KUALA LUMPUR – Nooryana Najib will be contesting in Umno’s ongoing elections for a spot in its Puteri’s executive council, according to a senior party leader.
Supreme Council member Datuk Mohd Puad Zarkashi said this in a Facebook post about Nooryana’s visit to his Rengit service centre in Johor yesterday.
“(Nooryana) came to visit with Dr Masliha, the candidate for the Puteri Umno chief post. Yana will meanwhile be contesting to be a Puteri Umno exco. All the best,” said the Rengit assemblyman and Johor speaker.
Dr Masliha Harun, the Lembah Pantai Puteri Umno division chief and wing exco member, had also confirmed a few days ago that she would be contesting the wing’s top post.
The daughter of jailed former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak received a master’s degree from Harvard University in 2019, and a Bachelor of Science in international politics and foreign policy from Georgetown University prior to that.
She also holds an MBA from Wharton, according to her LinkedIn profile.
In between her studies at Georgetown and Harvard, she had a stint at TPG Capital in London.
She explained in a Facebook post in February 2022 that the job at TPG was an internship, in response to court testimony by former Goldman Sachs banker Tim Leissner that he had agreed to get Najib’s children jobs in exchange for business.
Leissner had been testifying at the US trial of former Goldman executive Roger Ng, who has since been found guilty of bribery and money-laundering charges involving 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), and is awaiting sentencing from a US court.
Nooryana was a strident campaigner for her father during his trial, declaring his innocence and holding to the narrative used by Najib’s legal team that he had been denied a fair trial.
Najib was convicted in July 2020 at the Kuala Lumpur High Court on corruption charges involving RM42 million of funds from SRC International Sdn Bhd, a former subsidiary of 1MDB which he oversaw as finance minister.
On August 23 last year, the Federal Court upheld his conviction and sentencing, and Najib began serving his 12-year prison sentence. He also has to pay a RM210 million fine.
The former Umno president and Pekan MP also has other graft charges related to 1MDB against him pending. – The Vibes, February 12, 2023
