How Najib Quietly Rose As The 'Hero' Of The MH17 Negotiation

Anwar throws his weight behind Najib, agreeing that negotiating with the separatists was necessary. is show of support for the prime minister is lauded by other MPs, who tap on their tables. "To get things done, there is no easy way out, so we have to negotiate with the separatists who are controlling the region.

In a rare statement of praise to his political adversary, Lim Kit Siang said: “The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, is to be commended for the breakthrough. Be that it as it may, Malaysians must remain united as one people on the MH17 disaster, continuing to give full backing to the Prime Minister."

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“The MH17 incident, macabre as it is, also provides an unsought opportunity for Najib to showcase his leadership,” Oh Ei Sun, a senior fellow with the Singapore-based Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, told the Malay Mail Online via email.

Ibrahim Suffian, who heads independent pollster Merdeka Center, “The PM has shown (himself) to be very diligent, a hard worker who is empathetic, used quiet diplomacy to get things done, something leaders from other countries could not pull off.”

As Western leaders increasingly pointed the finger of blame at pro-Russian separatists, and Moscow itself, over the shooting down of a Malaysia Airlines plane in eastern Ukraine, the government in Kuala Lumpur said little.

At home, anger was building over the poor treatment of the victims' remains. In the Muslim faith, followed by the majority of Malaysians, funerals are supposed to be held within 48 hours of death. Some of Najib's advisers were urging him to make a strong statement, noting that leaders of the United States, Australia and Britain had all expressed outrage.

"There was growing pressure on the PM to reflect some of this domestic anger," the first source said. "They felt that they needed the PM to make a strong statement to the country to address some of these building concerns, and some of them began to craft a statement on Sunday afternoon."

Najib, working through intermediaries to reach rebel leader Alexander Borodai, was a key figure in brokering the deal, according to two sources in Malaysia with direct knowledge of the negotiations.

Intermediaries, whom the sources declined to identify, facilitated at least one telephone discussion between Najib and Borodai, via a translator, the sources said.

The talks were kept under tight wraps, with Najib initiating the conversation and bringing only a handful of his closest confidants into the discussions. "It was the Prime Minister’s project," one of the sources said. "He was the main player and he kept this within a very, very, very tight circle. Even some of his closest advisers were not part of this circle, and were surprised by this deal."

Malaysia wanted three things from the separatists: return the bodies, hand over the black boxes and assure safe access for investigators to the crash site.

A broad agreement took shape on Monday, and Najib broke his silence, telling a small group of officials that a deal had been struck, the first source said. A press conference he had scheduled for 5:30 p.m. was abruptly canceled. At 10 p.m., Najib assembled his advisers and press officials at his residence for a briefing. The public announcement came just after midnight. By morning in Malaysia on Tuesday, the black boxes were in Malaysian possession and a train carrying the bodies was heading out of separatist-controlled territory.

Borodai’s people wanted a signed document acknowledging that the black boxes were not tampered with, the second source said. They also insisted on handing over the black boxes to the Malaysians because they did not want the devices in the hands of the Ukrainian government.

While President Barack Obama blamed Russia for supporting and arming rebels who the West accuses of firing a surface-to-air missile that took down the plane, Malaysia kept channels open to both Ukraine and Russia, eventually getting direct access to separatist leader Borodai.

Not once did he or any other Malaysian officials publicly point the finger at Russia. "That’s the position of the Malaysian government. Our priority is not to get involved politically. We just want to get the bodies and get investigators to the site," said a government official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

That meant when an agreement was reached it did not look like the rebels, or their backers in Moscow, were bowing to Western pressure, said one analyst. "It helps, definitely, that Malaysia is seen as a non-party to the ongoing conflict on the ground," said Alan Chong, associate professor at the Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. "Whereas NATO, the U.S., Britain, are definitely partial towards the Ukrainian government. They have posed particular difficulties to the rebels."

Earlier this morning, Russian ambassador to Malaysia Lyudmila G. Vorobyeva maintained her country's stance that it had not been involved in the MH17 disaster. She also thanked Putrajaya for its neutral stance in waiting for the results of an international probe instead of pointing fingers and making baseless accusations.

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Vorobyeva told a press conference at the Russian embassy in Jalan Ampang today that Russia had been unfairly demonised by Western media. "Where is the tangible evidence that Russia was involved in the MH17 disaster? All the finger pointing and accusations have been made without any proof."

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NYT said if all participants honour the deal, it would be a diplomatic success for Malaysia. "The agreement is the result of an unusual spate of diplomacy by Mr Najib, who held a series of secret telephone calls with Mr Borodai. "The backdrop for the negotiations was a slowly growing criticism within Malaysia, including by some in the political opposition, that Mr Najib did not appear to be more publicly critical of the separatists or Russia," NYT said.

NYT said Malaysia, and particularly Mr Najib, have played an outsize role in diplomatic agreements in Southeast Asia in recent years, and tried to apply those skills to dealing with the separatists. It said Malaysia has an enormous stake in resolving the problems that have impeded a prompt investigation of the crash and the quick recovery of the 298 victims, who are exposed to abuse and tampering.

"In recent days, there were times I wanted to give greater voice to the anger and grief that the Malaysian people feel, and that I feel," Najib said when he finally broke his silence on Tuesday. "But sometimes, we must work quietly in the service of a better outcome."

"The agreement with Borodai was to bring an end to the standoff over the crash site of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17," Najib said. "Our agreement rests on three conditions, namely the return of the victims' remains, the handover of the flight recorder and full access to the crash site so that investigations can begin."

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Najib said that the discussions with Borodai had been due to extraordinary circumstances which called for extraordinary measures. "There were risks in pursuing this agreement but we felt an obligation to explore all avenues to break the impasse. "After meeting the next-of-kin of the victims, I felt we owed it to them to act to secure the remains of the victims and the flight recorders."

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