Do Young Voters Really Miss Najib? Or Do They Just Miss Being Heard?

OPINION | Do Young Voters Really Miss Najib? Or Do They Just Miss Being Heard?


26 Aug 2025 • 8:00 AM MYT


Mihar Dias
A behaviourist by training, a consultant and executive coach by profession

Illustration by Microsoft Copilot

By Mihar Dias August 2025


A recent study by Iman Research has delivered a wake-up call that the political class seems determined to hit snooze on.

https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2025/08/21/do-young-voters-miss-najib-shunned-and-stifled-study-shows-what-malay-youths-are-actually-frustrated-about/188360


Malay youths, once courted with promises of reform, now feel abandoned, silenced, and—most damningly—nostalgic for the days of Najib Razak.

The same Najib who is serving time for corruption.


But here’s the uncomfortable truth for today’s leaders: when young voters say they “miss” Najib, they aren’t pining for a return to kleptocracy.


They’re yearning for policies that felt tangible in their lives. Under Najib, there were Urban Transformation Centres, BR1M cash transfers, and infrastructure they could see and touch. Right or wrong, it looked like the government cared.

Compare that to today’s “unity government,” which promised reforms but instead delivered Zahid Hamidi’s DNAA and endless political horse-trading.

To youths, reform has become just another word—like “Madani”—empty, overused, and detached from their reality.


The report makes it clear: young Malays are furious with elites. Not just political elites, but anyone who sits comfortably while telling them to wait for change.

They see community structures broken down, local leaders absent, and safe spaces for discussion shrinking.


Even online—where they’ve migrated for political discourse—they face censorship under the ambiguous “3R” clampdown. Offline they’re shut out, online they’re shadow-banned. Is it any wonder they’re angry?

And here lies the real danger: anger with no outlet doesn’t fade. It mutates. Already, young voters are shifting their frustrations to TikTok and opposition-led rallies.


If the current government thinks youthful apathy will keep them home on polling day, they might be in for a nasty shock.


Youths who feel stifled don’t disappear; they re-emerge, often in ways the establishment least expects.


So do young voters really “miss Najib”? Not exactly. They miss being seen. They miss policies that reached them in the kampung, not just in glossy Putrajaya speeches. They miss the illusion, however flawed, that someone in power actually gave a damn about their daily struggles.


Unless the Madani government translates its lofty rhetoric into reforms that Malaysians can feel in their wallets, schools, clinics, and towns, nostalgia for Najib could evolve into something more than wistful memory. It could become political currency.


And if that happens, the so-called reformists may find themselves replaced—not because young voters loved Najib, but because Najib, for all his sins, at least made them feel acknowledged.