From the innermost sanctum of the Prime Minister's private offices among the Minaret-studded buildings of Putrajaya to streets filled with tear-gassed protestors in downtown Kuala Lumpur, Romen Bose, a former international correspondent and political communications consultant to then Prime Minister Najib Razak, provides a gripping and engaging true story of drama, intrigue, violence and incompetence that finally ended the rule of Malaysia's sixty-one year old Barisan Nasional Government in May 2018. With a front-row seat to the major controversies that hit the Najib Razak administration, Romen reveals for the first-time how the country's leadership reacted to the disappearance of MH370 and the still classified covert moves to retrieve the remains of Malaysian victims following the shooting down of MH17. 'Final Reckoning' also gives a blow-by-blow account of how the 1MDB scandal rocked the Government and the attempts by the country's top politicians and their advisers to contain and explain it away.
This book demonstrates the spatialized and multi-scalar nature of Islamophobia. It provides ground-breaking insights in recognising the importance of space in the formation of anti-Muslim racism. Through the exploration of complementary data, both from existing quantitative databases and directly from victims of Islamophobia, applied in two important European capitals - Paris and London - this book brings new materials to research on Islamophobia and argues that Islamophobia is also a spatialized process that occurs at various interrelated spatial scales: globe, nation, urban, neighbourhood and body (and mind). In so doing, this book establishes and advances the new concept of ‘Spatialized Islamophobia’ by exploring global, national, urban, infra-urban, embodied and emotional Islamophobias as well as their complex interrelationships. It also offer a critical discussion of the geographies of Islamophobia by pointing out the lack of geographical approaches to Islamophobia Studies. By using self-reflexivity, the author raises important questions that may have hampered the study of ‘Spatialized Islamophobia’, focusing in particular on the favoured methodologies which too often remain qualitative, as well as on the whiteness of the discipline of Geography which can disrupt the legitimacy of a certain knowledge. The book will be an important reference for those in the fields of Human Geography, Sociology, Politics, Racial Studies, Religious Studies and Muslim studies.
On July 2016, the US Department of Justice filed the largest single action ever brought under the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative. From 2009 through 2015, DOJ alleged that more than US$3.5 billion belonging to One Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), a Malaysian government-linked company, were misappropriated. The central culprit was "Malaysian Official 1," today identified as then Prime Minister Najib Razak.These commentaries trace the degeneration of an inherently corrupt Najib Razak, as well as the failure of Malaysian institutions at all levels and those entrusted with running them. Najib was exposed only when the coalition he led was defeated in the May 2018 Malaysian General Elections.Malaysia is still reverberating from the consequent humongous financial and other liabilities. Worse, 1MDB is not the only mess; there are other potential 1MDB-like scandals awaiting exposure.Today Najib, his wife, ministers, and top officials face several serious criminal charges in Malaysia. Najib is not terribly bright and could not have executed this massive heist on his own. He had many enablers who not only paved his rapid political ascent but ignored his many obvious dark traits and blatant corrupt acts. His flawed character and dark tendencies were obvious much early on but Malaysians refused to recognize them in deference to his pedigree, being the son of the country's much revered second Prime Minister, Tun Razak.Najib's many enablers in turn owed their rise through his father. Their enabling and paving the way for Najib was but an expression of that old Malay cultural tradition of terhutang budi (repaying an old debt).The most consequential enabler was Mahathir Mohamad, Prime Minister from 1980 to 2003. Najib was Mahathir's political heir.Najib learned his corrupt ways only too well from his mentor, and brought them to a new obscene high, or egregious low. The only difference between Najib's and Mahathir's misdeeds is that Najib lost the election and thus his evil ways were exposed. Mahathir won elections and his crimes remained hidden. Quantitatively and qualitatively their evil deeds and characters are in the same league.It may seem perverse that despite facing multiple criminal charges, each of which could put him behind bars for the rest of his life, Najib is still being held in high esteem among a good segment of Malaysians, especially Malays. They refer to him with unabashed adoration as Malu Apa, Bossku! (My boss! What's there to be ashamed of?)As these essays make clear, there is a reason for that perversity. To a significant segment of Malays, Najib's path to the top had the imprimatur of not only Mahathir but also the Sultans and Agung. The Sultan of Pahang for example was an unabashed admirer. As those criminal charges have revealed, the loot from 1MDB may have flowed towards the various palaces and other elite.The religious sector too was not spared. With the loot of 1MDB being used to sponsor free Hajj trips, no wonder the religious establishment deemed Najib's greed and perfidy as other than that. Quite the contrary. Seeing that the funds were routed through Middle Eastern entities, that money was seen as God's bounty. To Muslim Malays, anything emanating from the land of the Prophet is holy and blessed. Even the flies in Mecca are considered halal!Najib inherits many of his father's darker side, as with his penchant to mislead. His late father Tun Razak concealed his fatal illness from everyone, even his family. As for Razak's hypocrisy, he exhorted the masses to send their children to Malay schools while he sent his to England. These odious traits find full and ugly expression in the son, Najib.These essays also cover the general failures of local institutions, and the pivotal judgments of Malaysian voters as expressed in the 2018 General Elections.
The concept of fandom, which contributes to the construction of fan fiction, provides fresh insights into the seemingly inexplicable and irrational popularity of disgraced political celebrities. Political fandom provides the critical framework for contextualizing the continuing popularity of political social media influencers such as Najib Razak within an environment of populist politics. Political fandom comprises fans and anti-fans, each of whom is capable of critical reasoning regardless of conclusions drawn. The presence of anti-fans of an influential figure speaks not to the waning of popularity, but rather, the continuing relevance of that figure within socio-political spaces. Malaysia’s political fandom does not subscribe to well-defined morality when it comes to celebrity politicians. The fans appear more tolerant of the amorality of said politicians than they would be of themselves, their circle, and their peers. Among the Malay-speaking and especially the more rural constituents, the way politicians portray their stance on Islam and address the bread-and-butter issues of their constituents appear to be more important than the politicians’ personal ethics. Najib Razak’s various sources of social capital, derived from his political lineage, his contributions during his time as Malaysia’s Prime Minister, and his ability to brand himself as a social media influencer, made him appear a potent political force despite being the first former Prime Minister to be convicted of corruption. Najib Razak has been adept at spinning social media trends to his advantage and in connecting with the mundane lives and hardships of ordinary citizens. Through his social media postings, he was able to inspire both fans and anti-fans to produce fan fiction around him in the form of images and texts which he could selectively interact with, and even use as content for his “crusade” on behalf of his supporters as an opposition MP, or as distractions from controversies associated with him. Although Najib Razak is the main focus here, a comparative analysis of Anwar Ibrahim, as a rival politician, is provided to demonstrate how Najib constructed his social media persona in ways savvier than his political opponents.
The publication of Speeches of Prime Minister is truly an unending effort taken by the Department of Information Malaysia is conveying the honorable Dato' Sri Mohd Najib aspiration and dreams to all walks of life through his speeches during landmark events. The production and publication of this book will serve as a vital source of reference for all generations precisely the future leaders of Malaysia.
Enough time has passed, and enough key events have taken place for the contours of the administration of Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to be apparent. While it has flirted openly with reforms, and has used phrases otherwise used by the opposition, its sincerity - and its capability - is still in doubt. More than that, it is not as yet clear how convinced the government actually is about of the need for institutional reforms, especially when the institutions in need of reform include the police, the anti-corruption agency, the judiciary and the dominant party, UMNO. With a new coalition opposing him in parliament, Najib comes to power wedged between his own coalition's aged traditions and the restive spirit of the times. Whether he can squeeze his way into a comfortable spot and stay in power is the question the coming years will answer.
