Kleptocracy, strategic corruption, and defence policymaking: the impact of Najib Razak’s 1MDB scandal on Malaysia’s defence relationship with China (2015–2017)

ABSTRACT

The interaction between kleptocracy, strategic corruption, and defence policymaking has not yet been sufficiently explored in the existing literature. Malaysia's turn towards China amidst the 1MDB scandal, despite Chinese claims to Malaysian waters and naval intrusions, provides an opportunity to study such a phenomenon. By examining the pressures exerted by the US and the strategic corruption pull by China upon Prime Minister Najib Razak's kleptocratic interests, this analysis highlighted the kleptocrat's strategies to change Malaysia's pro-Western defence policy. Through extensive interviews and secondary data, this study analyses the manipulation of Public Service Bargains as a critical variable influencing the kleptocrat's defence policymaking. It concludes that Najib's strategies transformed the established trustee-type of bargain in Malaysia's defence decision-making process to a kleptocratic type, enabling a closer relationship with China. This analysis contributes to the debate on kleptocracy's impact on smaller powers' defence relationships amidst the global expansion of China's strategic influence.

KEYWORDS:

• Strategic corruption
• 1MDB
• kleptocracy
• Najib Razak
• defence policymaking
• Public Service Bargains

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my supervisors at Leiden University, Kutsal Yesilkagit and Johan Christensen, as well as the two anonymous reviewers and the editor for their very helpful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Interview with a Special Officer to Malaysian National Security Minister, Skype, July 19, 2020.

2 Interview with a former adviser to Najib Razak, Kuala Lumpur, November 12, 2015.

3 Interview with a senior officer at the Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Hague, July 2, 2019.

4 MACC’s expose has been validated by Najib’s aide Amhari Efendi Nazaruddin during his testimony at the Malaysian High Court (The Edge Markets, September 4, 2019).

5 Interview with Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia’s fourth and seventh Prime Minister, Kuala Lumpur, August 24, 2017.

6 Interview, a Special Officer to Malaysian Defense Minister, Amsterdam, February 21 2020.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia-Kementerian Pengajian Tinggi Malaysia.

Notes on contributors

Abdul Muein Abadi

Abdul Muein Abadi is a Political Science lecturer at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) and currently a PhD researcher at the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs, Leiden University. His research focusses on political-administrative relations in foreign policy-making process. He has published widely on geopolitics, Malaysian and Asian defence affairs, U.S. and China foreign policy in the Asia-Pacific, and foreign assistance including in The Pacific Review and Asian Survey.