The Malaysian Insight

MALAY leaders were manipulated by scandal-tainted ex-prime minister Najib Razak to enable him to escape criminal persecution, said Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

In his latest blog post, Dr Mahathir, who replaced Najib as prime minister in 2018, accused the latter of manipulating current premier Muhyiddin Yassin for his own ends.

Najib faces several charges of fraud, abuse of power and laundering money swindled from 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).

“Najib has succeeded in using a Malay who wants so much to become prime minister,” Dr Mahathir said, referring to Muhyiddin, who was sworn in as prime minister on March 1.

Muhyiddin’s Perikatan Nasional government deposed Dr Mahathir’s Pakatan Harapan administration through a bloodless coup in the last week of February.

Although Muhyiddin is prime minister, Najib’s party, Umno, holds the largest number of parliamentary seats in Perikatan.

“Now, Najib’s stepson has gotten away. If the public does not speak up, with Muhyiddin’s approval, Najib can also escape jail,” Dr Mahathir wrote.

Charges against Najib’s stepson Riza Aziz for laundering US$248 million  (RM1.07 billion) of stolen 1MDB funds were dropped after the filmmaker reached an agreement with the government to return US$17.3 million.

The discharge not amounting to an acquittal (DNAA), however, has been criticised as a lopsided deal that mostly benefits Riza.

In his blog post, Dr Mahathir also asked readers to consider the possibility that Najib had a hand in Muhyiddin’s ascension as prime minister.

“Do you think that Najib had helped Muhyiddin become prime minister only for him to go to jail? Can we accept the possibility that Najib is that generous? Think about it.”

Dr Mahathir alleged that Najib had played up the DAP bogeyman to scare Pakatan’s Malay supporters into abandoning the coalition for Perikatan.

The Chinese-dominated DAP, along with PKR and Amanah, make up Pakatan, which, until late February, also included Muhyiddin’s party, Bersatu.

Pakatan leaders have claimed that Muhyiddin took Bersatu out of the coalition due to unfounded fears that DAP was calling the shots.

“We were deceived by Najib who fears prison. After voters rejected Najib, he played on Malay fears so that he could return through the backdoor government.” – June 17, 2020.