It's alleged that PM Najib funnelled public money from the country's future fund into his personal bank account to the tune of AU$847 million. There are other allegations too, darker but less concrete, from bribery and extortion to the murder of a young woman. Under normal circumstances, this would be enough to topple a country's leader. But this is Malaysia—a country plagued by political corruption, where press freedom remains dismally low.
That's why few Malaysians were surprised when the country's attorney-general cleared Najib of any corruption in January 2016. Instead, the official line is that the unexplained hundreds of millions flowing into the prime minister's account was a donation from the Saudi royal family. Many Malaysians don't believe this for a second—pointing out the former attorney-general, who first launched the investigation, was removed by Najib.
Enter Fahmi Reza, a Malaysian artist whose political art has been getting him in trouble for decades. Fahmi's latest work, a giant clownish take on Najib's face, went viral throughout South East Asia, and has become the icon for an anti-corruption push in Malaysia. VICE sat down with Fahmi to talk about going up against the most powerful man in your country, getting arrested, and Kuala Lumpur's DIY punk scene: Full story...
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