Malaysian ex-PM Najib Razak charged with money-laundering
August 8, 2018
The former Malaysian Prime Minister has been hit with new charges related to a huge financial scandal. If he is convicted he faces up to 20 years in prison for each charge.
The new charges relate to 42 million Malaysian ringgit (€8.8 million, $10 million dollars) that was reportedly transferred into Nazak's personal bank account.
The suspected bribe came from SRC International, a former subsidiary of the 1MDB state fund.
Assets purchased using 1MDB money include a $250-million superyacht, real estate, jewellery and a Pablo Picasso painting.
The attorney general at the time Najib was prime minister — who had ties to Najib's party — initially cleared the leader of wrongdoing, saying the money was a donation from the Saudi royal family.
What is 1MDB: Officially named 1 Malaysia Development Berhad, 1MDB is a state-owned strategic development company founded in 2009 that aims to establish initiatives in industries such as energy, tourism and agriculture. Following Mahathir Mohamad's win in the 2018 general election, Asri Hamidon was appointed as 1MDB's new chairman. He is also the deputy-secretary general responsible for government investment at the Treasury.
What's next: In Wednesday's proceedings, the court decided that it would wait until Friday to fix the dates for Najib's trial and hear his lawyer's application for a permanent gag order on his case to prevent public discussion about it. The case has sparked outrage in Malaysia and resulted in thousands of people protesting against Najib while he was in office.
Malaysia sees the return of Mahathir Mohamad
Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad could make history as the world's oldest head of government and a successful "comeback retiree" if he beats incumbent Najib Razak in the country's upcoming elections.
Image: picture alliance/AP/D. Chan
The doctor is in - again
A medical doctor by training, Mahathir led Malaysia from 1981 to 2003 and is dubbed the country's "father of modernization." A shrewd politician, he won five consecutive general elections, while deflecting challenges to his leadership of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), a core component party of the ruling coalition, the Barisan Nasional (BN).
Image: Getty Images/AFP/M. Vatsyayana
Extraordinary elections ahead
The Malaysian elections must be held by August this year, with analysts predicting they will happen by June. It promises an unprecedented spectacle as it will pit incumbent Najib Razak against Mahathir, his former mentor, who had favored him and helped install him as PM in 2009. Mahathir quit UMNO in 2016 following the 1MDB scandal, saying it had become "Najib's party."
Image: AP
Rallying for 'clean' elections
Called a "dictator" by critics for his hard stance on dissidents and the press, and for curbing the power of the judiciary while he was PM, he attended a Bersih ("Clean") rally in 2016 organized by several NGOs seeking reforms of the current electoral system to ensure free, clean and fair elections. Critics also blame him for consolidating power in the hands of the executive during his tenure.
Image: AFP/Getty Images/M. Rasfan
An astounding about-turn
Mahathir set up a new party in 2016, which then joined forces with Pakatan Harapan, a loose coalition of oppostion parties. Ironically, he had locked away some members of these parties before, most significantly, his former deputy, Anwar Ibrahim. The coalition has stated that if it wins the 2018 elections, Mahathir would be PM and Anwar's wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail (pictured here), his deputy.
Image: Reuters/L. Seng Sin
The eyebrow-raising reconciliation
Anwar (L), once Mahathir's heir apparent-turned-archrival, was sacked from his post as deputy PM, and later charged and found guilty of graft and sodomy. Yet, in their shared zeal to unseat Najib, they've now struck a deal, with Mahathir offering to secure a royal pardon for Anwar (currently serving a second sentence for sodomy under Najib's administration), easing the way for Anwar to become PM.
Image: AFP/Getty Images/F. Silvan
Between a rock and a hard place
Not all Malaysians are on board with this pact though. Some civil society members and opposition lawmakers blame Mahathir for engineering the very system he now opposes. This disquiet has spurred a new movement. #UndiRosak (or #SpoiltVote) that urges voters to either boycott the polls or cast spoilt ballots. But others argue that this will merely split opposition votes and empower BN further.
Image: AP
Future in peril?
Current PM Najib Razak's administration has been mired in scandals, most notably involving the state fund 1MDB, which is being probed for money laundering in several countries. However, a survey in December predicted that he is likely to remain in power given a fractious opposition and his government's efforts to redraw electoral boundaries that critics claim highly favor a BN win.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/F. Ismail
Loss of popular vote
The BN, which has governed Malaysia since independence in 1957, lost its two-thirds parliamentary majority after the 2013 elections. It also then lost the popular vote for the first time in its history to Pakatan Harapan.
Image: Getty Images
Courting the millennials
Meanwhile, the nonagenarian has taken to social media in a bid to court the country's younger electorate. But a poll conducted in August 2017 found that "seven out of 10 voters below the age of 30 in Peninsular Malaysia do not care about politics; two-thirds believe that politicians were not just untrustworthy, but also the 'main problem in Malaysia.'"
