“He will definitely be charged,” he said.
Anwar didn’t need to say how he thought Najib’s case would end up since it relied on “how he’ll find a way to defend himself in court.” However, Anwar added: “It will be very difficult for him to escape [going to] prison.”
Mahathir, who came out of retirement to lead the uprising against Najib, has promised to hand power to Anwar within two years.
US investigators say Najib’s associates stole and laundered $4.5 billion from the 1MDB fund. Najib has denied any wrongdoing. The new government banned Najib and his wife from leaving the country, and early Thursday morning police raided his home to search for evidence.
He will certainly face charges… It will be very difficult for him to escape [going to] prison
Anwar said Najib called him on election night on May 9 when it became clear that Najib’s National Front coalition, which has ruled Malaysia since independence from Britain in 1957, was losing. He said Najib was still in denial and advised Najib to admit defeat.
“He was cocky in thinking he could succeed and even toyed with the idea of regaining a two-thirds majority.” [in parliament] which is clearly outrageous to most individuals, but he’s convinced of it,” Anwar said in an earlier interview. “He’s just unaware of the cruel reality, he’s in a cocoon.”
Anwar also said the decades-old affirmative motion policy towards the country’s Malay majority ought to be scrapped in favor of a brand new program to assist the poor no matter race.
Malaysia’s prime minister also said he plans to contest a by-election this yr to grow to be a member of parliament, but is in no rush to take up the highest job.
Anwar, 70, was convicted of sodomy in 2015 in a case he considered politically motivated. His sentence expires on June 8, but on Wednesday he received a royal pardon and was released from custody.
Anwar said poor Malays would profit more from transparent policies based on merit. He said the New Economic Policy, introduced in 1971 within the wake of bloody riots fueled by Malay dissatisfaction with the relative wealth of the Chinese ethnic minority, had been used to counterpoint elites.
The program, which supplies Malays priority in government contracts, business, jobs, education and housing, is credited with lifting hundreds of thousands of Malays out of poverty and creating an urban Malay middle class.
It can be blamed for the racial divide between Malays, who make up two-thirds of Malaysia’s 31 million people, and the Chinese and Indian minorities, who’ve long complained of presidency discrimination.
The policy is a sensitive issue, and lots of Malays fear they may lose their privileges under the brand new government. Many ethnic minorities have left Malaysia seeking higher opportunities elsewhere.
“I said NEP should be abolished, but affirmative action must be more effective. I believe that poor, disadvantaged Malays will benefit more from a transparent and effective affirmative action policy rather than the New Economic Policy which was adopted to enrich a few cronies,” said Malay Anwar.
Anwar, who modified Malaysia’s political landscape along with his reform movement after he was fired as deputy prime minister in 1998, said he expected his alliance to win by a narrow margin but didn’t expect the victory to be so complete.
[Najib] he was filled with himself, considering he could make it… He’s just oblivious to the cruel reality, he’s in a cocoon
Anwar was once an influential National Front activist but was convicted of homosexual sodomy and corruption after a 1998 power struggle with Mahathir, who was prime minister for 22 years until 2003.
He was released in 2004 but convicted again in 2015 of sodomy, which he said was contrived to destroy his political profession.
Anwar worked from his prison cell to forge a brand new opposition alliance, ending a two-decade feud with Mahathir, and the gamble paid off when the alliance won the polls. Mahathir took office because the world’s oldest elected leader.
“It’s a long wait… it’s a 20-year fight. There was still humiliation and victimization, but it’s OK, we survived. There is no point in complaining too much,” Anwar said.
“I think we should now focus our attention on how to relieve the poor, how to reduce this inequality, how to stop these excesses and the endemic corruption that is now part of the culture.”
Anwar said forgiving Mahathir and rebuilding their friendship within the interest of the country was not as difficult as he thought, and that they might “emerge as two great friends again.”
He downplayed concerns about possible tensions with Mahathir, saying he wouldn’t hold any government position for now to present Mahathir a “free hand” to run the country.
However, Anwar said he plans to return as a lawmaker by running on this yr’s by-elections, in addition to spend time along with his family and travel abroad to make speeches. He praised Mahathir as a “tireless warrior”.
“He selected a very good ending to this episode. “I don’t desire to disclaim that we had serious differences of opinion over policy and abuses, but now he has said, ‘Look, I owe this to this nation that I loved, and I need to make amends and take corrective measures,'” Anwar said.
Anwar said the brand new government faces enormous challenges in checking out the financial mess left by 1MDB and setting up effective policies, but he’s confident that Malaysia can emerge as a “beacon of democracy and justice within the region and particularly within the Muslim world.”
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse
