Umno top leadership has been fighting tooth and nail to see its former president Najib Abdul Razak get to serve the remainder of his prison sentence from home.
But it was not long ago when Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi rejected a similar proposition for his now boss, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
In 2016, Pakatan Harapan called for Najib's government to allow Anwar such treatment.
Back then, Zahid was the deputy prime minister and home minister in Najib's cabinet, while Anwar was an opposition leader and was serving a five-year jail sentence for sodomy.
According to Zahid, the government could not grant the then-PKR de facto leader house arrest as the law prohibited it.
"On the proposal to move Anwar out from Sungai Buloh Prison and to have him under house arrest at his Bukit Segambut residence, this could not be done as there is no law on this," he said in a parliamentary written reply.
The then-home minister was responding to Anwar's wife and then-MP for Permatang Pauh, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who asked the government to allow her husband to be placed under house arrest.
While there is no specific law for house arrest, the Prisons Act does allow the home minister to declare any location - including a house - as a prison.
The idea of house arrest first came from Anwar's lawyers a few days after he was convicted on Feb 10, 2015.
N Surendran and Latheefa Koya had said that Anwar should be treated as a "prisoner of conscience" and not an ordinary convict.
They had argued that the Myanmar military regime placed Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest instead of sending her to an ordinary jail.
Royal addendum argument
Fast forward to now, and it's Najib in prison and Zahid who wants the former to be placed under house arrest.
Najib's backers in Umno argued that a supplementary royal decree issued by Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah on his last day as the 16th Yang di-Pertuan Agong, which ordered the former prime minister's house arrest, must be enforced, and contended that otherwise is tantamount to betraying the monarch.
In April, Zahid also went out of his way to file an affidavit to back Najib's claim of the addendum order.
"I verily believe that for a sufficient period of time I sighted and read the addendum order, and I clearly saw the entire contents and that it forms part of the pardon process of the applicant, which is supplementary to the main (royal) order, both dated Jan 29.
"Thus, I hereby confirm the existence of the addendum order dated Jan 29, issued by the 16th Yang di-Pertuan Agong.
"I also verily believe that other than myself and (Tengku) Zafrul (Abdul Aziz), other members of the government have seen the addendum order.
“Specifically, I am aware that (Pahang Menteri Besar) Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail has also seen a copy of the addendum order and can confirm the same," Zahid said in his court filing dated April 9.
Full pardon request
However, the High Court last week ruled that the royal decree was invalid as it did not fulfil constitutional requirements that a king consult a pardons board before issuing clemency.
Zahid and Umno are now pushing for Najib - who has just been handed down a 15-year jail sentence in another corruption case - to be granted a full pardon.
Najib's continued presence in prison has been a major sore point for Umno, which has also threatened to exit Anwar's government after an uproar over DAP's Yeo Bee Yin celebrating Najib's house arrest bid being denied.
While Anwar - who helped fast-track Najib's pardon hearing - has said he respected the High Court ruling, he has called on those who don't sympathise with the latter not to make the situation worse. - Mkini
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