Awang Azman Pawi of Universiti Malaya said unless Najib obtains a royal pardon, Nooryana Najwa, Nizar Najib and Nazifuddin Najib will need to take on the mantle.
However, Awang Azman said he expects the three to face difficulty ahead if they want to climb up the political ladder like their father.
“Being a former prime minister’s daughter or son is becoming irrelevant because it’s all about performance nowadays,” he told FMT. “There are more young, charismatic individuals in an increasingly open and competitive playing field.”
This morning, the Federal Court in a majority decision rejected Najib’s application to review his conviction and sentence in the SRC case. He will have to serve the remainder of his 12-year prison term unless granted a royal pardon.
Tunku Mohar Mokhtar of International Islamic University Malaysia said Nooryana and Nizar’s foray into politics was made easy as a result of their father’s longstanding influence.
But they would have to navigate their way up on their own, without their father’s presence.
The three Najib children were recently elected to positions in Umno: Nizar as Pekan division vice-chief, younger brother Nazifuddin as Langkawi division chief and sister Nooryana won a spot in Puteri Umno’s executive council.
Sympathy votes for Umno?
James Chin of the University of Tasmania said the court’s decision today will not help Umno gain sympathy votes as the party has no leverage on the Najib brand in the previous campaigns.
“They know that Malay voters are aware of Najib’s financial scandals, so they try to keep his name out from their campaigns,” he said.
Tunku Mohar said Umno cannot use the court’s verdict to fish for sympathy votes during the coming state elections since someone had to be victimised in the first place.
“The general (public) perception is that no such mistreatment took place,” he said.
Awang Azman was confident that Umno would make use of the court’s decision to win sympathy votes, but said Perikatan Nasional could also capitalise on the case to persuade voters to reject Umno.