3 days ago
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Anwar's chief justice pick tests Malaysia's faith in courts: ‘why one as exposed as this?
As the gavel passes to
Malaysia 's new chief justice, old questions echo through Putrajaya. Can a judiciary led by a former Umno party insider truly deliver impartial justice, or will the shadows of political allegiance darken the bench?
Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh, previously a Court of Appeal judge and once deputy home minister under prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, is set to assume the judiciary's highest seat on Monday.
But his past life as an Umno politician, and personal associations with disgraced ex-prime minister
Najib Razak , have cast a long shadow over his appointment
on July 18
The timing is as sensitive as it is symbolic. Wan Ahmad Farid's elevation comes just as the courts are poised to hear Najib's contentious
bid for house arrest
The former prime minister, convicted
in 2021 of corruption linked to the multibillion-dollar
1MDB scandal and currently serving
a six-year sentence , is seeking to exchange prison for home confinement – a move his lawyers claim is permitted by a royal decree the government has kept under wraps.
Shafee Abdullah (second from left) and the rest of Najib Razak's legal team arrive at the Malaysian attorney general's office on July 1 to appeal about the existence of the royal decree. Photo: EPA
