KUALA LUMPUR – Datuk Seri Najib Razak supposedly turned down an offer to vacate his position as prime minister in 2015 in exchange for protection and amnesty, when his criminal involvements in 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) began to unravel.
This is according to DAP deputy secretary-general Liew Chin Tong, who said he was informed of efforts to persuade the former prime minister to retire from his position gracefully, but stopped short of disclosing who proposed it.
“If he ever thought of the slim possibility that he would one day end up in prison, a well-arranged exit could have prevented the fall of Umno, Barisan Nasional (BN) and himself," he said in a Facebook post today.
“But Najib and (wife) Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor were never able to envisage any political order other than the one in which they were at the top and untouchable.”
Najib began his 12-year prison sentence on August 23 after the Federal Court upheld his conviction in the SRC International Sdn Bhd corruption case, while Rosmah was found guilty on three counts of corruption involving a solar project for schools in Sarawak.
Liew said the fallen couple, while at the apex of their power, acted as though they would never fall, committing crimes brazenly but never bothered to stay at arm’s length away from incriminating evidence, with the SRC International case being a testament to this.
“Because Najib felt the need to buy support from his associates, he needed cash in his bank account, to be issued with cheques signed under his own name for the Umno and BN warlords.
“These left behind a money trail. Najib and Rosmah made themselves sitting ducks because they had this distorted sense of legal immunity.”
Liew added that BN’s victory in the Sarawak election in May 2016, as well as the Sg Besar and Kuala Kangsar by-elections in June the same year, had given Najib the false impression that his coalition would do well in the 2018 federal polls, effectively keeping him in power.
This is going by the assumption that, like the twin by-elections, Umno would benefit from a three-cornered fight with Pakatan Harapan (PH) and PAS, the latter having just quit the opposition coalition a year earlier.
However, Liew said BN was caught by surprise by game-changing manoeuvres by PH pre-election, including the coming together of former rivals Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and the agreement to name the two as the successive future prime ministers, if they won.
No respect, mercy for opponents
Liew revealed purported events that unfolded during Najib’s tenure, in which he said state apparatus at the Pekan MP’s disposal were abused to inflict cruelty on political rivals.
Among others, he alleged that Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin was tailed by Bukit Aman’s Special Branch officers in the days following his sacking as deputy prime minister in July 2015, based on the first person account of the Bersatu president himself.
The 2015 imprisonment of opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who was Najib’s biggest political opponent at the time, was another example of his cruelty, Liew added.
The DAP man said Najib's nine-year rule as prime minister was also mired by policies that lacked empathy for the general public – including the introduction of the goods and services tax – and a blatant disregard to the views of the opposition.
On the latter, the former deputy defence minister noted how, in his near-decade rule, Najib had never attempted to amend the federal constitution, which requires two-thirds majority of the Dewan Rakyat.
“The reason was simple: Najib could never bring himself to negotiate with the opposition. There wasn’t political will on his part to accommodate the parliamentary opposition.”
In contrast, since the fall of BN in 2018, three constitutional amendments have taken place – the lowering of the voting age to 18, reinstating Sabah and Sarawak as territories, and introducing the anti-party hopping law. – The Vibes, September 2, 2022
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