Name: Malaysias former PM guilty in major corruption scandal
Uploaded: 2025-12-26T13:12:21.368Z
Duration: 4 min 13 s
Description: A court found the ex-PM Najib Razak guilty on all 25 counts tied to more than $700 million channelled from the 1MDB into his personal accounts. Analyst Bridget Welsh says the verdict will deepen political polarisation.

A court found the ex-PM Najib Razak guilty on all 25 counts tied to more than $700 million channelled from the 1MDB into his personal accounts. Analyst Bridget Welsh says the verdict will deepen political polarisation.

Putrajaya

Malaysia's former prime minister Najib Razak has been convicted on all 25 counts related to the 1MDB corruption scandal, following a lengthy trial that began with charges in 2018. The case, described as the largest kleptocracy scandal in history, involved billions of dollars in misappropriated funds and led to the downfall of Malaysia's long-ruling party, UMNO.

The trial featured testimony from dozens of witnesses and highlighted deep political divisions within Malaysia. Najib's conviction is expected to have lasting political consequences, including increased polarization and challenges for the governing coalition, while also demonstrating the strength and perseverance of the Malaysian judiciary.

Malaysia's former PM guilty in major corruption scandal

Joining us now from Kuala Lumpur is political analyst Bridget Walsh and she teaches political science at the University of Nottingham, Malaysia. Good to have you with us Bridget. Now what do you make of the conviction of the former Prime Minister guilty on all 25 counts? It's been seven years in the making this particular case which began when he was charged in September 2018. It was a very complicated, very long, drawn-out affair involving over 50 different prosecution witnesses and 26 defense witnesses. The long and short of it is is that he's been found guilty and I think that the evidence has been overwhelmingly over these years building to this case. But it is one that has very deeply polarizing in the context of Malaysia because Malaysian politics remains highly polarized. Briefly remind us if you can of what that one MDB scandal was and why it became so politically explosive. So it is a the largest kleptocracy scandal to date in the world. It officially involved 6.5 billion US dollars but the numbers go much beyond that to almost 10 billion. But of the 6.5 that's been in these particular cases about 4.5 has been taken in forms of graft and this of course has been raised and discussed through these particular trials. It involved in seven different countries a series of financial companies and others to make this particular thing happen and money was filtered into supporting for elections. Also it was used for personal purchases and other particular abuses of power. And there was also subsequently a cover-up of this particular scandal. And so these things went on for many many years and it led to the end of the power of the dominant party UMNO who was in power from 1957 to 2018. This scandal brought down the government because of a significant not only in amount but also the sense that the greed and the corruption that it involved. And this trial reflects the conviction of the Prime Minister on the 1MDB issue. He had been convicted previously on a subsidiary but now this involves the main trial and of course it involves both money laundering and abuse of power charges. And as you mentioned how pivotal it's been this is Najib's second conviction. So what political impact do you think this is likely to have in Malaysia? Well I think that you know it's important to understand that Najib Razak has a lot of supporters in Malaysia. Not only people in his party but people who see him as having good governance outside of the trial in areas of managing the economy in certain areas of policies for example to the Indian community. And this has allowed him to maintain a political support among large swaths of Malaysian society. And Malaysian politics is for the last I would say 15 years has been particularly deeply polarized of which Najib has been part of that polarization. Issues about questions of corruption, questions of transparency, questions of political accountability. This particular case speaks to the strength of the judiciary. It has been a long haul for them. It has been a strength a process of political will allowing this case to move forward given that Malaysian politics is highly fragmented and the stakes that are involved. But there will be spillovers. I think there are two major and consequences. Number one I think that this puts Najib Razak as a player in Malaysian politics in cold storage and of course in prison for quite some time. I think the second implication is that it will put challenges on the governing coalition because they're very different perceptions within the political parties about the Najib trial. And of course it will deepen some of the political polarization that exists with the Malaysian politics. Political scientist Bridget Welsh in Kuala Lumpur, thank you very much for speaking to us.

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