Najib Razak's statement to UMNO leaders in July 2015 may be the basis for his pardon as Harun Idris was pardoned , and provide an avenue for his return to UMNO's leadership

 by Ganesh Sahathevan

                 Najib needs to look  to his history to perhaps fulfill his father's expectations of him

In December 2015  the Wall Street Journal reported:

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak was fighting for his political life this summer after revelations that almost $700 million from an undisclosed source had entered his personal bank accounts.Under pressure within his party to resign, he called together a group of senior leaders in July to remind them everyone had benefited from the money.The funds, Mr. Najib said, weren’t used for his personal enrichment. Instead, they were channeled to politicians or into spending on projects aimed at helping the ruling party win elections in 2013, he said, according to a cabinet minister who was present.“I took the money to spend for us,” the minister quoted Mr. Najib as saying.

Like Najib, Harun Idris was jailed  for a financial crime. Harun argued that he did what he did for UMNO, but the argument failed and he was convicted and jailed.However, he was soon pardoned, and that pardon won public support.

Najib can therefore rely on that same argument as the basis for what ought to be a successful plea for pardon. 

Harun did  not return to his former position as Menteri Besar Selangor, but those were different times, with very different players. What Najib does with his pardon will be entirely in his hands. 

END 

Reference 

UPI ARCHIVES

 

AUG. 30, 1982

Minister jailed in Ali-Bugner fight fiasco gets pardon

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- A state minister jailed for embezzling funds to sponsor the 1975 Muhammad Ali-Joe Bugner championship fight was among 62 prisoners pardoned by Malaysia's king today on the eve of the country's 25th independence anniversary.

Harun Idris, the former chief minister of Selangor State and once tapped to become prime minister, was sentenced to six years imprisonment in 1977 for using millions of dollars of bank funds to finance the title bout between Ali and Bugner in Kuala Lumpur in 1975, which he sponsored.


Harun, who was president of the ruling alliance's influential United Malays National Organizations youth wing and head of the cooperative Bank Rakyat, earlier had been convicted on 17 counts of embezzlement and corruption for misappropriating the group's funds for his own use.

Premier Mahathir Mohamad paroled Harun last October after he served three years of his sentence.

The prime minister's department said in a brief statement that the king, on the advice of the Pardons Board, agreed to give full pardons to Harun, 49 criminal prisoners whose sentences were due to end next month and 12 prisoners convicted under the Internal Security Act.

Home Affairs Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Musa Hitam announced the release of 47 other security detainees from detention camps. He said their release was not made as a result of 'pressure or appeals by any group claiming to champion human rights.'
Seven lawyers representing various civil rights groups recently visited Malaysia on a fact-finding mission but were accused of interfering in the country's internal policies.

Musa said the release of the detainees showed the 'principles of democracy and human rights were practiced in the country.'