I ensured fairer, gentler society – Najib's speech from the dock

SRC TRIAL | Former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak delivered an off the cuff speech from the dock today.

This was after the defence and prosecution had completed the mitigation process. Najib was seen referring to a sheet of paper.

His short speech, edited for brevity and clarity, follows:

In mitigation, I referred to my tenure as prime minister for nine years during which the country prospered to the extent we have very strong and robust economic growth for nine straight years, (including) 5.9 percent growth in 2017.

It was a period where we saw the stock market on the longest-ever bull run (reaching) 1,900 points on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange.

During this period, I oversaw massive infrastructure development in the country like public transport and public housing on a massive scale.

I ensured every single group and community in the country, like farmers, smallholders, fishermen and (civil) servants across the board benefitted from a programme to uplift their income level.

Not just on the macro-level overall, but also some organisations such as Petronas, recorded RM59 billion in revenue - a record.

Khazanah, ASB, PNB, Tabung Haji and LTAT’s dividend rate saw record levels during my tenure.

I ensured a fairer and gentler society. I was responsible for abolishing the Internal Security Act 1960 which I was never given enough credit for.

I wanted to ensure that the country did not undergo a period of abuse of power.

In this regard, I put a proposal to implement a more transparent system for political donations.

That proposal, unfortunately, required bipartisan support, but the opposition at that time did not agree, and the proposal did not see the light of day.

As a Muslim, although I said this during the early part of the trial, let me say this again:

Wallahi, wabillahi, watallahi. I did not demand RM42 million.

I did nor plan (to receive) RM42 million nor was RM42 million offered to me. There were no witnesses to say so.

I had no knowledge of the RM42 million.

Wallahi, wabillahi, watallahi.

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