Najib's shadow looms large as Umno leaders repeat calls for his freedom

Calls for more efforts to free ex-Malaysian PM from jail show his deep influence on party

- Azril Annuar and Lu Wei Hoong

Hundreds of Umno delegates were in tears at the closing ceremony of the party's annual meeting on Aug 24, as party president Zahid Hamidi recited a poem for former premier Najib Razak, who is serving a prison sentence for his part in a financial crime linked to a state fund.

The tears, and repeated calls for more efforts to free Najib from jail, at the four-day assembly, reflected his deep influence on the party despite leading the Umno-led Barisan Nasional (BN) alliance to its firstever defeat in a general election in 2018.

BN was again defeated at the 2022 national polls, a sign of lingering voter disgust amid the perceptions of deep-rooted corruption in Umno.

While BN is a member of Malaysia's governing alliance today, its 30 seats in Parliament are only a small part of the total 145 seats controlled by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who is not from the party.

"My friend, nothing hurts us more, as we recall at this moment, how you are languishing behind bars, accompanied by silence and cold walls, as we worry about you, and miss you, who were always with us," said Datuk Seri Zahid, sobbing as he recited the poem titled Buat Seorang Sahabat (For A Friend), behind him a backdrop of photographs of Najib in jail.