For me that fateful day is marked by the swearing in of Najib as the new PM. There is bad karma that I can feel about his ascendancy to the country highest office which is hard to explain. Hovering above Najib's head are a lot of unanswered or related events that defied political and legal logic. I am only hoping for divine intervention to show him the way out. Right now the nation is being fed with a lot of Najib's theatrics. A very sleek manoeuvre of playing to he gallery - with the bulls of 1Malaysia as his slogan. So be it!!!! Read this accompnying article:
MALAYSIA: UMNO and the next Prime Minister
by C. S. Kuppuswamy
“UMNO is not Malaysia and by the same token Malaysia is not UMNO. It is this inability to distinguish between the party and the government that has cost the UMNO its attractiveness as a party of the people and that would work against UMNO in the next general elections”. - Tunku Abdul Aziz, The Malaysian Insider.
United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), held its 59th annual general assembly at Kuala Lumpur from 24 to 28 March 2009. This is the dominant party of the ruling coalition known as the Barisan Nasional (BN).
This is the biggest political party of the country with over 3 million members amongst the country’s population of around 25 million. Over 2500 delegates attended this party congress to elect the president, the deputy president, three vice presidents, the chairman, the youth chief, the wanita (women) chief, the puteri (youth- women) chief and 25 supreme council members. In all there were 267 candidates who had ventured to get into the party’s main body.
The general assembly was scheduled to be held in December 2008, but was postponed consequent to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s decision to hand over the reins to his deputy Najib Razak and to cater for the transition process.
This is the first general assembly of the party after the poor showing in the last general elections held in March 2008. UMNO won only 79 of the 222 parliamentary seats as against 109 out of 219 in 2004. The ruling coalition won a mere 51.2 % of the popular vote as against 64% in 2004. For the first time since independence in 1957, the ruling coalition lost its two-thirds majority and lost control of four more of the 13 states to the opposition besides Kelantan which was already under the opposition rule.
Both the outgoing party president and the new one had harped on the fact that the party had been disowned by a major chunk of the population in the last election and that there is an urgent need for a strategy to regain the confidence of the public. Discussions on other topics such as, improvement of economy, the Malay superiority, the emboldened opposition, the racial disharmony and the impending by elections are also believed to have taken place.
Dato Seri Najib Razak was elected unopposed as the President. The challenge to him by the veteran Tengku Razaleigh fizzled out as he could not obtain the required nominations for contesting. Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yasin was elected as the Deputy President in a straight contest with the party information chief Muhammad Taib. By convention the president and the deputy become the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister.
Najib Razak is the son of the second prime minister of the country, Tun Abdul Razak. The British educated Razak, aged 55, is in politics for three decades and has held various portfolios before reaching this top slot. It is a strange coincidence that he is also becoming a prime minister like his father at a time when UMNO has had a major set back. His father took over in 1970 after the infamous racial riots of May13, 1969 and its after effects.
Due to the unquestioned supremacy for the last 50 years, UMNO had become over confident and arrogant in bulldozing its policies with scant regard to other coalition partners or the minorities of the nation. (For a detailed description of the current political state of affairs please see this author’s paper “Malaysian politics – getting murkier” Paper No. 3066 dated 23/02/2009 (http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/papers31/paper3066.html)
The party is plagued with infighting and corruption. Even in this assembly there were reports of two factions one aligned to Badawi and the other with Najib Razak. Najib was presumably working behind the scene to get more of his men elected. There was commotion and exhibition of disgruntlement by the Najib faction when Badawi’s son-in-law was declared elected as the youth chief.
“The underlying problem – for UMNO and Malaysia – is the favored euphemism, ‘money politics’, meaning backhanders paid for public-sector contracts or, where UMNO is concerned, seats at the high table. On March 17, the party’s disciplinary board said it had found 15 members guilty of money politics. They included Ali Rustam, chief minister of Malacca State, who was campaigning to become deputy party leader”. Though he was disqualified he has not stepped down as Chief Minister.
The prime minister elect Najib Razak is a known protégé of Dr. Mahathir. A few days before the assembly, the government banned two opposition party news papers, refused credentials for two popular on-line media for covering the General Assembly proceedings and the police dispersed a rally of the opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on the ground that a permit for holding the meeting had not been obtained. All these actions are being considered as the handiwork of Najib.
Najib is also being credited (discredited) for toppling the opposition government in the state of Perak by enticing three state legislators to defect and support UMNO. The state legislature is in a state of suspended animation with the matter having been referred to court. Hence there is a general feeling that Malaysia is returning to the Mahathir era.
Dr. Mahathir, who had quit the party last year in protest over Abdullah’s leadership, has decided to rejoin the party. He remarked in an interview with AFP, that he thinks “Najib will be more firm - not necessarily oppressive but firm in his decision and acts”. He added that people are calling it “Mahathirism” but justified the controversial acts during his term in power were aimed at preserving peace in a country with a racial mix of Muslim Malays with ethnic Chinese and Indians.
Under what was often referred to as a controlled democracy, Mahathir had reigned for over two decades but can Najib afford it and survive for long as prime minister. This is the question.
Najib is expected to take over as prime minister from Abdullah Ahmad Badawi during the first week of April though Abdullah declined to give a firm date for the handing over.. He has a long list of things to be done and perhaps more to be undone to retrieve the image of UMNO. Much is going to depend on his cabinet which is bound to have some new faces. His team has to be more professional especially on the economic front
The first test is going to be the impending three by elections on April 7, 2009. Though he has nominated his deputy responsible for the campaigning, the results will reflect on people’s acceptance of Najib’s leadership.
Though he has repeatedly denied any involvement in the murder of a Mongolian model in Malaysia in 2006, the case is repeatedly hogging the limelight of the local media with more inputs from foreign media on the alleged involvement of his personal staff and thereby implicating him. Hence he has to get his name cleared in the eyes of the public.
The Ketuanan Melayu (Malay superiority) and the interlinked affirmative action policy is now being debated openly. Malays feel; it is under threat while the others feel it is being used against their interests. To find a solution acceptable to all is no easy task.
As the finance minister, he had announced an economic stimulus package. Under the looming recession much more requires to be done for lifting the Malaysian economy.
A strong opposition with his nemesis Anwar Ibrahim as leader, is more vocal, aggressive and has the backing of a sizeable segment of the country’s population. Repressive action alone may not be able to silence or overcome the opposition.
Najib Razak, the country’s sixth prime minister is going to be on a hot seat and his performance in the first year or so is going to be crucial for the party and the ruling coalition to continue in power and help regain the political stability in the nation as before.
http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/papers32/paper3124.html
by C. S. Kuppuswamy
“UMNO is not Malaysia and by the same token Malaysia is not UMNO. It is this inability to distinguish between the party and the government that has cost the UMNO its attractiveness as a party of the people and that would work against UMNO in the next general elections”. - Tunku Abdul Aziz, The Malaysian Insider.
United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), held its 59th annual general assembly at Kuala Lumpur from 24 to 28 March 2009. This is the dominant party of the ruling coalition known as the Barisan Nasional (BN).
This is the biggest political party of the country with over 3 million members amongst the country’s population of around 25 million. Over 2500 delegates attended this party congress to elect the president, the deputy president, three vice presidents, the chairman, the youth chief, the wanita (women) chief, the puteri (youth- women) chief and 25 supreme council members. In all there were 267 candidates who had ventured to get into the party’s main body.
The general assembly was scheduled to be held in December 2008, but was postponed consequent to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s decision to hand over the reins to his deputy Najib Razak and to cater for the transition process.
This is the first general assembly of the party after the poor showing in the last general elections held in March 2008. UMNO won only 79 of the 222 parliamentary seats as against 109 out of 219 in 2004. The ruling coalition won a mere 51.2 % of the popular vote as against 64% in 2004. For the first time since independence in 1957, the ruling coalition lost its two-thirds majority and lost control of four more of the 13 states to the opposition besides Kelantan which was already under the opposition rule.
Both the outgoing party president and the new one had harped on the fact that the party had been disowned by a major chunk of the population in the last election and that there is an urgent need for a strategy to regain the confidence of the public. Discussions on other topics such as, improvement of economy, the Malay superiority, the emboldened opposition, the racial disharmony and the impending by elections are also believed to have taken place.
Dato Seri Najib Razak was elected unopposed as the President. The challenge to him by the veteran Tengku Razaleigh fizzled out as he could not obtain the required nominations for contesting. Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yasin was elected as the Deputy President in a straight contest with the party information chief Muhammad Taib. By convention the president and the deputy become the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister.
Najib Razak is the son of the second prime minister of the country, Tun Abdul Razak. The British educated Razak, aged 55, is in politics for three decades and has held various portfolios before reaching this top slot. It is a strange coincidence that he is also becoming a prime minister like his father at a time when UMNO has had a major set back. His father took over in 1970 after the infamous racial riots of May13, 1969 and its after effects.
Due to the unquestioned supremacy for the last 50 years, UMNO had become over confident and arrogant in bulldozing its policies with scant regard to other coalition partners or the minorities of the nation. (For a detailed description of the current political state of affairs please see this author’s paper “Malaysian politics – getting murkier” Paper No. 3066 dated 23/02/2009 (http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/papers31/paper3066.html)
The party is plagued with infighting and corruption. Even in this assembly there were reports of two factions one aligned to Badawi and the other with Najib Razak. Najib was presumably working behind the scene to get more of his men elected. There was commotion and exhibition of disgruntlement by the Najib faction when Badawi’s son-in-law was declared elected as the youth chief.
“The underlying problem – for UMNO and Malaysia – is the favored euphemism, ‘money politics’, meaning backhanders paid for public-sector contracts or, where UMNO is concerned, seats at the high table. On March 17, the party’s disciplinary board said it had found 15 members guilty of money politics. They included Ali Rustam, chief minister of Malacca State, who was campaigning to become deputy party leader”. Though he was disqualified he has not stepped down as Chief Minister.
The prime minister elect Najib Razak is a known protégé of Dr. Mahathir. A few days before the assembly, the government banned two opposition party news papers, refused credentials for two popular on-line media for covering the General Assembly proceedings and the police dispersed a rally of the opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on the ground that a permit for holding the meeting had not been obtained. All these actions are being considered as the handiwork of Najib.
Najib is also being credited (discredited) for toppling the opposition government in the state of Perak by enticing three state legislators to defect and support UMNO. The state legislature is in a state of suspended animation with the matter having been referred to court. Hence there is a general feeling that Malaysia is returning to the Mahathir era.
Dr. Mahathir, who had quit the party last year in protest over Abdullah’s leadership, has decided to rejoin the party. He remarked in an interview with AFP, that he thinks “Najib will be more firm - not necessarily oppressive but firm in his decision and acts”. He added that people are calling it “Mahathirism” but justified the controversial acts during his term in power were aimed at preserving peace in a country with a racial mix of Muslim Malays with ethnic Chinese and Indians.
Under what was often referred to as a controlled democracy, Mahathir had reigned for over two decades but can Najib afford it and survive for long as prime minister. This is the question.
Najib is expected to take over as prime minister from Abdullah Ahmad Badawi during the first week of April though Abdullah declined to give a firm date for the handing over.. He has a long list of things to be done and perhaps more to be undone to retrieve the image of UMNO. Much is going to depend on his cabinet which is bound to have some new faces. His team has to be more professional especially on the economic front
The first test is going to be the impending three by elections on April 7, 2009. Though he has nominated his deputy responsible for the campaigning, the results will reflect on people’s acceptance of Najib’s leadership.
Though he has repeatedly denied any involvement in the murder of a Mongolian model in Malaysia in 2006, the case is repeatedly hogging the limelight of the local media with more inputs from foreign media on the alleged involvement of his personal staff and thereby implicating him. Hence he has to get his name cleared in the eyes of the public.
The Ketuanan Melayu (Malay superiority) and the interlinked affirmative action policy is now being debated openly. Malays feel; it is under threat while the others feel it is being used against their interests. To find a solution acceptable to all is no easy task.
As the finance minister, he had announced an economic stimulus package. Under the looming recession much more requires to be done for lifting the Malaysian economy.
A strong opposition with his nemesis Anwar Ibrahim as leader, is more vocal, aggressive and has the backing of a sizeable segment of the country’s population. Repressive action alone may not be able to silence or overcome the opposition.
Najib Razak, the country’s sixth prime minister is going to be on a hot seat and his performance in the first year or so is going to be crucial for the party and the ruling coalition to continue in power and help regain the political stability in the nation as before.
http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/papers32/paper3124.html
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