Najib Firmly in Malaysia’s Saddle

ARCHIVES 2009

By MT Webmaster On Oct 19, 2009

A smooth Umno general assembly demonstrates the prime minister’s new sway

In addition, the Pakatan Rakyat coalition headed by opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim is in disarray. Anwar himself faces the start of a long-delayed criminal trial stemming from charges by a then 23-year-old former aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, that Anwar had raped him in an apartment in Kuala Lumpur.

Asia Sentinel

Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, who took office in April with a lower approval rating than his benighted predecessor who was driven out office by rank and file members of his own party, appears to have turned the corner on his ruling national coalition’s downslide.

There are lots of problems that could reverse the situation. But Najib and his United Malays National Organisation, the biggest ethnic party in the Barisan Nasional, the ruling coalition, went through a remarkably trouble-free and well-organized three-day annual general assembly last week, at the same time the opposition Pakatan Rakyat coalition is facing increasing internal tensions.

The political dynamic in the country may be changing, with the tripartite ethnic makeup of the Barisan Nasional, or national ruling coalition, evolving. Two of the coalition’s three biggest parties, the Malaysian Chinese Association and the Malaysian Indian Congress, could be in terminal collapse from scandals and infighting. Najib himself has overseen the creation of a new Indian party, Parti Makkal Sakti, and attended the party’s Oct. 10 launch, an indication that the MIC, headed by longtime politico S Samy Velu, may be abandoned.

Ethnic Chinese will be considerably harder to woo back although the Chinese, who continue to control most of the country’s business activity, would find it against their economic interests to be aligned with the opposition for too long. However, they seem to be moving towards the opposition Democratic Action Party, driven by vicious infighting between MCA factions and by what may turn out to be one of the most expensive scandals in Malaysian history.

That is the project to turn Port Klang, the seaport 70 km west of Kuala Lumpur, into a national transhipment hub at a cost of RM7.45 billion (US$2.12 billion). Its directors say it is likely to default on billions of ringgit in loans, with the possibility, according to an auditor’s report, that accumulated interest could drive the cost to a whopping RM12.45 billion, which would have it on course to be one of the biggest losses in the country’s history. The port development was awarded as a turnkey project without competitive bid to well-connected political cronies of the MCA and to a lesser extent Umno.

A report on the scandal, which allegedly names names and delineates criminal activity, was read to the Malaysian cabinet but never released. It has since been classified an official secret under the country’s stiff Official Secrets Act, which decrees jail time for those who flout the law. The report was published briefly in the Bahasa Malaysia language in Malaysia Today, an influential Internet publication whose editor, Raja Petra Kamaruddin, fled the country ahead of sedition charges. The report was later taken off the site.

Umno went into its annual conclave buoyed by a convincing victory in an October 11 by-election for a local assembly seat in a district about 60 km south of Kuala Lumpur which nonetheless demonstrates the party’s problems as well. The Umno candidate, Mohamad Isa Samad, won despite the fact that he had been barred previously from active party politics for three years for vote-buying. Party leaders attempted to find another candidate because of the taint attached to Isa, but locals demanded he be named.

Cynics pointed out that the constituency contains eight army and police camps as well as a large number of absentee votes by policemen and the military, who could be expected to vote with the government. In addition, the party appears to be afraid of calling for new elections in the state of Perak, where it regained power by luring three members of the opposition to change sides, critics say by offering them money to do so. It didn’t even contest an earlier by-election in the state of Penang earlier and has lost all but two of nine by-elections since 2008 national polls.

After becoming premier with only 43 percent of the voters approving of him, a series of decisive economic steps and loosening investment restrictions on minorities pushed his approval rating to 65 percent before it fell back somewhat on the weak economy and other problems. The Umnofest showed Najib to be firmly in charge. At the prime minister’s behest, the party pushed through reforms doing away with a quota system that shielded those seeking top party positions to be nominated by a certain number of local divisions prior to being able to contest. The quota system meant that party leaders could dictate candidacies without bothering to consult the rank and file.

He sought to address, at least publicly, the continuing reports of massive corruption within Umno ranks, saying in his maiden address to the 2,500 members of the rank and file that “The perception of Umno as a party to make a living from must be thrown far far away… must be discarded.”

Also, the usually rabid youth wing of the party was held securely in check, eliminating the fiery speeches of past conclaves. Often in past years speakers have waved krisses — As Najib reportedly did himself in 1987 – amid threats to soak the Malay ceremonial dagger in Chinese blood. Najib since his elevation to the premiership has stressed what he calls “1Malaysia” – an attempt to do away with the growing ethnic tension that has troubled the country over recent months. If the Oct. 11 by-electionis any yardstick, he appears to have brought ethnic Indians, who make up 8 percent of the population, back into the fold.

The 55 year old prime minister, educated as an economist, is being given some help by the slowly reviving economy, with the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research revising upwards its fourth-quarter gross domestic product forecast, pushing GDP back into positive territory after deep contractions in the first and second quarter. Although the economy is expected to contract by 3.3 percent for the full year, that is an upgrade from the 4.2 percent projected earlier.

The charges have been branded spurious by Anwar, a charge reinforced by a medical report by a physician who examined Saiful prior to the accusation and wrote a declaration that there was no sign of forcible sodomy. Anwar’s lawyers have been delaying the trial for months with a series of legal manoeuvres questioning the validity of the proceedings. Nonetheless, it is now expected to get underway in November. Anwar was jailed for six years in 1999 on similar charges, which were condemned by human rights organizations from across the world.

Beyond that, however, Anwar’s own party, Parti Keadilan Rakyat, has been damaged by a variety of problems, including the forced departure for at least six months of Zaid Ibrahim, a prominent reformer who quit Umno to join Anwar’s opposition party with considerable fanfare. He apparently has been forced to do so because he is regarded as a threat by other PKR officials to succeed Anwar if the latter goes to jail on the sodomy charges. Zaid’s six-month leave of absence is a serious setback for Anwar because the former Umno official had been given the task of creating a common platform for the three-party Pakatan coalition, which is made up of seriously disparate elements – the fundamentalist, rural-based PAS, the Chinese chauvinist Democratic Action Party and Anwar’s own moderate, urban ethnic Malays.

Najib’s efforts to rebuild his party have been given considerable impetus because of the fact that regardless of having lost its two-thirds majority in the Dewan Rakyat, or parliament, in the 2008 elections, it still controls the sinews of government and is able to deliver largesse to the electorate that the opposition, even controlling five statehouses, has been unable to match.

It also controls the mainstream press and even the country’s corps of fierce bloggers, who played a role in the 2008 elections, have trouble breaking through the chaff. Najib has been able to ignore questions raised over a series of big scandals when he was defense minister, including millions of dollars paid as “commissions” to a company owned by his best friend for the purchase of three French submarines. Similar commissions were paid for the purchase of Sukhoi jet fighters and patrol boats that were never delivered.

He has never had to face questions raised by the year-long trial of two of his elite bodyguards for the murder of Mongolian translator Altantuya Shaariibuu. A DAP parliamentarian, Gobind Singh, was suspended from the parliament for a year for attempting to raise questions about allegations of Najib’s involvement in the case.

“Don’t ever try to undermine or exploit the new system,” Najib told the assembled delegates. “We are serious about this. Don’t, because if you try, you will have to face the consequences.”

Except in certain cases.