KUALA LUMPUR, 3 April 2009: Malaysia’s king has sworn in Najib Abdul Razak as the country’s sixth prime minister, a day after Abdullah Ahmad Badawi resigned to take responsibility for the ruling party’s worst election showing in four decades, informs Aljazeera.net Friday.
Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin, the country’s constitutional monarch who accepted Abdullah’s resignation on Thursday, swore Najib in on Friday at the palace in the capital, Kuala Lumpur.
Najib, the son of a former prime minister, swore to “fulfil the obligations of this post with honesty” and “pour my full loyalty into Malaysia and preserve, protect and defend the constitution”.
He faces a myriad of challenges, including an economy badly hit by the global downturn and racial divisions in the country.
The opposition has repeatedly accused Najib of corruption in a deal to buy French submarines when he was defence minister.
It has also alleged that he was linked to the killing of the Mongolian mistress of Najib’s close former aide.
The BN, which has been in power since independence in 1957, failed to maintain its two-thirds majority in parliament for the first time in 40 years, and also lost control of an unprecedented five states.
