Yang Amat Berhormat Dato' Sri   Mohd Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak
9th Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia
Incumbent
Assumed office  October 31, 2004
Preceded by	Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
Minister of Defence of Malaysia
Incumbent
Assumed office  October 31, 2004
Born	23 July 1953 (1953-07-23) (age 55) Kuala Lipis, Pahang
Political party	Barisan Nasional, UMNO
Spouse	Tengku Puteri Zainah Tengku Eskandar (1976 - 1987) Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor
Children	1. Mohd. Nizar 2. Puteri Norliza 3. Mohd. Nasifuddin 4. Nooriyana Najwa 5. Norashman Razak
Occupation	Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, Defence Minister of Malaysia, Member of Parliament
Religion	Islam

Malaysia

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Dato' Sri Mohd Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak (born July 23, 1953, in Kuala Lipis, Pahang) is a Malaysian politician, who has been the country's Deputy Prime Minister since January 7, 2004. Najib is a member of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), and is currently the Deputy President of the party.

Dato' Sri Mohd Najib is the eldest son of Tun Abdul Razak, the second Prime Minister of Malaysia, and a nephew of Tun Hussein Onn, the third PM. He was first elected to the Dewan Rakyat, representing the parliamentary constituency of Pekan, at the age of 23 in an uncontested election after the death of his father. In his career, Najib has held a variety of ministerial portfolios (the first at the age of 32), culminating in the post of Minister of Defence before being chosen as the deputy PM by Abdullah Badawi. Najib holds the title of Orang Kaya Inderapura of Pahang. He was first married to Tengku Puteri Zainah Tengku Eskandar; presently he is married to Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor. He has three sons, Nizar (born 1978), Nazifuddin and Norashman, and two daughters, Puteri Norlisa and Nooryana Narjawa.

Najib had his primary and secondary education at St. John's Institution, Kuala Lumpur. He also attended Malvern College, Worcestershire, England and subsequently attended the University of Nottingham.

Controversies

1987 Kampung Baru rally

In the midst of UMNO's internal crisis in 1987, a rally by UMNO Youth led by Najib was held in Kampung Baru. Anti-Chinese sentiments were expressed openly during the rally with placard carrying slogans like "May 13 has begun", and "Soak (the kris) in Chinese blood". This precipitated existing ethnic tensions leading to fears of a repeat of inter-ethnic violence and eventually resulted in a security operation known as Operasi Lalang, where administrative detentions were made on hundreds of individuals ^[1].

UMNO was also declared illegal in early 1988, allowing the Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad, to consolidate his power with the establishment of a new party that assumed the name of the previously banned UMNO. The newly formed party excluded those who had previously challenged Mahathir's authority within the party ^[2].

Claims Malaysia is an Islamic State

In keeping in line with UMNO's strategy of politicizing racial and religious issues^[3], Najib declared that Malaysia has "never been secular because being secular by Western definition means separation of the Islamic principles of in the way we govern the country.”^[4]

Mongolian Murder Case

He had a close aide, Abdul Razak Baginda, who was involved in a high-profile murder case of a Mongolian woman^[5], Altantuya Shaaribuu. In a statutory declaration in his sedition trial in June 2008, Raja Petra accused Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor (his wife) of being one of three individuals who were present at the crime scene when Altantuya Shaariibuu was murdered on Oct 19, 2006^[6]. He wrote that Najib’s wife, Rosmah Mansor, and Acting Colonel Aziz Buyong and his wife, Norhayati, Rosmah’s aide-de-camp, were present at the scene of the murder and that Aziz Buyong was the individual who placed C4 plastic explosive on Altantuya’s body and blew it up.^[7]

Dr Shaariibuu Setev, the father of murdered Mongolian woman Altantuya Shaariibuu, has asked the police to conduct a thorough investigation into an allegation by Malaysia Today editor Raja Petra Kamaruddin. He said the police should look seriously into the allegation by Raja Petra as it might provide them with fresh evidence.^[8] In retaliation, the two people named in Raja Petra Kamarudin’s statutory declaration on June 18, Lt-Col Aziz Buyong and his wife Lt-Col Norhayati Hassan, as having been present at the murder scene of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu are suing the Malaysia Today editor for defamation. Aziz is seeking an apology from Raja Petra to be published in certain websites and newspapers, the removal of the statutory declaration from his blog and damages of RM1 million.^[9]

Balasubramaniam a/l Perumal, a private investigator hired by Abdul Razak, testified in a statutory declaration that Abdul Razak had told him that Najib had had a sexual relationship with Altantuya, introduced her to Abdul Razak, and made arrangements to protect Abdul Razak from the murder trial. All mention of Najib's involvement had been removed from Balasubramaniam's testimony under police interrogation and not brought up in the murder trial ^[10]. Soon after Balasubramaniam made a retraction of the statutory declaration that he made on July 1 and replaced it with one that erased all traces of allegations with references to Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and Altantuya Shaariibuu's murder. There were accusations that this new statutory declaration could have been due to intimidation or inducement, and was done not of his own free will. His lawyer Americk Singh Sidhu said he was not able to get in touch with Bala despite repeated phone calls.^[11] The Malaysian police said on Sunday 6 July that they have asked Interpol to help find the private investigator who has been reported missing since making explosive claims linking the deputy premier to a murder. Bala's nephew has filed a missing person's report, saying the investigator and his family had disappeared. ^[12] It was discovered on July 10 that Balasubramaniam's house in Taman Pelangi here has been broken into but police have yet to ascertain whether anything was stolen. Balasubramaniam is said to have taken refuge in a neighbouring country with his wife and children.^[13]

On July 22, 2008 in light of the new declarations lawyer Karpal Singh filed a notice of motion to call Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and three others to testify in the trial for the murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu. Karpal who holds a watching brief for Altantuya's family, also sought to recall private detective P. Balasubramaniam who was the first prosecution witness in the trial. Karpal also wanted all proceedings with regard to the trial to be postponed pending the disposal of his application. ^[14] On July 23, 2008 the High Court rejected a petition by lawyer Karpal Singh to obtain testimony from Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak, dealing a blow to the opposition's efforts to link Najib to the 2006 killing of translator Altantuya Shaariibuu. In rejecting the application, High Court judge Mohd Zaki said Karpal, who is holding a watching brief for victim Altantuya's family, has no locus standi or is in no position to make the application. He mentioned only the parties involved, namely the prosecution and the defence, have the right to do so. ^[15][16]

Alleged Political Conspiracy against Anwar Ibrahim

On 30 June, 2008 Najib denied any personal involvement in the alleged political conspiracy against former deputy premier Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, including a police report alleging Anwar committed sodomy against his former aide. He said the picture of his aide Khairil Anas Yusof with the alleged sodomy victim Saiful Bukhari Azlan at his office had been taken three months ago when the latter, in his capacity as a student leader, came to his office to seek a scholarship.^[17] However on 1 July 2008, Najib mentioned that he met Saiful at his residence a few days before the Saiful made the police report on Anwar. Najib also said that Saiful wanted to reveal that he had been sodomised by Anwar.^[18] Raja Petra, a prominent Malaysian blogger activist contended that a friend had accompanied Saiful to a meeting with Najib before charges against Anwar were made public, implying that the new charges against Anwar had been trumped up. ^[19]

Problems with National Service

The Malaysian National Service, a brainchild of Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak, has been plagued with poor management right from its inception.^[20] As of May 2008, there have been 16 deaths in the Malaysian National Service.^[21] Najib, on two occasions within a year, has demonstrated nothing but indifference in regards to these deaths. On one occasion, he was quoted as saying that "only" 14 children have died, in an attempt to minimize the bad press being received for these deaths.^[22] When recently pressured by more calls to suspend the program due to the 16^th death, Najib responded that it was not feasible to stop the program since "many parties are involved".^[23] That last statement only served to fuel more irritation amongst Malaysian parents and the public in general, and reinforced the belief that Najib is more concerned about keeping the gravy train running and awarding contracts to politically connected contractors to run the training camps, than he is about the death of children.^[24]

Issue of Succession

In many of the controversies about him, Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi identified Deputy Prime Minister Dato' Sri Mohd Najib Razak on 6th April, 2008 as his probable successor in line with the ruling party's tradition of political succession.^[25] Because of his implied involvement in the controversial Altantuya case, the court trial has gone through numerous irregularities and delays ^[26]. Even former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir predicted that Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi will never allow his deputy Datuk Seri Najib Razak to take over as Prime Minister. He said that although Abdullah promises that Najib would succeed him by 2010, allegations would be hurled against the deputy prime minister before then to show up his inability to take over.^[27]

Notes and references