deny the existence of a highly controversial royal document that would purportedly allow former premier Najib Razak to serve his remaining prison sentence at home.
Commenting on the issue that has bedevilled his government for months, Datuk Seri Anwar told Parliament on Dec 10 that he could not comment on the matter as Najib has a court appeal on Jan 6, 2025, over the alleged “addendum”.
“Is it reasonable for us to comment before (the hearing)? The answer is no,” said Mr Anwar. “Until this case is concluded in court or the King allows it, we cannot discuss it.”
PM Anwar added in the Lower House that he had referred the matter to the current Malaysian King, Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar of Johor, for further deliberation.
The premier was replying to a supplementary question by an opposition lawmaker.
His government has been roiled by claims that the previous Malaysian king, Sultan Abdullah Ahmad Shah of Pahang, had issued a document stating that Najib serve the rest of the prison term under house arrest.
Mr Anwar’s non-answer could add to other political woes of his two-year-old government, with critics attacking him for the glacial pace of promised reforms, the high cost of living and his minority partner Umno dominating debate on controversial issues.
Adding to this, the Pahang palace said it “will not be making any statements” on the issue either due to the upcoming court case, said the state legal adviser in a statement on Dec 10. The statement was issued after the adviser, Datuk Seri Saiful Edris Zainuddin, said he held a meeting with Sultan Abdullah to discuss the matter.
Observers have waded in on the house-arrest controversy. They include former Cabinet minister Khairy Jamaluddin, who said in a podcast on Dec 6 that not executing the king’s decree, if such a document exists, amounts to a “mini constitutional crisis”.
“The issue is not whether you agree or not, that is secondary. The issue is, if this exists, why has it been hidden since January and not executed?” said Mr Khairy.
Najib, 71, was sentenced to 12 years in prison in August 2022 in a corruption case linked to a financial scandal involving a former unit of wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad.
But his sentence was controversially halved by the Federal Territories Pardons Board presided by Sultan Abdullah on Jan 29, 2024, shortly before his reign ended.
Adding to public anger, the board also reduced Najib’s fine from RM210 million (S$64 million) to RM50 million. Sultan Ibrahim was sworn in as the new King on Jan 31, under Malaysia’s unique rotational system for the nine royal Malay houses.
Najib, in his judicial review application to the High Court on April 1, 2024, claimed that Sultan Abdullah had also issued on Jan 29 an “addendum order” to allow him to serve the remainder of his reduced six-year sentence at home.
But the High Court on July 3 dismissed Najib’s application for leave to commence judicial review on grounds that the affidavits supporting his application were “purely hearsay”. He is appealing at the Court of Appeal on Jan 6, 2025.
Wading into the controversy, Najib’s son, Pahang state lawmaker Mohd Nizar Najib, on Dec 2 filed an affidavit saying that Sultan Abdullah had on Aug 4 told him about the existence of the purported addendum. Datuk Mohd Nizar further said that he had received an identical copy of the addendum from Sultan Abdullah’s royal household, but that this document was not signed by the ruler, unlike the original document.
The Attorney-General’s Chambers on Dec 9 issued a statement to say that all parties must refrain from making any statements that could affect the legal standing of Najib’s court appeal over the purported document.
Mr Anwar on Dec 10 told Parliament that Najib’s pardon was among the issues he discussed with Sultan Ibrahim during his visit to Johor on Dec 9.
“I have met the (previous) Agong (king) several times and the addendum issue was never raised,” he said. “But because the matter has been repeatedly mentioned, I have raised this for consideration with the current Agong, so when the time is right, it can be referred to the Pardons Board meeting that the current Agong would chair.”
Analyst Bridget Welsh said there is resistance to confirming or denying the decree as it would politically impact Mr Anwar’s coalition government, which includes Najib’s party, Umno. The Prime Minister would also face the risk of a public backlash.
“Najib is potentially the biggest competitor to Anwar if he is out of prison, because many people are looking to him as a potential alternative to Anwar as a leader,” said Dr Welsh, who is honorary research associate at the University of Nottingham Asia Research Institute-Malaysia.