Najib set to lead Malaysia after party polls
(Reuters) KUALA LUMPUR: The final ascent of Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to the country's top job begins with the Umno annual assembly which kicks off on Tuesday.
Umno, the lead component of the ruling National Front coalition, will hold internal elections on Thursday and endorse Najib who is running unopposed. He will then become Malaysia's sixth prime minister, likely in early April.
Umno's president and deputy president are by convention prime minister and deputy prime minister of the Asian country and Umno appointees make up around two-thirds of the cabinet.
Party leaders have warned that failure to reform will result in the Front, which has ruled Malaysia for 51 years, losing the next general election which is due by 2013.
Below are some questions and answers about the Umno polls.
Will Najib get a strong mandate?
The strength of Najib's hold on Umno can be measured by whether he can get the 2,509 party delegates to vote his key allies to the top party positions.
Nowhere will this be more evident than in the race for the deputy presidency where International Trade Minister Muhyiddin Yassin is seen as Najib's pick. The disqualification of one of the candidates may lead to some delegates throwing their weight behind his opponent, Muhammad Muhammad Taib.
A win by Muhammad or even a narrow victory by Muhyiddin will be a setback for Najib that may embolden his critics to coalesce into a faction to challenge him later on.
What are the reforms?
Internal elections are plagued by vote buying that Umno admits it has not been able to stem. One step would be to increase the number of people able to vote in party polls, making bribery more difficult.
Tougher reform would be the dismantling Umno's culture of patronage. The party rank and file are dependent on government contracts handed out to build political loyalties in Umno and many see a crackdown on corruption as selective and unfair.
The hardest would be to reform the New Economic Policy (NEP) which accords privileges to the country's majority Malays so as to reduce the wealth gap among the races. Its critics charge it has engendered graft and hurt economic growth.
But for the delegates, the NEP is the core of Umno's existence and no decision makers, including Najib, have dared to raise abolition as a prospect.
All of the Umno election candidates publicly espouse the need for change but in reality there are very few identifiable reformers in the Umno election line-up.
Of the 51 candidates vying for the 25 elected positions in Umno's highest ruling body, most are longserving officials who collectively shoulder the blame for the erosion of Umno support.
Who to look out for?
The party's three vice-presidents form a pool from which the country's future premiers and deputy premiers emerge. There are eight candidates vying for the posts this year.
The front runners are Minister of Islamic Affairs Zahid Hamidi, a conservative and powerful Umno leader viewed as a key Najib ally, and Higher Education Minister Khaled Nordin from the party's powerhouse state of Johor that neighbours Singapore.
Other aspirants are Minister of Unity, Culture, Arts and Heritage Shafie Apdal from the politically influential Sabah state in Borneo, and Najib's cousin Education Minister Hishammuddin Hussein.
The assembly may provide some clues on whether former PM Mahathir Mohamad will stage a comeback, possibly with his close associates, such as former Finance Minister Daim Zainuddin.
A strong win by Mahathir's son, Mukhriz, running for the influential post of Umno youth head, may indicate acceptance by Umno on the return of the former longserving PM.
If he comes back, it could signal the return of "Mahathirism" — an autocratic style of governance that brooks little political dissent and supports government intervention in the economy through massive projects. — Reuters
