.jpg)
Who Is Paying For BOSSKU?
By Mihar Dias September 2026
The problem with Malaysian politics is that sometimes reality is so wonderfully absurd that satire becomes redundant.
Najib Razak is granted permission to serve the remainder of his sentence under house arrest, subject to a RM50 million fine.
Within hours, UMNO announces a fundraising campaign to help him pay it. https://www.malaymail.com/amp/news/malaysia/2026/09/18/zahid-announces-umno-donation-drive-to-pay-najibs-rm50m-fine-following-conditional-pardon/235643
You couldn't make this up.
The question immediately appeared on social media:
Why?
Why should anybody have to raise RM50 million to pay a fine imposed on a former prime minister who was convicted of criminal offences involving SRC International funds?
The courts convicted Najib on seven charges in the SRC case, including criminal breach of trust, money laundering and abuse of power. His original 12-year sentence and RM210 million fine were later reduced to six years and RM50 million.
Now the RM50 million has suddenly become a community project.
Perhaps we should rename it Gotong-Royong for Justice.
UMNO president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi called on party leaders, members, supporters and others to contribute voluntarily. The party says the initiative is an expression of solidarity.
And that, actually, is the interesting part.
Because political parties do not survive merely on constitutions, branch meetings and speeches about bangsa, agama and negara.
They need a cause.
They need a mission.
They need something to tell the grassroots: This is why we are still here.
For UMNO, Najib has become something rather more useful than a former president.
He has become a rallying cry.
At the recent UMNO assembly, thousands queued to pose with the cardboard cut-out of Bossku. I was there.
It was almost Instagrammable patriotism.
Nobody had forgotten Bossku.
And now the party has been given another opportunity to demonstrate that loyalty — preferably with an online banking transfer.
“I didn't just pose with Bossku. I paid for Bossku.”
That is commitment.
Within the first hour, the new solidarity fund had collected RM165,645. Within three hours, it had reportedly reached RM634,562, including contributions as small as RM10 and RM50. https://www.malaymail.com/amp/news/malaysia/2026/09/18/najib-solidarity-fund-raises-rm165645-in-first-hour-says-umno-sec-gen/235694
At that rate, Malaysia has discovered a new economic model:
crowdfunding a political memory.
I can already imagine the conversation in some UMNO branch somewhere.
“How much are you giving?”
“RM50.”
“Only RM50?”
“Bossku gave us years of service.”
“You're right. Make it RM100.”
And suddenly somebody's savings account has acquired a patriotic purpose.
But there is another irony.
The fund is being presented as a way of helping Najib and his family with the burden of the fine. Yet publicly, the fundraising is being driven by the party and its supporters rather than by Najib himself.
That naturally invites questions.
Could Najib and his family simply pay the RM50 million themselves?
Do they intend to?
How much will they contribute?
And what happens if the public raises the entire amount?
We do not know.
Perhaps there is a perfectly straightforward explanation.
Perhaps there isn't.
And politics, like nature, abhors an information vacuum. Someone will always fill it with a theory.
But there is something else worth noticing.
UMNO has suddenly acquired a very tangible mission.
Save Bossku.
A party that has spent years searching for its next great rallying cry has been handed one.
“We shall never forget.”
“Save Bossku.”
And perhaps, somewhere in the political imagination:
“UMNO lives.”
Because organisations need reasons to exist.
They need battles to fight, enemies to identify, heroes to defend and causes to fund.
Otherwise members begin asking dangerous questions such as: What exactly are we doing here?
Now there is no such problem.
There is a RM50 million target.
There is a bank account.
There is Bossku.
And there is Melaka waiting around the corner.
If the solidarity campaign succeeds, UMNO will have demonstrated something politically important without anybody having to write it down:
loyalty can still be monetised.
The question is whether the money is paying a fine — or buying a renewed sense of purpose.
Those are two very different things.
And perhaps that is the real irony.
The RM50 million may eventually be collected.
The fine may be paid.
Najib may go home.
But the bill for understanding what this means for Malaysian politics has only just arrived.
And that one, unfortunately, cannot be paid through CIMB Islamic.
Mihar Dias (mihardias@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact creator@newswav.com.
