Najib Razak

Najib Razak (born 1953) is a Malaysian politician who served as the country's sixth prime minister from 2009 to 2018. Born at Kuala Lipis, Pahang, the eldest son of the second prime minister, Abdul Razak Hussein, he entered parliament at twenty-three in his late father's seat, rose through a succession of cabinet posts to the premiership, and saw his government fall in the historic 2018 election amid the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal, in which he was later convicted and imprisoned. ^{1 2}

Mohammad Najib bin Abdul Razak was born on 23 July 1953 at Kuala Lipis, Pahang, the eldest of Abdul Razak Hussein's six sons. He was educated at St. John's Institution in Kuala Lumpur and at Malvern College in England, and took a bachelor's degree in industrial economics from the University of Nottingham in 1974. Returning to Malaysia, he worked briefly at Bank Negara Malaysia and then at Petronas, the national oil company. ^{1 3}

Najib was elected to parliament in 1976, aged twenty-three, replacing his deceased father in the Pahang seat of Pekan, and took leadership roles in UMNO Youth the same year. He became the youngest Menteri Besar of Pahang (1982–1986), then rotated through cabinet portfolios — culture, youth and sports, defence, education and finance — and served as deputy prime minister under Abdullah Ahmad Badawi from 2004. ¹

In April 2009 Najib succeeded Abdullah as sixth prime minister and president of UMNO and the Barisan Nasional coalition. His government pursued economic liberalisation, introduced the unpopular Goods and Services Tax in 2015, and dealt with the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disaster. From 2015 the 1MDB scandal closed in: he removed his deputy Muhyiddin Yassin, who had criticised his handling of it, and faced a citizens' declaration led by Mahathir Mohamad seeking his removal. In the 2018 general election the coalition lost power for the first time since independence; Najib conceded defeat and promised a smooth transition. ¹

Arrested in July 2018, Najib was convicted in 2020 of abuse of power, money laundering and criminal breach of trust in the SRC International case arising from 1MDB, and sentenced to twelve years' imprisonment and a heavy fine; the Federal Court upheld the conviction in August 2022 and he entered Kajang Prison. A partial royal pardon in 2024 halved his sentence. His filiation to Abdul Razak Hussein is recorded once, in his father's record, following this collection's rule. No source read for this record names a religious school for Najib Razak, and this record records none. ^{1 2}

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