Anwar Ibrahim most probably feels little love for Najib Razak. It was under Najib that Anwar had his acquittal for sodomy reversed by an aggressive public prosecutor on appeal, where he served a second jail term. At the time it appeared to have destroyed Anwar’s political career, which happened to provide Najib an electoral advantage.
So most probably, Anwar would be one of the last people who would want Najib released or even allowed to serve out his term in home detention. Politically, a free Najib would become a political menace to Anwar. Najib is probably one of the only people who could rebuild UMNO, that is held hostage by Ahmad Zahid Hamid into a strong political force again, where Najib could make a valid claim for the prime ministership.
For Anwar, Najib is better off in jail.
However, Anwar owes Zahid of UMNO big time for abandoning Perikatan Nasional (PN) and Muhyiddin Yassin at the last minute to throw his ailing UMNO behind Anwar for prime minister.
This support came at a large cost for Anwar. First leniency for Zahid in his criminal cases, which led to a DNAA, a deputy prime ministership, and then a pardon for Najib.
The issue of the pardon for Najib has weighed down on Anwar. Anwar wants Najib where he is now in Kajang, but a substantial proportion of influential people inside UMNO want him free, no matter the optics. The problem didn’t go away. UMNO kept pushing the point.
Anwar blocked any full pardon by suggesting a commutation of his sentence from 12 years to 6 years. This seemed to solve everything, Najib had gone in front of the pardons board, and was still in jail. There was public outrage, but Anwar could wear it.
That was until the addendum to Najib’s sentence reduction surfaced. Anwar and his lieutenant Saifuddin Nasution Ismail had to deny the existence of document all last year, until they were forced to admit its existence after the former YDPA’s office confirmed there was an addendum.
This has caused some consternation between Anwar and Zahid. Anwar is seen as the man preventing Najib’s release. However, technically, Anwar enabled Najib to jump the queue with his pardon application, and he could blame the board for the decision made. He made Zaliha Mustafa federal territories minister, who when it comes to the subject of pardons can’t seem to put a sentence together in public.
Keeping Najib at Kajang was Anwar’s plan all along
Anwar knew that Najib still faces a number of trials. One is going on now in the High Court. Najib faces 25 criminal charges, being 4 counts of abuse of power, and 21 counts of money laundering alleging RM 2.3 billion was taken from 1MDB.
The potential penalties, if Najib is found guilty under Section 23 of the MACC Act 2009 is a maximum of 20 years imprisonment for each count of abuse of power, and a fine of 5 times the amount involved. That is RM 11.3 billion per charge. For money laundering, conviction allows a maximum of 7 years imprisonment, and a fine at the court’s discretion.
This could mean a total jail time of 80 years for abuse of power and 147 years for money laundering. However, its unusual for anyone to be given more than 20 years on such charges in Malaysia.
Anwar knows how to play them out and they dont even know it.
If Najib is found guilty and given an additional prison sentence. Najib’s current sentence is due to be served on August 23 2028. His new sentence might be consecutive, but most likely be served concurrently. In any case, any conviction is most likely to add years to Najib’s prison sentence.
That’s why in Anwar’s latest 101 East interview Anwar kept saying, “He is in prison”. Anwar doesn’t intend to see Najib released anytime soon. Najib will probably be in jail longer than Anwar is prime minister.
Source : Murray Hunter
The Coverage Malaysia
