{"id":23759,"date":"2016-03-08T00:44:33","date_gmt":"2016-03-08T00:44:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/hashtag-backfires-in-malaysia-pm-s-campaign\/"},"modified":"2016-03-08T00:44:19","modified_gmt":"2016-03-08T00:44:19","slug":"hashtag-backfires-in-malaysia-pm-s-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/hashtag-backfires-in-malaysia-pm-s-campaign\/","title":{"rendered":"Hashtag backfires in Malaysia PM’s campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"

{A PR drive on Twitter by Najib Razak to defend his position in corruption scandal has turned into a criticism tool.}<\/p>\n

Just days after facing a political call to step down as Malaysia’s prime minister, Najib Razak now faces more pressure from the public.<\/p>\n

The hashtag #RespectMyPM was supposed to support Najib, 62, on Twitter as he launched a public-relations campaign defending his position.<\/p>\n

However, that turned into a criticism tool by Monday – a day after it was launched – for alleged corruption and crackdown on media outlets as well as opponents.<\/p>\n

On Friday, leaders from across Malaysia’s political spectrum – led by Mahathir Mohamad, the 90-year-old former prime minister – joined hands for a national movement to remove Najib.<\/p>\n

“We call upon all Malaysians, irrespective of race, religion, political situation, creed or parties, young and old, to join us in saving Malaysia from the government headed by Najib Razak,” read a joint statement endorsed by heavyweights from the ruling party, the opposition and top civil society groups.<\/p>\n

Mahathir said the assembled leaders, despite their differences, shared “one goal”.<\/p>\n

“We must rid ourselves of Najib as prime minister,” he said.<\/p>\n

The move marks the most direct political challenge yet to Najib, and lends a potent voice to a growing sense of public anger with his tenure.<\/p>\n

Najib’s honesty and credibility have been under attack since last July when the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) revealed a deposit of approximately $700m into his personal bank account.<\/p>\n

Najib said the money came from an Arab donor but questions surrounding the amount and its presence in a personal instead of political party account remains unanswered.<\/p>\n

The WSJ report said the funds came via a series of financial transfers from a heavily indebted state investment fund 1MDB which Najib, as finance minister, also oversees.<\/p>\n

In January, Malaysia’s attorney general cleared Najib of any criminal offences or corruption, saying the transfer was a gift from Saudi Arabia’s royal family and that no further action needed to be taken.<\/p>\n

Opposition leaders denounced the finding, saying the appointment of the attorney general by Najib in the middle of the crisis suggested a conflict of interest.<\/p>\n

But others said it was a victory for Najib that would allow him to focus on winning the next general elections in 2018.<\/p>\n

\"Opposition<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{A PR drive on Twitter by Najib Razak to defend his position in corruption scandal has turned into a criticism tool.} Just days after facing a political call to step down as Malaysia’s prime minister, Najib Razak now faces more pressure from the public. The hashtag #RespectMyPM was supposed to support Najib, 62, on Twitter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[101],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-23759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-48","tag-internationl","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23759\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23759"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=23759"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=23759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}