Najib called Datuk Seri Anwar twice for advise during election nite

 Malaysia’s ousted former premier Datuk Seri Najib Razak was “totally shattered” the night he lost the general election and called his jailed rival Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim twice for advice on what he should do, Anwar said today.

Najib was handed a shocking election loss last week which ended the dominance of the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition that has ruled Malaysia for more than six decades.

BN’s defeat in the May 9 polls was attributed to rising anger over corruption and an unlikely alliance struck between 92-year-old Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his former rival, Anwar, who got together to oust the scandal-tainted Najib.

Anwar, who was pardoned and released from his five-year jail term for sodomy yesterday, said he had received two calls from Najib.

“When he called on the night of the election, I advised him as a friend to concede and move on,” 

Anwar told Reuters in an interview at his home on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur.

Anwar said he asked Najib to come out with a statement quickly rather than delay and be perceived as trying to scuttle the process.

Najib, however, said nothing despite Dr Mahathir declaring victory a few hours after the counting of the votes began.

At a news conference the next day, Najib said no party had a simple majority and the constitutional monarch would decide who would form the government.

“He was just very evasive ... he refused to concede early,” Anwar said about his discussion on election night.

He said Najib was thinking of what he could do and who he could consult. But Anwar insisted the former-PM did not approach him for a deal in any “serious manner”.

“Even if he had referred to that (a deal) I would have just ignored ... I was just listening to him,” Anwar said when asked if Najib had offered him a deal to shift allegiance.

“After the second call, he was totally shattered,” he said.

Najib could not immediately be reached for comment.

“In a close contest between two coalitions, it is not unusual for a leader of the losing team to try to entice members from the other side,” said Adib Zalkapli, a Kuala Lumpur-based analyst with risk consultancy Vriens & Partners.

— Reuters

photo was taken a while ago before the election (they seem ok together)