NAJIB REMAINS AN INSIDER
The irony is that public frustration has often been directed at Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim for not keeping Najib behind bars. The decisive interventions, however, have come from the monarchy.
The possibility of some form of royal clemency has been public knowledge for roughly two years, following the 2024 reduction of Najib’s original 12-year sentence and RM210 million fine to six years and RM50 million.
The pardon system in Malaysia relies on the absolute prerogative of the king. Najib received the reduction in sentence from the previous king, who is the Sultan of Pahang, and a conditional house-arrest arrangement from the present king.
Najib himself is deeply embedded in the Malay political establishment and has longstanding ties to the Pahang royal house. He long held the federal parliamentary seat of Pekan, and was Pahang’s chief minister between 1982 and 1986, both positions also previously held by his father. The Razak family holds the peerage title of Orang Kaya Indera Shahbandar, one of the positions in the Orang Besar Berempat (The Four Major Chiefs), making it the fourth-highest-ranking noble title directly below the Sultan of Pahang.
This reality is reinforced by the continued political standing of Najib’s children. His eldest son, Mohamad Nizar, serves as a Pahang state executive councillor and assemblyman. Another son, Mohd Nazifuddin, is UMNO division chief in Langkawi. His daughter Nooryana Najwa holds leadership positions in Puteri UMNO, its young women’s wing.
These roles keep the family inside the party’s organisational and patronage networks.
