Phlip Rodrigues
When a University of Malaya student leader poured scorn on public donations to a fundraising campaign for former Prime Minister Najib Razak, she stirred a hornet’s nest.
Ummi Umairah Bakhit, a Bachelor of Economics student, did not mince her words. She called donating to the campaign “the stupidest thing” she had seen “in my entire life”.
The money is meant to get Najib out of Kajang Prison so he can serve the remainder of his sentence under house arrest.
Ummi correctly pointed out that he is “clearly linked to corruption”. She argued there is therefore no valid reason for the public to rally around this disgraced figure.
The former Umno president can leave prison only if he pays the RM50m fine – a condition set by the Federal Territories Pardons Board.
Umno then set up the ‘Najib Razak Solidarity Fund’ to whip up public support. The campaign appears to be faltering.
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Online abuse after viral video
After a video of her scathing remarks went viral days after her remarks, Ummi Umairah received online harassment and threats.
The 23-year-old undergraduate raised the issue at a dialogue session with former minister Khairy Jamaluddin, Selangor Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari and Johor Menteri Besar Onn Hafiz Ghazi. The session was part of the International Young Future Leaders Summit held at the World Trade Centre on 13 October.
Ummi Umairah was brave to raise a topic Umno would rather see buried. Khairy, a former Umno youth wing leader, must have been stunned to hear a young girl launch a stinging criticism of his former boss. Still, he praised the question and said a wrong was a wrong.
The abuse Ummi Umairah has since received amounts to cyberbullying. Will the authorities act against those responsible, given that laws exist to tackle such intimidation?
The threats may have come from Umno diehards or grassroots supporters who still think their ‘Bossku’ was dealt an injustice in the long trials over SRC International and 1MDB. To them, Najib is a revered leader who could one day return to active politics and, against all odds, regain the trappings of power.
A torch for the young
What Ummi Umairah did was revive the national conversation on corruption, so politicians do not forget this scourge of the country.
This discourse must continue because, as she said, “if you want to build a nation”, people must also speak up on corruption.
Corruption is not a topic only politicians can debate. Politicians no longer hold the high moral ground because, in some cases, they are themselves tainted by it.
Students like Ummi Umairah must keep reminding people of Najib’s convictions and why it is wrong to back a campaign to pay his fine.
Why should the public pay for a crime this discredited leader was convicted of? In the SRC International case, he was found guilty over RM42m and sentenced to 12 years in jail, later halved to six.
In the 1MDB case, he was convicted in December 2025 of abuse of power and money laundering involving about RM2.3bn. He was sentenced to 15 years and fined RM11.4bn. That term will begin after he finishes his current one, and he is appealing.
The underlying message in Ummi Umairah’s broadside is that donating to the Najib fund is akin to condoning the crime he was convicted of. She has started the ball rolling and is unfazed by the threatening background noises. By her own account, she will stand her ground and keep speaking up. Cowardice is not in her dictionary.
She wants young people to make a stand too. They must form the vanguard in the unremitting fight against corruption and abuse of power, wherever they appear.
She may not be the favourite daughter of Umno’s old guard, such as party president Zahid Hamidi, who has championed his fallen leader. But she has surely rattled some Umno leaders.
If the voice of Umno is muted on Najib, the voice of Ummi Umairah will keep reminding the nation that corruption has no place here.
And it is the youth of the country who must carry the torch she has lit, so that Malaysia is never again the playground of the corrupt and the avaricious.
Philp Rodrigues is a retired journalist.
The views expressed in Aliran's media statements and the NGO statements we have endorsed reflect Aliran's official stand. Views and opinions expressed in other pieces published here do not necessarily reflect Aliran's official position.
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