page_title: Najib Razak
section_title: Return as Minister for Defence (2000–2008)
hierarchical_section_title: Najib Razak / Senior Ministerial career / Return as Minister for Defence (2000–2008)
caption_attribution_description: Malaysian Minister of Defense, Najib Razak, pictured during a defense meeting held at the Pentagon in Washington, District of Columbia (DC).
context_page_description: Mohammad Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak is a Malaysian politician who served as the 6th prime minister of Malaysia from April 2009 to May 2018. He is the son of another former prime minister, Abdul Razak Hussein. Najib Razak was the chairman of the Barisan Nasional coalition from April 2009 to May 2018 and the president of the United Malays National Organisation from November 2008 to May 2018, which had maintained control of Malaysia's government with a parliamentary majority for more than sixty years until the coalition's defeat in the 2018 general election.
  Najib was elected to the Parliament of Malaysia in 1976, at the age of 23, replacing his deceased father in the Pahang-based seat of Pekan. In the same year, he was appointed the head of UMNO Youth's Pekan branch and became a member of the youth wing's Executive Council. In the early years of his political career, Najib took on a deputy prime minister role in 1976, and between 1982 and 1986, he was the Menteri Besar of Pahang. Thereafter, until 2009, he was rotated throughout the Cabinet of Malaysia, taking on various ministerial portfolios in defence, education, culture, youth and sports, and finally finance.
context_section_description: During his second tenure as Minister of Defence Najib coordinated Malaysia's relief efforts following the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, and provided support to Indonesia in arresting those responsible for the 2004 Bali bombings. Najib also oversaw the deployment of Malaysian troops as a part of a UN peacekeeping force in 2006, when Malaysia volunteered to help stabilise Lebanon following the 2006 Lebanon War.
  As Defence Minister, Najib instituted compulsory military service in December 2003, stating that it would encourage interaction and friendship between youth of different ethnic groups and religions. During its first five years of operation, over 339,000 Malaysian youth participated in the PLKN (the Bahasa Malaysian acronym for "Malaysian National Service"), which is intended to promote tolerance, teamwork, and community engagement. The programme, however, has faced challenges.  Safety issues in the program have been reported and several people died during or shortly after their terms of service during the program's first few years. In response, Najib strengthened the PLKN's health screening requirements and reinforced the government's commitment to punish negligent PLKN officials.
caption: Najib during a defence meeting held at The Pentagon in Washington, D.C., 2 May 2002
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