Clare Rewcastle Brown was harassed and vilified for years for waging a quixotic campaign to expose Malaysian corruption that helped topple the country's long-ruling regime.
(Updated: )
The British investigative journalist is now back in the country of her birth after being blacklisted for years, and being treated as a celebrity in a sign of the whirlwind changes since historic May 9 elections.
No one is more stunned than Rewcastle, who said she expects to see further startling revelations of corruption and misrule emerge as a reformist administration cleans house.
"There is so much that's going to come tumbling out now," she said during an interview in Kuala Lumpur.
"Everyone is gob-smacked as they see these things happening. There are going to be more amazing scenes to come."
Rewcastle, now 58, has been a thorn in the side of Malaysia's ruling elite for years, working from abroad to expose larceny and misrule centering mostly on the rainforested state of Sarawak where she was born and spent her early years.
But her biggest bombshell may have been the 2015 revelation by her website Sarawak Report that nearly US$700 million was funnelled into the bank account of ex-premier Najib Razak.
That helped super-charge allegations that Najib and his entourage plundered billions from sovereign wealth fund 1MDB, in a scandal that led to his electoral defeat, ending six decades under an increasingly corrupt government.
He is now under investigation and expected to be charged.
(AFP/Laurence CHU, John SAEKI)
SMEAR CAMPAIGN
Rewcastle's work over the years triggered Malaysian arrest warrants, lawsuits, threats, and a sustained campaign of online vilification that she suspects was orchestrated by Najib's government using western PR firms.
The sister-in-law of former British prime minister Gordon Brown, Rewcastle was still recently being approached by shadowy characters offering pay-offs if she'd publish juicy "revelations" for them - ham-fisted attempts to entrap and discredit her, she says.
"Millions have gone into trying to destroy my reputation, which could have been spent on something useful," she said. "But all they did was help make me famous, the stupid idiots."
Never welcome, and officially barred from Malaysia in 2015, Rewcastle has gone almost overnight from persona non grata to welcome guest.
She met AFP following an interview with a state-aligned newspaper that formerly maligned her but gave her glowing front-page treatment on Monday.
She was halted repeatedly by ordinary Malaysians who recognised her distinctive ginger locks, stopping to thank her and snap selfies.
Many more have praised Rewcastle on social media after learning of her arrival. "It's extremely gratifying," she said.
Few foreigners were as feared by Malaysia's government.
Born in Sarawak when it was a British crown colony, she spent several years there, often following her mother - a midwife for indigenous people - on jungle jaunts to remote clinics.
She later worked for the BBC and others in London in investigative journalism before devoting herself to publicising Sarawak corruption, deforestation, and eviction of native peoples from traditional lands.
"I did this partly because I was mad, and partly because I thought there was a slim chance something could be done," she said of the state, which environmentalists believe has lost nearly all of its original rainforest.
In 2010, she started Sarawak Report and short-wave broadcaster Radio Free Sarawak - operated in secret from London, and later Bali, Brunei and Sarawak itself.
Rewcastle drew on a network of contacts in Malaysia to repeatedly expose Sarawak corruption. Najib's regime eventually blocked the website - a move the new government has reversed - and radio signals were jammed.
WINDING DOWN
With Malaysia on a reform path, Rewcastle expects to wind down her anti-graft work, which she said has been a "hand-to-mouth" operation reliant on family funds and the odd donation from supporters.
But she pledged to "do my darnedest" to continuing advocating for Sarawak.
That includes pushing for investigations into its former chief minister, Abdul Taib Mahmud.
The retired 82-year-old, who was loosely aligned with Najib's regime, is accused by indigenous activists of ruling Sarawak like a family fiefdom for 33 years, plundering its timber and building ecologically harmful dams.
Sarawak Report, along with the Bruno Manser Fund, a Swiss NGO, has documented huge investments around the world by Taib's circle.
"Taib needs to be taken by the ankles and shook, so the money falls out," Rewcastle said.
"There's still a lot to be done. But we're in a terrific position now to really campaign for what this was originally about."
BIRKIN HANDBAGS, CONDOMINIUM UNIT AND ESCAPE ROUTE PLANNED BY FORMER PM ALL HAVE ONE WEALTHY LOCAL TYCOON COUPLE IN-COMMON.
As things began to heat-up and unravel for the past week after former Prime Minister Najib Razak and wife tried to make a run on the morning of the 12th of May after this page: "Curi-Curi Wang Malaysia" ( CCWM ) managed to leak the information to the public which later was picked-up by the mainstream press, as well as with the help of many brave fellow Malaysians whom stood their ground that morning at Subang Skypark to ensure the former Malaysian Official Number 1 did not get away so easily; we began to see things unravel as the days passed by.
Many, including myself in-fact presumed that former Premier Najib Razak and wife's plan to escape to Jakarta was mainly because of an old friend of his whom Rafizi Ramli had once revealed maybe related to Eagle Plantations in Indonesia by which FELDA had some prior dealings with. This may or may not be true unless investigated upon thoroughly.
But as days began to pass by, the Malaysian Public was appalled to see the manner of extravagance and opulence the former Prime Minister's wife and children lived in, which was revealed from the very amount of cash, jewellery, luxury watches as well as expensive designer handbags which had been confiscated by our Royal Malaysian Police during their recent raids on apartments connected to the former Kleptocratic Prime Minister.
As things began to unfold, Federal Commercial Crimes Investigation Department ( CCID ) Director Commissioner: Datuk Seri Amar Singh Ishar Singh had been questioned by members of the press whom were present during the raids at Pavillion Residences in Kuala Lumpur: "Who does the Condo Unit belong to?" The vague answer given was merely "a TAN SRI"
But as more than two hundred plus Orange Boxes by which each had been photographed, catalogued and bagged; began to roll-out and loaded on to the Police Tricks, one name began to be well apparent on these boxes of expensive "Hermes Birkin" handbags. The label:
"FR PUAN SRI CINDY"
Upon a simple check and glance in-relation to the clue that was given by CCID Director Commissioner about the apartment unit belonging to a certain "TAN SRI", when a check into PAVILLION REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST ( REIT ) Reveals the name of two of it's biggest shareholders, which happened to be husband and wife:
Tan Sri Desmond Lim Siew Choon & Puan Seri Cindy Tan Kewi Yong
By which both Pavillion Residence Kuala Lumpur as well the Pavillion Shopping Center which many people know, is one of former First lady: Rosmah Mansor's favourite shopping destination here in Malaysia.
One would have believed that the tie ends simply there with a raided Condo residence filled with enough cash for a small bank's operation and the world's most expensive handbags, until closer inspection revealed that the very Airport Terminal in Subang Jaya by which the Private Jet chartered from Indonesia's "PremiAir" based in Jakarta, was originally scheduled to land, in-fact belongs to the very company by which Tan Sri Desmond Lim is one of the biggest shareholders at: WCT Holdings Berhad by which Tan Sri Desmond owns 19.57% shares in the company.
It was in February this year Tan Sri Desmond had made a bid to acquire 60% of SUBANG SKYPARK TERMINAL's remaining Lease Management Agreement which previously was held by Tan Sri Ravindran Menon and his partner Datuk Aisamar Kadil Syed Marikiah, by which in February was only awaiting for Government approval. This purchase was in-fact finalised only in April last month for the amount of RM44.56Million.
But, come to think about it, what should be so hard to approve when your wife is close to the Prime Minister's wife, while the Managing Director for Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad ( MAHB ): Datuk Badlisham Ghazali, is also the COUSIN of Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein Onn whom is also none other than the former Prime Minister: Najib Razak's own cousin too.
Tan Sri Desmond Lim also owns a 37.2% shares in Pavilion REITS, thus tying the very Airport Terminal by which Najib Razak and Rosmah had planned to escape from, as well as the Condominium Unit which Police had recently raided, as well as many of the boxes of Luxury handbags, are tied close together to this one particular wealthy couple.
The relation between Tan Sri Desmond's company WCT Holdings with 1MDB seems to go back quite sometime when on the 17th of April 2013; it was reported that WCT was the very first and earliest companies to be awarded a contract worth RM196 Million for earthworks and civil engineering by 1MDB Real Estate Sdn Bhd.
.......to continue
22/05/2018 01:13
ZEPANIn October 2015, WCT had also managed to acquire land valued at around RM233Million within the Bandar Malaysia/Tun Razak Exchange which was for Residential Property development. This deal or acquisition was not done through any exchange of cash by any means, but a bit similar to the Penang Tunnel development deal, this land acquisition deal was done through a trade by which WCT holdings pays for the acquisition by doing contract works worth RM754 Million.
In 2016 it was reported that Tan Sri Desmond had gain more significant influence and power when he replaced WCT's former Executive Chairman Datuk Captain Ahmad Sufian, whereas the former Managing Director: Peter Taing Kim Hwa and the company's co-founder Wong Sewe Wing had both resigned and divested their entire block of 245.72million shares of WCT, which is equivalent to 19.67% of the company, to Dominion Nexus Sdn. Bhd by which Tan Sri Desmond himself is a substantial shareholder.
In relation to 1MDB's "Bandar Malaysia" project, in December 2015, WCT was amongst the 3 local companies to bid for the development of this 486 acre ( 196ha ) of land situated at the sight of the old Sungai Besi Airforce. Amongst the other two companies bidding for this project included Permodalan Nasional Berhad ( PNB ) as well as Iskandar Waterfront City Bhd ( IWC ) which was partnered with China Railway Engineering Corporation ( CREC ) to form IWH CREC Sdn Bhd ( ICSB ). Iskandar Waterfront City Holdings ( IWC ) has about 47.16% of it's shares held by Kumpulan Prasarana Rakyat Johor Sdn. Bhd ( KPRJ ) which is owned by the Johor State Government.
In this particular bid, IWH & CRECC had put up a bid valued at around RM13BILLION for the development of the 'Bandar Malaysia' land project; and although Tan Sri Desmond whom in a consortium with a Qatari based firm came in very late after the bidding was closed, the Government stated that it would consider Tan Sri Desmond's offer as they had put up a bid valued at around RM15BILLION which was RM2Billion more than what IWH had offered.
This whole plan involving the development of 'Bandar Malaysia'; the Government then under the former BN/Najib regime had admitted was part of the Government's plans to reduce the debts which had been accumulated by 1MDB.
But the strangest chapter in this 'Bandar Malaysia' development deal came when suddenly Tun Razak Exchange City ( TRX City Sdn Bhd ) had suddenly announced that its Share Sale Agreement ( SSA ) entered into with IWH and CREC on the 31st of December 2015, which was for the sale of 60% of issued and paid-up capital in Bandar Malaysia Sdn Bhd, had lapsed, claiming that IWH and CREC did not comply while IWH had stated otherwise.
It was noted that Tan Sri Desmond's interest in the whole 'Bandar Malaysia' project was a completely commercial one as it is strategically located not far from the heart of Kuala Lumpur and would be a great addition to their PAVILLION landmarks.
Now with many of those whom were involved with 1MDB including Tan Sri Irwan Serigar, have been blacklisted from leaving the country, perhaps the apartment that was raided at PAVILION RESIDENCE as well as many of the HERMES BIRKIN handbags that were given as gifts to Rosmah Mansor by Puan Sri Cindy, may perhaps provide some INSIGHT a bit as to how and WHY the Share Sale Agreement ( SSA ) with IWC & CREC could so suddenly just fall-apart??? And maybe, PERHAPS it could give an answer to the question: WHO HELPED BOOK the Private Jet chartered for Najib Razak & Rosmah Mansor's on the 11th of May recently for their great 'holiday' escape at SUBANG SKYPARK???
May 21, 2018 -- China is funding dual-use infrastructure projects from the Pacific to the Horn of Africa, fuelling “debt traps” that will give Beijing leverage to gain strategic and military power.
05/21/2018 Graphic News
It is all part of Beijing’s “Belt and Road” initiative -- also known as “One Belt, One Road” (OBOR) -- a US$8 trillion plan to create a new Silk Road with sea and land links across Asia and Africa to Europe. OBOR will encompass some 64 nations and an estimated 7,000 infrastructure projects. And this real estate will need to be defended.
Projects costing around $900 billion are currently underway or in the planning stage, paid for with billion-dollar loans from Beijing. Loans that cannot be serviced leave governments in the debt trap. China is leveraging economic debt for strategic advantage, tilting the balance of power from the U.S and its allies towards Asia, according to a report by Harvard Kennedy School scholars for the U.S. State Department.
Co-authors, Sam Parker and Gabrielle Chefitz, point out that Beijing has used infrastructure incentives in the contested South China Sea to help break opposition to Beijing’s territorial ambitions. Now, Sri Lanka, Djibouti, Pakistan and Vanuatu are deemed to be vulnerable.
In 2017, struggling to pay its $8bn debt to Chinese state-controlled companies, Sri Lanka leased its strategic port of Hambantota to China for 99 years, raising fears it could become a military base.
In Djibouti, where the U.S., France and China already have military bases, Beijing’s state-owned enterprises have taken over Doraleh Container Terminal in exchange for debt.
Pakistan, where China is constructing major port facilities at Gwadar, is adding $62bn of Chinese loans on top of external debt standing at $82bn
Vanuatu, just 2,000 kilometres (1,240 miles) off Australia’s coast, has taken at least $270 million in Chinese loans in the past decade. Fairfax Media reported in April that China had held discussions with Vanuatu about building a People’s Liberation Army naval base -- a charge vehemently denied by Beijing.
In an interview with the Australian Financial Review, Parker said, “China is giving hundreds of billions to countries that can not afford to repay it, and it’s going to want something in return for that money. ”
Malaysian politician Anwar Ibrahim gestures after being pardoned by the king. Photograph: Lai Seng Sin/Reuters
Malaysia’s former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, jailed for sodomy four years ago, has walked free from prison after receiving a royal pardon.
Anwar’s release is the first big success of the newly elected governing coalition, Pakatan Harapan, led by 92-year-old Mahathir Mohamad, which was swept from opposition into power after a shock election victory last week.
At 11.30am on Wednesday, a frail but jubilant Anwar emerged from Cheras rehabilitation hospital in Kuala Lumpur where he has recently been serving his sentence after an operation on his shoulder. He waved to the gathered crowds before getting into a car to go to the National Palace.
Anwar Ibrahim wanted to deliver a few remarks but the media scrum was too crazy. He ducked into the waiting car that will take him to the National Palace. What a moment in history. #GE14
Few in Malaysia have been persecuted for their political views and popularity like Anwar, a man with three prison sentences and 11 years in jail to his name. The pardon was filed on the basis of a “miscarriage of justice”.
Sankara Nair, Anwar’s lawyer, said Anwar had seemed “composed and was quite upbeat, but also quite nervous” as he prepared to leave the the hospital. “It’s exhilarating to see him released, this was clearly a miscarriage of justice. This pardon has completely cleared him name at last, but it is a unique pardon, there has never been one like this in Malaysia.”
It was his first taste of freedom since 2014, following a prison sentence widely perceived as politically motivated; a manoeuvre by then prime minister Najib Razak to get rid of a feared political rival who had run against him - and won the popular vote - in the 2013 general election.
Speaking the day before his release, Nurul Izzah, Anwar’s daughter, said he was “deeply exhilarated” at the prospect of release from prison. “It’s been so long that we’ve been craving not just freedom but justice,” she said. “The pardon will completely validate his innocence, so it’s a wonderful day for us. We’ve always been fighting alongside him.”
Among the crowds was Anwar’s old university friend, 78-year-old Azidin Mahmud, who travelled 300 miles to see his old friend’s release. “He has suffered too long but he really is a champion of justice,” said Azidin. “I saw him first speaking at the university of Malaysian Speaker’s Corner in 1968. Then we travelled together around all Malaysia, fighting for the freedom of the poor man. I am very very happy to see my friend finally released today. Long live Anwar Ibrahim.”
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Ensuring the full royal pardon of Anwar was a key part of the agreement between Mahathir and the opposition when it was decided in January he would swap sides and run as their leader in the election, united by a joint desire to oust Najib. Mahathir’s previous 22-year reign as prime minister was as head of ruling party UMNO.
Under the same agreement, Mahathir will only serve as prime minister for two years, before handing power, finally, to Anwar. It was a vow he reiterated on the eve of Anwar’s release. “Maybe lasting one or two years, I will be the prime minister,” said Mahathir, though added: “I will play a role in the background even when I step down.”
The release also marks the next phase in Mahathir and Anwar’s turbulent relationship, which has been a decisive part of Malaysian politics for over three decades - Mahathir, after all, was the reason Anwar was jailed in the first place.
Anwar began his career in politics as Mahathir’s protege in the early 1980s – having already spent almost two years in jail for political protest – and quickly rose through the ranks to become deputy prime minister in 1993.
But his first downfall came in 1998, when he and Mahathir fell out over alleged cronyism and economic crisis, and when Mahathir began to fear Anwar’s vast popularity. Anwar was ousted from office and then found himself charged with sodomy and corruption. The resulting court case, the longest in Malaysian history, was an exercise in humiliation for Anwar, who was accused of sodomy with his speechwriter and wife’s chauffeur.
“I cannot accept a man who is a sodomist to become the leader of this country,” said Mahathir at the time. Even though the evidence was flimsy and much of it coerced, Anwar was found guilty in 1999 of corruption and in 2000 of sodomy, landing him with a cumulative 15 year prison sentence.
He was allowed out in 2004, having spent six years in solitary confinement, and was allowed back into politics in 2008, when he ran as opposition leader in the election. But his reappearance on the political scene was not without ramifications. In 2010, he was put on trial again for sodomy, in hearings that went on for two years. He was acquitted, then ran again as opposition leader in the 2013 elections, gaining more of the votes, but still losing to Najib.
Less than a year after Najib won the election, Anwar’s acquittal was overturned and he was sentenced to five years in jail for sodomy, where he has remained since.
Throughout his ordeal, Anwar has remained a uniting figure for the opposition, and his release will be decisive for the Pakatan Harapan coalition, who are already grappling with tension among their divided ranks of Anwar’s PKR party, Mahathir’s party Bersatu, the DAP and Amanah.
Just a few months ago, the political machine led by Najib Razak, the gilded prime minister of Malaysia, appeared so indestructible that a multibillion-dollar corruption scandal seemed unlikely to derail it. The end came so quickly, so completely, that even his opponents were shocked.
For nearly a decade, Mr. Najib, 64, had unfettered control of his nation’s courts and coffers. His party had thrived by unfailingly delivering huge cash handouts at election time. The media was at his disposal; journalists he didn’t like, he shut down. Political foes were shoved into prison.
The pampered son of a prime minister and nephew of another, Mr. Najib enjoyed the friendship of President Trump, who after playing golf with him in 2014 gave him a photo inscribed, “To my favorite prime minister.” Last year, Mr. Trump hosted Mr. Najib at the White House, even as the United States Department of Justice accused him of taking Malaysian state money.
But his authority suddenly evaporated in the early hours after Malaysia’s national elections on May 9 delivered a commanding majority to the opposition, now led by the political titan who had once lifted Mr. Najib to power: the 92-year-old Mahathir Mohamad.
The opposition was fractious, and remains so, but it was galvanized by a single purpose: to deliver the ouster of Mr. Najib to an electorate furious at his excesses and emboldened by social media even as news outlets were being muzzled.
Now, Mr. Najib is suddenly vulnerable to criminal charges at home, as well as a reinvigorated effort by the Justice Department as it pursues billions of dollars missing from 1Malaysia Development Berhad, the country’s state investment fund supervised by Mr. Najib for years.
The details released from that investigation in the past three years painted a lurid picture of a Malaysian leader and his family members and friends living high on diverted public money.
Those accusations, and others, became grist for social media outrage in Malaysia, frequently on private WhatsApp groups, but it seemed Mr. Najib still underestimated how much he was losing: a public that still valued some semblance of moderation, his once unbreakable Malay power base, even family members.
Mr. Najib’s stepdaughter, Azrene Ahmad, took to Instagram on Friday with an emotional condemnation of him and her mother, Rosmah Mansor, who had become widely known here for piling up designer labels, garlands of jewelry and a multimillion-dollar handbag collection that more than rivaled the shoe fetish of Imelda Marcos, the former first lady of the Philippines.
“Today marks the end of a day of tyranny that many have prayed for,” Ms. Azrene wrote, describing how she had “witnessed many trespasses, deals and handshakes these two made for the benefit of power and to fuel their appetite for greed.”
“The numerous offshore accounts opened to launder money out of the country for their personal spending,” she continued, cataloging her accusations against them. “The steel safes full of jewels, precious stones and cash amassed. Being made a cash mule.”
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Supporters of Mahathir Mohamad outside the National Palace in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.CreditUlet Ifansasti/Getty Images
Mr. Najib’s brother, Nazir Razak, joined in, implicitly casting his brother’s ouster as a chance for progress. “Malaysia needs major recalibration, but all attempts under the old order failed,” he wrote on social media. “Now you can!”
Even the state-linked news media, which had spent years writing slavish articles describing Mr. Najib’s wisdom and Ms. Rosmah’s charitable ventures, dropped the multiple honorifics that once preceded his name.
Mr. Mahathir, who was sworn in as prime minister on Thursday, has called Mr. Najib a thief and said he must face the consequences of his actions. “High or low, all are subject to the law,” Mr. Mahathir said Sunday at a news conference.
“This totally changes everything,” said Ren McEachern, a former supervisory special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation who specialized in international corruption. “Now that he’s out of office, there could be an appetite for criminal charges.”
Further, Mr. Najib’s removal from office is bringing new vigor to efforts by the Justice Department to pursue him, according to a person with direct knowledge of the investigation but who is not authorized to speak publicly. The department declined to comment on the case for this article.
After his defeat, Mr. Najib posted a Twitter message that was at least partly contrite. “I apologize for any shortcomings and mistakes,” he wrote, even as he maintained that “the best interests of Malaysia and its people will always be my first priority.”
But the saga of Najib Razak is one of astonishing insatiability and unaccountability. And it is a tale of a political party — the United Malays National Organization, which Mr. Najib led — that teethed on graft and patronage and collapsed under the weight of its own immoderation.
“For a long time, elites across the region have enjoyed a culture of impunity,” said Donald Greenlees, an authority on Southeast Asia at Australian National University. “There is no doubt that the decades of mostly one-party rule, the capture of state institutions, particularly the judiciary, and the taming of the media led Najib to believe he was untouchable.”
Mr. Najib’s downfall was a vanishingly rare event in a region where democracy has retreated in recent years. In Malaysia, as in other places across Southeast Asia, elections had been deployed only to legitimize those in power. Yet without a single shot fired or a threat of a coup uttered, Mr. Najib was toppled.
“The day I left home I left you a warning,” Ms. Azrene, his stepdaughter, wrote on Instagram. “There will come a reckoning when the people will punish you for your trespasses on them. There will come a day when God will punish you for your trespasses, the very people you swore to protect.”
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Malaysian police officers seizing equipment from the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) office in Kuala Lumpur in 2015. Billions of dollars disappeared from the state fund.CreditMohd Rafsan
The Flawed Heir
Mr. Najib’s pedigree was impeccable, and from an early age seemed destined to take the helm at the United Malays National Organization, which counts the betterment of the country’s ethnic Malay majority as its founding mission.
Educated at elite British schools, he acquired a posh English accent and a fondness for fine tailoring. Unlike his onetime mentor, Mr. Mahathir, he did not have an instant rapport with the rural Malay Muslim base, and early in his political career he struggled to speak Malay.
Still, the legacies of Mr. Najib’s father, who was the second prime minister of Malaysia, and his uncle, who was the country’s third, helped make up for his lack of grass-roots appeal. In interviews, Mr. Najib was smooth, gracious and somewhat distant.
“Najib grew up thinking that leading the country was his birthright,” said Rafizi Ramli, a top strategist for the opposition that ousted Mr. Najib and the National Front coalition. “He doesn’t realize that you have to earn the people’s trust and maintain the people’s trust. He is completely removed from Malaysia, the real Malaysia.”
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Mr. Najib’s father, Abdul Razak, who also served as prime minister of Malaysia. Mr. Abdul died in 1976.CreditRolls Press, via Getty Images
But his reputation was tarnished years before he became prime minister in 2009.
In 2006, when Mr. Najib was deputy prime minister, the Mongolian mistress of one of his advisers, Abdul Razak Baginda, was killed, blown up by military-grade explosives. Two of Mr. Najib’s bodyguards were eventually convicted in her murder.
French investigators are still examining whether Mr. Najib, during his time as defense minister, might have personally profited from around $130 million in kickbacks related to a transaction for French submarines. Before she was killed, the Mongolian woman, Altantuya Shaariibuu, claimed she was owed half a million dollars for brokering that deal.
The biggest scandal of all exploded in 2015 when opposition politicians and muckraking journalists questioned what had happened to billions of dollars that had disappeared from 1Malaysia Development Berhad, the country’s state investment fund.
Mr. Najib oversaw the fund, known as 1MDB, and unveiled it in 2009 as a surefire way to bring further prosperity to Malaysians through smart foreign investments and development projects.
In 2016, the United States Department of Justice dropped a bombshell: A person it referred to as Malaysian Official 1 had siphoned $731 million from 1MDB. Officials privately confirmed that Mr. Najib was Malaysian Official 1.
The Justice Department’s accusations continued: In total, more than $4.5 billion in 1MDB funds was laundered through American banks, enriching Mr. Najib, his family and friends, prosecutors said.
It said $250 million went for a megayacht, complete with a helicopter pad and movie theater, built for Jho Low, a financier friend of Mr. Najib’s stepson, Riza Aziz. Mr. Low is accused of being central to the plot, and federal prosecutors said he used 1MDB funds to buy the actor Leonardo DiCaprio a $3.2 million Picasso painting for his birthday. The Australian model Miranda Kerr received $8 million in jewelry. (Both have since returned the gifts.)
Mr. Najib explained that $681 million deposited in his personal bank account was a gift from a Saudi patron. In 2015, after Malaysia’s attorney general gathered evidence of Mr. Najib’s involvement in 1MDB and seemed poised to press charges, Mr. Najib fired him. Subsequent Malaysian government investigations cleared Mr. Najib of any wrongdoing.
Malaysians were accustomed to a certain amount of grease in the country’s political system, but the extravagant sums linked to the 1MDB scandal shocked the public. United States federal prosecutors called the money-laundering scheme “massive, brazen and blatant.”
Mr. Najib moved to shut down critical news reports, or to spin it in the state media outlets. But he could not block everything.
The Malaysian political establishment wondered how the son of a famously ascetic prime minister had grown so venal and careless. “If you want to steal this kind of money, why would you put it in your own account?” said James Chin, a Malaysian who is the director of the Asia Institute at the University of Tasmania. “It shows such arrogance.”
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Mr. Najib’s wife, Rosmah Mansor, in 2014, leaving the Time Warner Center in New York, the site of one of their homes. Ms. Rosmah is known for her overseas shopping trips and a multimillion-dollar collection of Hermès Birkin handbags.CreditMichael Appleton for The New York Times
Blame the Wife
As the public grew angrier about the excesses, Ms. Rosmah became a frequent target of ire.
Her habit of taking chartered shopping expeditions to Europe and Australia, presumably at the expense of Malaysian taxpayers, became social-media fodder. Her Hermès Birkin handbag collection, one broker said, was worth at least $10 million.
“Rightly or wrongly, Rosmah was vilified as the major partner in the corruption and scandals associated with the prime minister,” said Lim Teck Ghee, a public policy analyst in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s capital.
In 2015, when Mr. Najib’s and Ms. Rosmah’s daughter married the nephew of President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan, guests were astonished by their lavish wedding celebrations. Mr. Mahathir, who attended one party, recalled seeing soldiers lugging at least 17 trunks loaded with luxury gifts for the guests. “I had never seen that even at royal weddings,” he said in an interview with The New York Times in 2016.
Fazley Yaakob, the husband of Mr. Najib’s stepdaughter, offered another story, which he recounted on Instagram after Mr. Najib lost the election. Before the two were married, Mr. Fazley wrote, Ms. Rosmah hired a witch doctor to assess the suitability of the union. The witch doctor warned against the marriage because Mr. Fazley, unlike others, would be able to resist Ms. Rosmah’s supernatural powers.
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Mr. Najib and Ms. Rosmah in 2000.CreditLeo Chan/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
The pair married anyway. “All hell broke loose right after,” wrote Mr. Fazley, without detailing exactly what happened.
Mr. Najib was called the “Man of Steal” by Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque, one of Malaysia’s top cartoonists, who caricatured Ms. Rosmah with a giant diamond ring on her plump finger. Mr. Najib’s reaction was unforgiving. Mr. Zulkiflee, who is known by the pen name Zunar, was charged with nine counts of sedition and still could face up to 43 years in prison.
Election Day on May 9, Mr. Zulkiflee said, was “the happiest moment of my life,” and he hopes the charges will now be dropped.
During the campaign, Mr. Mahathir, who said he came out of retirement two years ago to join the opposition because he was so shocked by the cloud of corruption around Mr. Najib, succeeded in harnessing public angst over the rising cost of living to financial scandals linked to the prime minister. One that particularly resonated with rural Malays, some of whom ended up casting swing votes in favor of the opposition, was a farm subsidy program that, by some accounts, was missing around $750 million. Mr. Najib oversaw that program.
Those defections proved critical, though there was no assurance that Mr. Mahathir could still command his old popularity.
“1MDB was a key factor in the election result,” said Mr. Lim, the public policy analyst. “The long-running scandal became indelibly associated with the endemic high-level corruption in the country.”
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Electronic advertising in Kuala Lumpur before the election promoted Mr. Najib and his coalition. Mr. Najib had predicted another victory at the polls this month.CreditUlet Ifansasti/Getty Images
Failed Containment
Yet even as public outrage intensified, Mr. Najib seemed curiously removed from reality. In omnipresent campaign billboards, he hogged the limelight, his grin and upturned hands evoking less a statesman than a salesman. Malaysian voters were supposed to acquiesce to whatever deal he had on offer.
Under Mr. Najib’s leadership, the party ensured victory in 2013 by passing out hundreds of millions of dollars to party leaders to give to voters, according to his own aides.
The strategy was similar for 2018, analysts said, and Mr. Najib had predicted that the governing coalition would do even better in this month’s elections than it had in 2013, before the 1MDB scandal broke out.
On the eve of campaigning, Mr. Najib’s information minister, Salleh Said Keruak, bragged that the United Malays National Organization, or UMNO, would win easily, and that the party had access to a trove of government data on Malaysian voters. “We have it all at our fingertips,” he said.
Mr. Salleh wasn’t the only one to miscalculate. Local polling agencies predicted the elections would go to the National Front coalition, which is dominated by UMNO. Across the country, public flag displays supporting the National Front vastly outnumbered those of the opposition Alliance of Hope.
Still, there were murmurings of discontent. In a first, Malaysia’s navy chief reminded his sailors that the vote was secret so they should choose freely.
And though Mr. Trump met with Mr. Najib at the White House last September, the effort by a former top Republican operative, Elliott Broidy, to get them together again for golf failed, despite Mr. Broidy’s assurance to the White House chief of staff in a leaked email that he knew Mr. Najib well. Mr. Najib didn’t even get a customary photo op during the visit.
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A closed road outside Mr. Najib’s mansion, in the background, in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday.CreditAndy Wong/Associated Press
In the final months of the campaign, Mr. Najib fell back on tried-and-true money politics. The day before the election, he promised that Malaysians 26 and younger would not have to pay income tax if his coalition prevailed. Earlier, he offered significant pay hikes to civil servants, who are mostly ethnically Malay rather than from Malaysia’s Chinese or Indian minorities.
“That has always been his style: When faced with difficulties, throw goodies at them,” said Oh Ei Sun, a Kuala Lumpur-based analyst and former political secretary to Mr. Najib.
Other tactics were more iron-fisted. Shortly before campaigning began, Mr. Najib’s party pushed through a so-called fake news law that was the first in the world to use Mr. Trump’s catchphrase as it criminalized publishing or circulating misleading information. The law, critics feared, could land anyone who criticized Mr. Najib in prison for up to six years. His government also designed a broad gerrymandering scheme that diminished the impact of minorities who were unlikely to vote for him.
None of these efforts, hard or soft, worked. “The Najib brand is toxic,” said Mr. Chin of the University of Tasmania. “There was no way he could run away from this.”
On Sunday, Mr. Najib and Ms. Rosmah were still holed up in their mansion in Kuala Lumpur. A bodyguard at their home, who asked not to be identified in the press out of fear of reprisals, said that the stream of cronies who once knocked at their door had stopped. Even their housekeeper, he said, had deserted them.
Hannah Beech and Richard C. Paddock reported from Kuala Lumpur, and Alexandra Stevenson from Hong Kong. Sharon Tan and Austin Ramzy contributed reporting from Kuala Lumpur, and David D. Kirkpatrick from London.
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