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[1] Kudos to Ummi Umairah Bakhit. At a forum this week, the university student had the courage to say what most Malaysians think about UMNO’s campaign to raise funds for Najib Razak’s fine so that he can spend the rest of his term under house arrest. It was, she said, “the stupidest thing I’ve seen in my entire life.”[1] Spot on.

[2] Najib was tried and found guilty. The damage he did to our nation was enormous, and we are all still paying the price for his corruption and abuse of power. To pretend now that he is a victim of politics, that he is somehow innocent and deserving of public sympathy and support, is perverse. For speaking her mind, Ummi has since faced online threats and harassment. Yet she has stood her ground and refused to be intimidated.

[3] Her outspokenness should remind our political elites that our students are watching – and they do not like what they see. More importantly, they are willing to speak out against it. That itself is a sign that hope is not lost. Perhaps a new generation is rising, one more concerned with good governance and integrity than with the usual distractions that politicians deploy to deflect attention.

[4] Just as revealing was the way the politicians on stage responded. Khairy Jamaluddin was quick to strike a principled pose. “We should not be afraid of talking about corruption even if it involves our leaders. What is wrong is wrong,” he said, adding that we must “never compromise when it comes to integrity. I say this as someone who has served in that government.”[2]

[5] Fine words. But as Najib’s minister, Khairy denied any element of corruption over the RM2.6 billion of 1MDB funds that found its way into Najib’s personal accounts.[3] He apologised only after BN’s 2018 defeat.[4] Yet this year he rejoined UMNO, a party whose president escaped his own corruption trial through a controversial DNAA, casts Najib as a victim of persecution and is now raising money to pay his fine. On all this, Khairy has been largely silent.

[6] The other two panellists, Selangor Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari and Johor Menteri Besar Onn Hafiz Ghazi, appeared to dance around the issue with the usual bromides. Amirudin said he was glad that young people are still concerned about corruption, which he described as a long-standing problem; Onn Hafiz made it all about the weaponisation of the MACC and selective prosecution.[5] Neither, however, is on record as having spoken out consistently against the corruption cases that have emerged, or against the way successive governments have handled them.

[7] That, in a nutshell, is the problem: our politicians will denounce corruption everywhere except where it matters most – in their own ranks. One has made his way back to the very party now raising money for Najib’s fine; another is among its most prominent figures; the third serves a party whose government stands accused of treating corruption as a political tool. Selective outrage is not principle; silence, when it counts, is a choice. If only they were half as forthright as this young student.

[8] None of this should surprise us. Too many of our politicians treat principle as a bargaining chip – something to be traded away in the pursuit of power. Perhaps this is why politicians cannot be fully trusted to wage war on corruption. If we have to depend on them, nothing will really change. What we need are strong, credible and unimpeachable institutions to keep them in check – an MACC answerable to Parliament rather than the executive, and an independent public prosecutor of proven integrity, separate from the Attorney-General’s role as government adviser. Until then, treat all the stirring statements about fighting corruption and standing up for principle with the scepticism they deserve.

[9] Which is precisely why voices like Ummi’s matter. She has no party to protect, no patron to please. She simply called it as she saw it. Our politicians would do well to listen – and to remember that the generation now watching them will soon be voting.

[Dennis Ignatius |Kuala Lumpur |17 October 2026]

[1] How a student put KJ and Johor MB on the spot over Najib fundraiser, TH scandal | Malaysiakini | 15 Oct 2026

[2] ibid

[3] RM2.6 billion in Najib’s account not a crime, says Khairy | The Edge | 04 August 2015

[4]Khairy calls accepting 1MDB explanations one of ‘life’s regrets’ | Malay Mail | 30 June 2018

[5] How a student put KJ and Johor MB on the spot over Najib fundraiser, TH scandal | Malaysiakini | 15 Oct 2026