Najib Or Not, Malaysia Needs House Arrest

Najib Razak’s aspirations for house arrest have come to an end (for now), as High Court Judge Alice Loke decided yesterday, 22 December, that the famed addendum order was made in violation of the Federal Constitution. This has disallowed the former premier’s bid to serve the rest of his prison sentence at home. 

The house arrest proposal has been made known since October 2024, when Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution stressed that it is intended to ease prison overcrowding, focusing on remand prisoners. This remains a pertinent issue as remand detention contributes to about 35% of prison overcrowding, with a majority being arrested for drug offences. As a result, 83808 prisoners are being housed in facilities designed for 76311 people as of July 2025. Despite that, no functional and viable legislation governing house arrest has been introduced to Parliament as of the time of writing, more than a year after the proposal was announced. 

In the absence of such legislation, it is only logical that Najib’s challenge failed. Allowing Najib’s house arrest through judicial review of an addendum order creates a dangerous scenario in which ad hoc criminal justice policies can be implemented without scrutiny or consideration by the rightful authorities.    

While we wait for the house arrest bill to be tabled in Parliament, disabled prisoners and those with terminal illnesses are left in overcrowded prisons without options for early release. What is available to them is the opportunity for a royal pardon — a mechanism constrained within our laws. 

In the meantime, prisoners remain at the mercy of inadequate detention conditions, as documented by HAYAT. This will inadvertently increase the operational burden on the Prison Department. With more vulnerable persons in person, it will also leave the government vulnerable to civil suit for negligence or wrongful deaths.

Regardless of how we feel about Najib’s loss in court, we must acknowledge that the need for criminal justice reform in Malaysia far exceeds Najib’s needs and desires. Failure to address present challenges posed by overcrowded prisons, be it access to healthcare, adequate living conditions, or sanitation, will only condemn more to suffer needlessly.