Najib’s son might be contesting for Pekan & here’s what we know about him so far

Before landing his bum bum in prison, Najib Razak had been the MP for Pekan for a record-setting 35ish years, from 1986 to 2022… and now, his son, Nizar Najib, wants to contest in the very same constituency for GE15.

Yes, he’ll be doing it under UMNO’s banner.

Thing is, this writer had never really heard of the man prior to this whole contesting in Pekan shebang, and of course, he tried looking up the name Nizar Najib on Google to see what he could find out. Turns out…

He won the Pekan UMNO Youth Chief seat uncontested back in 2018

Every coupla years, UMNO has an internal election thing to appoint the party’s leaders, and Nizar Najib took the seat of Pekan’s UMNO Youth Chief seat unanimously in 2018. Najib himself also took the seat of Pekan’s UMNO Chief uncontested in the same election, which might point to the duo’s popularity within the party… at the time, at least.

In a speech after the triumph, Nizar had some choice words to say:

“Right now, what we need is to do away with arrogance, money politics and all other negative influences to win back the hearts of the youth,” – Nizar Najib, in the Majlis Persidangan Perwakilan Pergerakan Pemuda UMNO Bahagian Pekan in 2018

So, what else do we know about Nizar? We couldn’t really glean much from Google, but it’s been reported that he used to be the Executive Director, Corporate Finance Advisory and M&A Services of Deloitte Malaysia with over 12 years of experience in the public accounting field.

Take that and combine it with the fact that he’s the Youth Chief where his dad used to be MP for 35 years, it makes sense that UMNO might field him as a candidate for Bossku’s replacement. Other than that, Nizar didn’t really make headlines much, except for a fairly recent affair…

Nizar Najib used to owe the tax department RM13.16 million in unpaid taxes

Sooooo back in 2020, the Inland Revenue Board (LHDN) asked the Shah Alam High Court to order Nizar Najib to pay RM13.16 million in unpaid taxes – an amount accumulated over 7 years (2011 to 2017). The man chose to appeal the case.

Fast forward more than a year later, Nizar agreed to withdraw the appeal and to pay LHDN whatever he owed them… but apparently, according to Najib himself, the settlement amount is “far, far less” than RM13.16 million.

“It proves that the figure imposed on my son by the LHDN during Pakatan Harapan’s time was excessive and politically motivated.” – Najib Razak, via a Facebook post

Does this mean he’s not fit to be an MP? Ehh… who knows, but it’s important to note that Najib and Nizar’s two other siblings were also slapped with tax lawsuits around the same time. Welp, moving on…

It’s not 100% guaranteed he’ll be contesting in GE15

In an interview with Utusan Malaysia, Nizar Najib said that while he is being considered as candidate for either Pekan’s MP seat or one of the four Dewan Undangan Negeri (DUN) seats for Pahang, he’ll ultimately leave the decision to the party.

On the spicy side of things, there’s word that Nizar’s just a stand-in for Bossku until the ex-PM returns:

“Najib will one day return to his place (Pekan). Nizar is seen as representing his father. Others will not dare to jostle for the seat. Pekan is Najib’s legacy seat, and people respect that,” – Mazlan Ali, senior lecturer with the Perdana Centre, Razak Faculty of Technology and Informatics

Another political analyst said the move was totally expected and likened it to Anwar Ibrahim leaving his Permatang Pauh seat to Wan Azizah when he was in prison. Will Nizar actually be chosen to fight for the Pekan seat for GE15? Guess y’all have to hold on to your seats and find out soon.