Najib to walk free after next general election?
Ever wonder why Najib Razak’s lawyer – Muhammad Shafee Abdullah – has suddenly gone silent over a royal pardon and house arrest? Shafee, who had whined, cried, and bitched till foaming at the mouth about the government’s obstruction of a purported “addendum order” by the previous King allowing Najib to serve his jail sentence under house arrest, has even rubbished that Najib had filed a fresh pardon application.
In fact, in April 2026, the disgraced former Prime Minister, currently serving his sentence at Kajang Prison for misappropriating RM42 million belonging to SRC International Sdn Bhd, mysteriously withdrew his appeal over the failed bid to serve the remainder of his prison sentence – which was already halved by fake reformist PM Anwar Ibrahim – under house arrest.
It was as if Najib no longer wanted to go home and had fallen in love with prison life. Even Najib’s hardcore UMNO supporters have suddenly lost interest. But it’s not difficult to guess why – the next 16th General Election. It would be political suicide for Prime Minister Anwar to facilitate the release of Najib from Kajang Prison with the national polls around the corner.
However, for Najib to obediently and patiently suck his toes waiting to go home could only mean one thing – a secret deal has been made. A fresh royal pardon or a house arrest could only be granted “after” Anwar gets his second term. But Marina Ibrahim has just exposed that the Premier was not the only culprit eager to see the crook free from prison.
Marina, formerly Democratic Action Party (DAP) assemblywoman for the Chinese-majority Skudai constituency, has been unfairly attacked by DAP hardcore supporters after her announcement on May 31 to end her political career at a young age of 38. Her abrupt resignation from DAP was greeted with accusations of betraying the party or leaving out of sulking.
When she was with DAP, she was praised as a progressive and talented Malay leader in DAP. But once she quit the party, she is demonised as a traitor who was “bought over” or planning to jump ship to another party. Frustrated, she finally reveals why she abandoned her party. The final straw that broke the camel’s back was her conversation on April 12 with a DAP leader who had previously been a vocal critic of Najib.
In a Facebook post on July 1, Marina Ibrahim alleged that the senior DAP leader supported the idea of granting Najib Razak, who had stolen billions in the infamous 1MDB scandal, a royal pardon and allowing him to serve his sentence under house arrest. “The leader told me that it was not wrong for Najib to be granted a pardon and house arrest due to his past contributions,” she said.
Lending credence to suspicions, Marina said the DAP leader shared that it would be preferable for Najib to receive a royal pardon only after the next general election. “If Najib is pardoned before the election, the Chinese voters’ trust in us will decline,” she quoted the leader as saying. That conversation shattered her faith in politics. Hence, she dismissed suggestions that she left because she had been moved to another constituency (Tiram) or was acting out of dissatisfaction.
To regain the confidence of the Chinese community and avoid a repeat of the party’s election annihilation in Sabah, she exposed how DAP planned to create a public narrative through a special party congress (originally scheduled for July 12, but later postponed to August). Apparently, DAP would stage a drama – some party leaders were prepared to resign if Najib received an early pardon but hilariously would continue to support the Anwar government.
The political theatre was intended to project principles without significantly affecting the party so close to an election. This is to scam gullible supporters that DAP ministers under the leadership of spineless Anthony Loke Siew Fook have the balls to resign out of principle over Najib’s corruption scandal, never mind that such resignation drama comes with a few months left before the next national election.
Discussing with her team, she questioned whether manipulating public trust had become an accepted political strategy in DAP. Before making a decision to quit, Marina said she met another Malay political leader on May 20 in the hope of gaining a different perspective. Instead, she claimed the discussion centred on party positions, the distribution of power and appointments to government-linked companies.
She also questioned why DAP leaders had only recently begun raising the issue of a possible pardon for Najib after Johor UMNO announced it would not cooperate with DAP in the coming election. “If DAP truly regarded this as a red line that could not be crossed, why did it continue hoping to cooperate with Barisan Nasional (in Johor) for the past four years?” – she asked.
Therefore, she questioned the double standards practised in DAP, saying political principles appeared to change depending on who was involved. “Previously, when others did it, we said it was wrong. Today, when we do the same thing, suddenly it becomes right,” – she wrote. She said she left politics because she could no longer reconcile her principles with what she described as political hypocrisy.
You can blame Marina Ibrahim for anything for quitting DAP, but power-crazy is obviously not one of them. Besides former Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli and Minister of Natural Resources Nik Nazmi, she is perhaps one of the very few principled leaders who have resigned from ruling political parties. And she’s the only DAP leader who decided to quit over party hypocrisy and double standards.
The burning question is whether she reveals the truth. She could pretend to be an obedient girl if she’s power-hungry, knowing that she would be rewarded even if she were to lose in an election in the new Tiram constituency she was transferred to. Due to her skin colour, DAP still needs her as a decorative “flower pot”. But she decided to quit the party she once thought was principled.
She could actually quit using the lack of reforms as an excuse. Instead, she revealed it was DAP’s readiness to work hand-in-glove with PM Anwar and corrupt UMNO in granting not only a royal pardon for Najib, but also the dirty politics of orchestrating some ministers’ resignation to hoodwink the Chinese community. So far, DAP has not responded to her allegations.
By exposing Anwar-led Unity Government’s plan to free Najib, Marina has not only burned her bridges with Pakatan Harapan (comprising PKR, DAP and Amanah), but also with UMNO-led Barisan Nasional alliance. This means she has very little option to jump ship, as accused by some of her critics. It would be a very dumb strategy to leave DAP and join Rafizi’s one-month-old Bersama – if indeed she is seeking power.
Unless DAP publicly and convincingly counters Marina’s story, it could cost DAP truckloads of votes in not only the upcoming Johor state election, but also the next general election. It was already bad that DAP under Loke suspiciously kept quiet when power-hungry PM Anwar halved Najib’s jail sentence to six years from 12. It now becomes worse when DAP is betraying the people – agreeing with plans to free the crook from prison. – Finance Twitter