Ex-MCA Leader Puts Najib Among Malaysia’s Courageous Politicians — Minus The Part About 1MDB
Former MCA Vice President and current MCA Kuantan division chief Datuk Seri Ti Lian Ker has grouped jailed former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak alongside politicians praised for their political courage — without once mentioning 1MDB, SRC International, or the Federal Court conviction that put Najib behind bars.
Ti Lian Ker praised Najib's support for minorities alongside genuinely courageous politicians, conspicuously omitting his criminal convictions and 1MDB scandal.
Najib is in prison following a unanimous Federal Court ruling upholding seven charges of criminal breach of trust, abuse of power, and money laundering.
Ti's call for "courageous voters" amid the Johor election campaign appears to quietly build sympathy for Najib, still serving his prison sentence.
Former MCA Vice President Datuk Seri Ti Lian Ker has drawn attention after a Facebook post that appeared to rehabilitate jailed former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak by placing him alongside leaders praised for their political bravery — without once mentioning 1MDB or the criminal convictions that put him behind bars.
Ti opened his post by praising two politicians for their courage.
The first was former PKR leader and now Parti Bersama Malaysia chief Datuk Seri Rafizi Ramli, who publicly defended his Perling candidate Boo Wei Han after Boo raised the issue of pig farming during campaigning in the Johor state election — a move that drew immediate criticism from sections of the Malay-Muslim electorate.
Rafizi stood firm, arguing that an elected representative must speak for all constituents, including minorities, even on uncomfortable issues.
“If something is important to some of our voters, especially minority groups, they are depending on us to speak up,” he said at a campaign ceramah in Taman Pelangi.
It was a genuine act of political risk-taking, and Ti acknowledged it as such.
But then came the pivot.
Voters Didn’t Put Him There, The Federal Court Did
Ti extended that same framing to Najib, citing the former premier’s past support for Chinese education policy, university quota reform, and Indian community funding through MITRA — and suggesting that Najib, like Rafizi and Boo, was a principled leader who spoke up for minorities and was never rewarded for it at the ballot box.
The problem is what the former deputy minister and incumbent MCA Kuantan division chief left out.
Najib is not in Kajang Prison because voters punished him for taking unpopular positions.
He is there because the Federal Court, in a unanimous decision, upheld his conviction on seven charges of criminal breach of trust, abuse of power, and money laundering linked to SRC International, a subsidiary of 1MDB.
The court found that RM42 million had been channelled into his personal bank accounts.
The Pahang MCA state liaison committee allegedly received RM3 million in March 2013 from Najib, funds later traced to 1MDB — at the time, Ti was serving simultaneously as Special Officer to Pahang Chief Minister Datuk Seri Adnan Yaakob, a post he held from 2008 to 2013, and as Kuantan MCA Division Chief, a position he has held since 2004.
Political Inconvenience Is Not a Criminal Conviction
By placing Najib alongside former MCA president Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai — who Ti claimed lost his Bentong parliamentary seat in 2018 because he had the courage to oppose the RUU355 Shariah court amendment bill — Ti appeared to draw a parallel between political inconvenience and criminal conviction, two distinct things.
The post closed with a pointed message to voters.
Democracy does not only require courageous politicians. It also requires courageous voters.
The timing was notable — Najib’s potential release has become a live issue in the Johor election campaign, and the call for voter “courage” reads less like civic encouragement and more like a quiet push to restore political sympathy for a man still serving time.
In his second major 1MDB trial in December last year, the Kuala Lumpur High Court convicted Najib on 25 charges — four counts of abuse of power and 21 counts of money laundering — sentencing him to 15 years in prison, fines totalling RM11.38 billion, and an order to return over RM2 billion in illicit funds, with the sentence to begin only after his current SRC International term concludes in 2028.
