Najib Razak

Najib Razak is a Malaysian politician who served as the sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia from April 2009 to May 2018, and whose subsequent 2020 conviction in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) corruption case produced one of the largest financial-crime prosecutions in Southeast Asian political history. He was born Mohd Najib bin Abdul Razak on July 23, 1953, in Kuala Lipis, Pahang, Malaya (now Malaysia). His father Tun Abdul Razak Hussein was the second Prime Minister of Malaysia, and his mother Tun Rahah Mohd Noah was a member of the Malay aristocracy.

He attended St. John's Institution in Kuala Lumpur and Malvern College in England, then read industrial economics at the University of Nottingham, graduating in 1974. His 1976 entry into Malaysian politics — at age 23, succeeding to his father's Pekan parliamentary seat after the elder Razak's death — launched his early political profile.

His ministerial appointments across the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s — including Defence Minister (1990–1995, 2000–2008) and Deputy Prime Minister (2004–2009) under Abdullah Badawi — produced his late-2000s United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) leadership profile. His April 3, 2009 elevation to the premiership followed Badawi's resignation.

His 2009 launch of the 1MDB sovereign wealth fund and the subsequent revelation that approximately US$700 million had been transferred to his personal accounts produced the international 1MDB scandal. His May 2018 election defeat to Mahathir Mohamad's Pakatan Harapan coalition ended his premiership. He was convicted on July 28, 2020, on seven counts of abuse of power, criminal breach of trust, and money laundering, and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. He married Rosmah Mansor in 1987.

His name Najib derives from the Arabic najib (meaning noble, distinguished, of noble birth). Najib has been a common Arabic and Malay boys' name across the 20th and 21st centuries.