Daughter of Nazir Razak, Najib’s brother, speaks out against father's marriage two months after divorce, alleging infidelity and deceit
Marissa criticised the lack of consideration for her family, highlighting how it affected her, her brother and their mother, who was Nazir's wife for 30 years
Aminah Farid
·Contributor
Mon, 4 December 2023 at 3:15 pm SGT
Nazir Razak posted his wedding photos to current wife, Yati Zainudin, on Instagram, prompting a response from his daughter. (Photo: Nazir Razak/Instagram)
Nazir Razak, the brother of former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, and also former chairman of CIMB group, has tied the knot again. However, the wedding has prompted an outcry from Nazir's daughter from a previous marriage, who alleged a tumultuous family situation.
Marissa took to social media, expressing her dismay over the her father's extravagant wedding to Yati Zainudin, which took place on 17 November, highlighting her family's pain in the aftermath of her parents' recent divorce.
"I am usually a private person and would not normally speak out on social media but the publicity of my dad's recent nuptials have pushed my brother Arman & me to our limits. It has hurt us very much to see our mother treated with such callousness and disregard,” Marissa Nazir wrote on Instagram.
Nazir's daughter criticised the lack of consideration for her family, highlighting how it affected her, her brother and their mother, who was Nazir's wife for 30 years.
"I thought that 2nd marriages (& in the case of this woman 3rd marriage) are usually quiet & discreet affairs - after all the timing was only 2 months since my parents' divorce was officially confirmed in court,” she wrote.
"Instead my dad had a grand and high-profile wedding, which showed no consideration to the feelings of his children or of our mother, his wife of 30 years. None of us were informed of the nuptials - we learned about it from invited guests and social media,” she continued.
"I was also shocked to see my dad's hurtful and oblivious insta post where he states 'l got married today!' - as flippant as announcing that he just purchased a new set of golf clubs,” she added.
What happened in the family?
Marissa accused Nazir of insensitivity, highlighting instances of infidelity during her mother's illness in 2020-21.Allegations included secret rendezvous and nights spent at the family home with the new wife, who was also once a friend of her mother.
Marissa's post also questioned the timing of the high-profile wedding merely two months after the divorce was finalised in court.
"Those who attended the wedding - many of you know my mother & may have received her hospitality in the past - please know that you are celebrating a union borne out of infidelity & deceit,” she said.
"The woman in question (as well as her sisters) was a friend of my mum's. As a child I remember mum lending 'auntie Yati' her baju kurung for the woman to wear at her dad's funeral. I remember mum doing favours for auntie Tini & auntie Shireen, including lending them our car & helping their brother get a job at CIMB."
"Mum was very ill during the pandemic in 2020-21 & was unable to travel. While my brother & I took turns to look after her, my dad was carrying on the affair with that woman."
Furthermore, the daughter expressed shock at the opulence of the ceremony, attended by hundreds of guests, including a Grammy-award winning band flown in from overseas.
Financial disputes between Nazir and his ex-wife were also brought to light, as he reportedly failed to fulfil promised settlements.
Disapproval of the union
The wedding's best man and AirAsia CEO, Tony Fernandes, and another close associate, Kamal Badawi, also faced severe criticism from Nazir's daughter.Both were accused of enabling and assisting the affair, with Fernandes delivering a speech deemed crass and in bad taste.
“TS Tony Fernandes made a speech so crass & in such bad taste that some guests were so disgusted they left the ballroom. Maybe I should not be surprised as TS Tony is one of the friends who enabled & assisted the affair while my parents were still very much together and married. The other enabler is TS Kamal Badawi who has posted & praised the wedding,” she said.
“As one guest commented about the wedding - 'it was almost as if his family didn't exist,” she said.
She also challenged the authenticity of the "Family Values" chapter written by her father in his biography, What's In A Name.
"My father wrote a chapter on 'Family Values' in his biography but the truth is everything my brother and I have learnt about family values we learnt from our mother - honesty, integrity, loyalty and love,” she said.
“She stuck by my dad not just in good times but in the bad times too. She nursed him and took charge of the doctors when he was ill with cancer. When dad was being pushed out of CIMB, I remember her staying up late writing long reports to lobby the new officials. When the MACC was investigating dad, I remember her attending all the lawyers' meetings & helping strategize his defence. All this while bringing up my brother & me, as well as doing her own PhD at Oxford.”
"Arman and I accept that our family is fractured and that our parents are no longer together. But we love our mother very much and will speak up against any attempts to hurt her or erase the memory of the family she tried to build,” she added.
