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Can I advise you something? Rosmah Mansor’s scolding of husband Najib Razak, Malaysia’s disgraced ex-leader, is talk of the town
- Malaysian investigators probing the 1MDB financial scandal have released recordings they say feature the self-styled ‘first lady’ berating her husband
- These have gone viral on social media, fuelling the perception that Rosmah held undue sway over Najib during his tenure as prime minister
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More than a year after Malaysian authorities carted out hundreds of boxes of designer handbags and caches of expensive jewellery from her home, former self-styled ‘first lady of Malaysia’ Rosmah Mansor is once again the talk of the town, thanks to viral recordings of her ‘scolding’ her husband, erstwhile prime minister Najib Razak.
Malaysian anti-corruption authorities this week released recordings of phone calls they say took place between Najib and various individuals linked to the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) global financial scandal, in which billions of dollars were siphoned out of a state wealth fund and spent on Hollywood films, star-studded parties, a superyacht and rare artwork.
The authorities played nine recordings for the media during the briefing, but it is the one featuring Rosmah – a widely mocked figure in Malaysian politics for her rumoured profligate spending and control over her husband – that has captured the public imagination, with many Malaysians taking to social media to mock the duo, with the phrase “can I advise you something” being the most popular.
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In one call which allegedly took place in 2016 – the height of the scandal – a woman can be heard berating Najib for not taking matters into his own hands, saying loudly “Can I advise you something?”
“You still don’t listen to me,” the female voice says, going on to say that an anti-corruption official who was sacked soon after was “looking like a hero and you, the villain”.
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“I don’t like this. Darling, you are the prime minister, you should take charge, not anybody else, OK?” she says. A man the authorities say is Najib meekly responds: “Yep, I understand.”
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