My Take | Malaysia’s corruption carousel: here we go again, with Ismail Sabri third ex-PM implicated

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim still has to make good 2018 election promise to push for clean political funding

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Ismail Sabri Yaakob during his short-lived stint as Malaysian prime minister. Photo: Bernama/dpa

Published: 9:30am, 7 Mar 2025

Shock reverberated around Malaysia when news broke earlier this week that former prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob was named a suspect in a corruption investigation linked to 170 million ringgit (US$38.6 million) in cash, gold and other items seized at alleged safe houses run by his senior aides.

The uproar came not so much from Ismail Sabri being named a suspect, but the sheer amount of cash found along with 16 gold bars and luxury Hublot watches.

The fact that Ismail Sabri was named a suspect by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) was less of a surprise for Malaysians, many of whom gleefully took the opportunity to lampoon the country’s shortest-serving leader on social media.

The MACC’s announcement on Monday makes Ismail Sabri the third former prime minister in Malaysia to face a corruption investigation, following in the footsteps of his immediate predecessor Muhyiddin Yassin and the now-jailed Najib Razak.

Muhyiddin was charged two years ago with abuse of power and money laundering involving 232.5 million ringgit (US$52.8 million) in bribes allegedly procured during his 17-month stint as prime minister between March 2020 and August 2021.

Prison officers escort former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak during his trial on April 4, 2024. Photo: Reuters

Najib is serving a six-year reduced jail sentence for similar offences linked to 42 million ringgit (US$9.5 million) in funds siphoned out of SRC International, a former unit of scandal-tainted state fund 1MDB.