Najib’s honeymoon evaporates
His "1 Malaysia” concept is seen as a way to soft-pedal changes to the NEP while assuring the country's dominant population, the Malays and to a certain extent Bumiputeras in Sabah and Sarawak, that their privileges will be protected and maintained.
The Malaysian Insider
Two weeks into the job, Datuk Seri Najib Razak is finding out that running the country is a marathon, not a sprint.
Castigated for his "1 Malaysia” slogan and Cabinet appointments by those near and far, Najib breezed into the country's top office on April 3 asking Malaysians to "begin this great journey together".
His “1 Malaysia” slogan promised fairness to all and breaking out of ethnic prisons but many politicians and thinkers are shaping it according to their ideas. He also cobbled a Cabinet prioritising the economy but it is still seen as too large and some appointments called "unsavoury".
Outspoken former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad made the "unsavoury characters" comment in his popular weblog yesterday while his ex-aide Matthias Chang added pressure, telling Najib focus on the economy or face the same fate as Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who was forced to quit last month.
DAP strongman Lim Kit Siang put it succinctly today by saying: "In just two weeks, the momentum of euphoria and 'feel good' factor of a new prime minister has fast dissipated."
He added that criticisms have allowed Dr Mahathir to adopt a “holier than thou” stance as seen in the former prime minister's latest posting: “From the complaints I hear today, corruption especially in the government party has reached record levels during the tenure of the last PM.”
"This is supreme irony. When Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi succeeded Mahathir as prime minister in October 2003, he came in as ‘Mr Clean’ and was given an unprecedented mandate in the March 2004 general election to be a modern-day Justice Bao to clean up the Augean stables,” the Ipoh Timur MP said in a statement.
But Lim said Abdullah not only failed to wage an all-out war against graft but has now allowed his predecessor to declare with a straight face that "corruption especially in the government party has reached record levels during the tenure of the last PM”.
He hastened to add Dr Mahathir's indictment appeared to be reflected in Malaysia’s ranking in the Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index from 37 in 2003 to 47 in 2008.
But he said Dr Mahathir's criticisms are a high-stakes game to bring back Mahathirism into the administration where the economy grew in a tightly-controlled country.
"Mahathir is playing for very high stakes — not only in determining the men and women in the Najib Cabinet but also as the eminence grise in the Najib government for the full-throttled return of Mahathirism, including the restoration of the multi-billion ringgit 'crooked scenic half-bridge' to replace Malaysia’s half of the Johor-Singapore Causeway," Lim said.
Bearing the brunt of this is Najib, who has long promised to review unequal aspects of the New Economic Policy launched by his father Tun Abdul Razak Hussein, the country's second prime minister, in the aftermath of the 1969 race riots.
His "1 Malaysia” concept is seen as a way to soft-pedal changes to the NEP while assuring the country's dominant population, the Malays and to a certain extent Bumiputeras in Sabah and Sarawak, that their privileges will be protected and maintained.
Those quick to praise the slogan and concept have damaged by framing it in their own ideas while they try to deny it is anything like the “Malaysian Malaysia” long espoused by the DAP and, before that, by PAP's Lee Kuan Yew when Singapore was part of Malaysia.
Najib will now have to control the form and substance of 1 Malaysia to make it work and regain the trust of the voters and retain the support of Umno and Barisan Nasional followers. Dr Mahathir himself said he has only three years to do that.
In that same regard, the Cabinet appointments have shown Najib's traditionalist mindset to ensure that almost everyone in the 13-member ruling coalition is represented apart from geographical representation.
He compromised his earlier philosophy of radically trimming the Cabinet in favour of incremental changes but the decision has been found wanting.
Damned if he did, damned if he didn't but Najib's only hope of triumphing over all his detractors is to last the race. After all, it has just been two weeks.
