Hopes of royal pardon at fever pitch

THERE has been a frenzied mood among the hardcore supporters of Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Speculation of a royal pardon has been rife the last couple of weeks and they are convinced the former premier will be a free man by the end of the month.

Some actually believed it would happen yesterday because Friday is always special for Muslims and there was a bigger than usual crowd to greet Datuk Seri Najib Razak at the High Court when he arrived for his ongoing money laundering case connected to the SRC International Sdn Bhd.

But Friday came and went and they are still waiting and disappointed.

Where is this feverish hope of a royal pardon coming from? Apparently, a lot of it has to do with the palace or rather the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah whose reign ends on Jan 31.

Expectations are high because the King is also the Sultan of Pahang and he and Najib go back a long way.

All eyes were on the King and Queen when they attended the wedding of Najib’s youngest son Mohd Norashman to an Indonesian beauty. It was seen as a bond between the Pahang palace and the Najib clan.

The King had also acknowledged and thanked Najib for his foresight in kickstarting the Pan Borneo Highway. During his visit to TRX or the Tun Razak Exchange, those around him heard him refer to it as “the effort of Najib”.

The King will return to the warmest of welcome from his subjects in Pahang. Imagine if he is to “balik kampung” after giving Najib the gift of a lifetime rather than to let it happen under the reign of a Sultan from another state.

There is a great deal of empathy for Najib in Umno. The average Umno person has not kept up with the blow-by-blow accounts of his corruption cases and they see him as a victim of selective prosecution.

Ingrained in their minds was the dramatic way the final leg of his appeal in the Federal Court last year was rushed through and which saw both Najib and his lawyers mortified and humiliated.

The judges probably acted as they saw fit but it was a disaster in terms of optics. When Najib was sent to prison for 12 years, there were reports of Wanita Umno members crying at meetings and party members bemoaning that Bossku was denied a fair trial.

Granting a pardon, said a Cabinet minister who asked not to be named, is His Majesty’s absolute prerogative.

“The King can decide as he sees fit. It has to do with the element of mercy and the law of mercy is very wide,” said the Cabinet minister. He does not have to act on the advice of the executive,” said the minister.

The last high-profile royal pardon was no less than Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. No one, not even Umno leaders, dared let out a squeak when then Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Muhammad V pardoned Anwar who was serving time for his sodomy conviction.

A highly-placed personality in Putrajaya said he has been made aware that a royal pardon is being “seriously considered” on the part of the palace but no one, he added, knows what to expect.

Surely the palace is aware of sentiments outside of Umno? A pardon would amount to crossing a red line and sending a misguided message on corruption.

The sense among the Bossku group is that there is a veiled effort to ramp up the 1MDB scandal - from international media news reports to the promotion of the Man on the Run movie.

Najib is still referred to as the “disgraced former leader” and “felonious former premier” in the media and a pardon at this stage would affect the country’s image. Besides, Najib has served hardly two years of his current sentence and is still doing battle on other charges.

The Najib dilemma is raised at almost every Umno supreme council meeting but Umno members out there think the party leadership is not pushing hard enough.

Bossku’s persona has grown bigger in spite of being in prison. It is reminiscent of Anwar’s aura when he was going in and out of court.

The powers-that-be in Putrajaya are also unsure what will happen if Najib is freed. He may be a “good boy” for a while but what if he becomes a gathering point for those who are unhappy with the way Umno is heading?

What if those who want Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi out of the picture start to rally behind Najib to propel someone more suitable to lead Umno?

Ahmad Zahid held the party together during its darkest days but has failed to take the party forward in regaining Malay support. Young Malays have shunned Umno and some are calling for Khairy Jamaluddin, whose sacking is deemed a loss to Umno, to be reinstated.

There is also the question of how the Prime Minister himself feels about the matter. Both Anwar and Najib have a natural ability to draw crowds and the circle around Anwar would not want Najib to steal the limelight.

Most of all, there is the concern that Bossku could change the power dynamics and a new alliance that is less keen on sticking with Pakatan Harapan may form around him.

So much is resting on the shoulders of the King because it is all in his hands. The window is closing with only about a dozen more days to go before the throne changes hands.

“I don’t even dare to think one way or another,” said a former aide of Najib.

The cynics think the timing is not right and a pardon is unlikely to happen. Pakatan supporters are obviously dead against it.

But the fervent supporters of Bossku have not given up hope.

> The views expressed here are entirely the writer’s own