KUALA LUMPUR: Najib Razak’s strongest backing for a royal pardon comes from the Indian community, with 62.2% of respondents supporting the former prime minister’s bid, according to a survey by think tank Merdeka Center.

Commissioned by reform group Projek Sama, the survey was conducted from March 27 to April 17 with 1,210 respondents across all 222 parliamentary constituencies.

According to the survey, public opinion on Najib’s bid for a pardon is split along ethnic and political lines.

While Najib enjoys majority support from Barisan Nasional voters and segments of the Malay and Muslim Bumiputera communities, the overall sentiment is against any move to pardon him.

“A total of 57.8% of respondents opposed his pardon plea, citing betrayal of public trust, ongoing legal cases, and his refusal to admit guilt.

“In contrast, only 32.7% supported a pardon, mostly on the grounds of Najib’s contributions to the country,” said Thomas Fann, who heads Projek Sama.

Support among Muslim Bumiputeras stood at 50.5%, while 43% of Malays backed the pardon. In contrast, 95% of Chinese respondents and 51% of non-Muslim Bumiputeras opposed the move.

Najib, 70, was convicted of misappropriating RM42 million from SRC International Sdn Bhd and has been serving his sentence at Kajang prison since Aug 23, 2022.

On Feb 2 last year, the Federal Territories Pardons Board announced that the former prime minister’s prison sentence had been halved from 12 years to six, and his fine reduced from RM210 million to RM50 million.

Fann said that most urban respondents, or 63.6%, were opposed to pardoning Najib.

“The respondents who reject the idea of pardoning Najib range from high-income groups at 69.5% to 74.7% to private sector and self-employed workers at 63.2% to 64.5%,” he said.

The survey also gauged views on fairness in sentencing by presenting two contrasting cases: a lorry driver jailed three years for stealing bananas, and a national leader jailed 12 years and fined RM210 million for embezzlement.

Most respondents, or 54.8%, said the theft sentence was too harsh, while 44.3% found the embezzlement sentence appropriate. Another 40.8% said it was too light.

Overall, 85.1% of respondents saw no justification for reducing the sentence in the high-profile corruption case.

The survey also revealed differences in opinion regardless of political affiliation, with even BN supporters showing limited support for leniency.

“Even among BN supporters, 48.9% found the sentence fair and 32.8% thought it was too light – underlining strong public support for firm punishment in corruption cases, regardless of political affiliation,” Fann said.

Merdeka Center researcher Tan Seng Keat said the 1,210-person sample was consistent with international polling standards and reflected general public sentiment, although follow-up focus groups would be needed to explore the findings in depth.

https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/...on-survey-finds

so indian like corrupted leader?

How many % of voters are of Indian decent?

He help Indians more compared to other exPMs. Launch SEDIC (now MITRA), Economic Blueprint for Indians, ASN for Indians, open matriculation for Indians etc.

Sadly, all songlap by MIC. That's why all fed up vote PH instead.

This post has been edited by MaybachS600: May 9 2025, 01:55 PM

Indians vote very crucial. Kingmaker level. You lose yindian vote you lose next GE

This post has been edited by max_cavalera: May 9 2025, 01:57 PM

Just another day in Msia. Anyhow hantam say this and that.

Najib is actually the most progressive PM in Malaysia history but too bad he had to be a cuck. Not even lebai Anwar can be as open as him.

Simple analogy is like someone takes in billions while donating rm1 to others at their expense. If anyone is blind to see this then i rest my case

read my ciggy bro...

This

The support for Bossku is crazily high man....

For me, whatever najib did can be forgiven because he was the only leader who had the balls to bring back our citizens from the terrorist russians.

more like they support people who can give them free money

or they thought if they support him, he would give them money after royal pardon

yindia support onot

As usual, malaysia suppork whoever make the money rain down

Lol. Good one. Funny.

Actually indian always kenang budi.

The 10% quota for matriculation was opened to non-bumis long before Najib became PM.

what najib do is to give indian priority in getting that 10%

oh well

Whatever najib did can be forgiven?

Sekor lagi bodo pergi baca la apa dia samun.

Sebab tu la biforti kekal biforti sebab bingai malas membaca