“We welcome it, we welcome it,” he said briefly when asked about Najib’s apology after an event at the Kuching Waterfront today, Berita Harian reported.

Anwar had told reporters that he welcomed Najib’s apology after Friday prayers when asked to comment on it yesterday.

However, DAP’s Jelutong MP RSN Rayer today warned that the prime minister’s decision to welcome Najib’s apology could inspire a backlash from the people.

“I’m just afraid that if we accept Najib’s apology, the rakyat will not forgive us,” Rayer said.

Malaysian and US authorities allege that about US$4.5 billion was misappropriated from 1MDB, a state fund co-founded by Najib. He has been slapped with a total of 42 charges in several trials linked to 1MDB.

He is currently serving a reduced six-year sentence following a pardon after he was convicted of misappropriating RM42 million in funds belonging to former 1MDB subsidiary SRC International.

On Thursday, he said he had reflected on the 1MDB fiasco over the past 26 months, and it pained him that it happened when he was the prime minister and finance minister.

In a statement read out by his son Nizar at a press conference, Najib said he would like to “apologise unreservedly” over the 1MDB debacle.

Najib also denied being the mastermind or collaborating with fugitive financier Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, in the scheme.

His apology came six days before the High Court decides whether he is to enter his defence in a 1MDB corruption case that started five years ago.