Leaders of Barisan Nasional component parties MIC and MCA have expressed their appreciation to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Ibrahim following the conditional pardon granted to former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
MIC deputy president M Saravanan said he welcomed the decision, highlighting Najib’s contributions to the country during his time as prime minister, particularly to the Indian community.
“No one can deny the amount of good things and initiatives the man has done for the nation.
“And, despite his shortfalls, he has served his sentence in prison for some time. For a character like Najib, being in prison for a few years is more than enough. He deserves house arrest,” he told FMT.
MCA president Wee Ka Siong also expressed the party’s “utmost gratitude” for the decision, stressing that the judicial process and the constitutional pardon process should be viewed as separate matters.
“Respecting the decision of the pardons board does not mean denying the court’s decision, just as respecting the court’s decision does not mean questioning the power of pardon provided by the constitution,” he said in a Facebook post.
Wee said both processes were integral parts of Malaysia’s legal and constitutional system and should be respected.
Earlier, the Legal Affairs Division of the Prime Minister’s Department said Najib had been granted a conditional pardon allowing him to serve the remainder of his prison sentence in the SRC International case under house arrest until Aug 23, 2028.
The arrangement is subject to Najib paying his RM50 million fine.
The division said the conditional pardon was granted by Sultan Ibrahim following the 64th meeting of the Federal Territories Pardons Board today.
Najib, 73, has been serving a six-year prison sentence at Kajang Prison after the board reduced his original 12-year sentence in February 2024. His RM210 million fine was also reduced to RM50 million.
He began serving his sentence in August 2022 after the Federal Court dismissed his final appeal in the SRC International case.
