Suspicion abounds that Malaysia’s home detention plan is escape route for Najib Razak

The moment Malaysia’s Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail announced a proposal to introduce home detention for selected prisoners, red flags went up among rights activists and political observers.

So much so that Saifuddin had to categorically deny on 4 March that the proposal under the Licensed Release of Prisoners programme was to accommodate former prime minister Najib Razak.

The proposal will allow prisoners with jail time of four years and below to serve their time at home, subject to monitoring.

Home detention, he stressed, was to reduce the congestion in jails nationwide and not, as some claimed, to allow Najib, who is in prison for corruption, to be released early.

Saifuddin said, “I want to refute the ‘mischievous’ narrative played by a handful of media that the proposed home detention is meant for Najib.

“The proposed implementation is targeted specifically for certain categories of prisoners. There will be a panel that will evaluate the type of offence, and it is only meant for prisoners serving jail time of four years or less.

“If they are sentenced to prison for up to 20 years because of a serious crime, no way will we be putting them under home detention.”

He explained that about 80,000 prisoners were housed in 43 prisons across the country and that the prisoner ratio per 100,000 population was 244. This, he said, exceeded the international standard ratio of 145 prisoners per 100,000 population.

“So this is why we came up with the proposal to reduce the crowding in jails and not for other purposes,” he stressed.

What set the alarms off?

On 29 January, the Pardons Board chaired by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong reduced by half Najib’s 12-year sentence for misappropriating RM42 million from SRC International, a company linked to 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). His fine was also reduced from RM210 million to RM50 million.

This raised concerns among many Malaysians who wanted to know the rationale for the reduction in sentence.

Now, some feel, the home detention proposal is part of a scheme to help Najib spend the rest of his jail time at home.

On 4 March, Projek SAMA (Project Stability and Accountability for Malaysia), a group of academics and activists advocating for institutional reforms and accountability, called for a White Paper on the proposed introduction of home detention.

Asking how prisoners would be selected for the programme, it said that “in many countries, home and hospital detentions have been abused to free rich and powerful convicts from imprisonment, while convicts from ordinary backgrounds are often denied or deprioritised for such opportunities”.

It said a White Paper would ensure public confidence that home detention would not become a privilege or “priority lane” for powerful criminals, or worse, be abused as a bargaining chip in political deals.

The White Paper, the group said, must be debated in Parliament before any changes were made to laws, by-laws or administrative orders.

“Projek SAMA warns that if home detention is eventually used by 1MDB corruption convict Najib Razak as a covert ‘get-out-of-jail’ card, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and his Madani Government’s trust deficit with Malaysians and the international community will dive deeper.”

The Licensed Prisoner Release programme was announced in April last year by Anwar, ahead of Hari Raya Aidilfitri. He said more than 1,000 prisoners would be released under licence during Ramadan that year.

On 18 April 2023, the Prisons Department issued a statement explaining that inmates considered for release must be serving a sentence in prison under a year, or inmates who had served one-third of their sentence behind bars, or who had or were undergoing a rehabilitation programme in prison.

It also includes “those who have a guarantee from the employer, family or a non-governmental organisation to provide a place to live and also a job".

The department said those released would be monitored by the district parole officer through home visits, employer visits or phone calls.

The home detention proposal appears to be an addition to this programme.

Criminologists, however, have welcomed the home detention proposal, calling it “sensible” and saying it is a good way of addressing prison overcrowding as it allows inmates to undergo rehabilitation in a humane environment.

Kamal Affandi Hashim, for instance, was quoted in the media as saying it showed that the government wanted to seriously overcome overcrowding in prisons and reduce its financial burden.

Although some Malaysians see the point in this, others cannot help shake off the feeling that the home detention programme is being tailored for Najib.

This is because, technically, Najib can still apply for a full pardon. Some fear that if his sentence were to be further reduced by the Pardons Board, he might become eligible for home detention.

The suspicion is high because both Najib’s lawyer and his party UMNO have stated that they would continue to seek a full pardon for the former prime minister.

And suspicious Malaysians feel a compromise might be worked out – such as home detention - because the authorities are aware that giving a full pardon would result in a bigger outcry and further damage the credibility of Anwar’s government which has vowed to fight corruption.

Najib supporters may accept such a move although they would prefer a full pardon. Many grateful supporters say that when he was prime minister, Najib implemented programmes or gave funds to help their groups or communities.

Only time will tell if the fears and suspicions of sceptical Malaysians comes true.

A.Kathirasen is a veteran Malaysian journalist/editor who has been writing columns, with breaks, in newspapers and online since 1981. All views expressed are the writer's own.

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