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?
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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.
The case, alongside the ongoing appeal of Najib’s wife, Rosmah Mansor, and a string of other politically charged trials, has placed the judiciary at the centre of the nation’s debates over justice and power. Critics say the courts are once again open to accusations of political interference: allegations that have dogged Malaysia for decades.