Najib needs to watch his back
Salleh Said Keruak
While the whole country appears focused on the power struggle in Selangor and are placing bets on whether Selangor Menteri Besar, Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, would be out by this week, or by the end of this month, or by August, September, October, and so on, no one seems to notice an even larger issue looming over the horizon.
Talk that the warlords and kingmakers in Umno want Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Najib Tun Razak out seems to have simmered down. Is this because the move to oust Najib has ended or is it because they have resorted to underground tactics?
In Khalid’s case it is very clear. It is an open and direct assault on the Menteri Besar. In Najib’s case, it was also an open and direct assault soon after the general election last year. Of late, however, things appear to have quietened down but Najib is for sure not in the clear yet.
There are two ways to bring down a person. As the Malays would say: it can be done by jarum kasar and it can be done by jarum halus. In Khalid’s case, Anwar Ibrahim’s people are getting desperate and the longer they wait the harder it would be to oust Khalid so they are now using the jarum kasar.
In Najib’s case, they may feel that the jarum halus method is safer or, as the Malays also say, would be just like removing hair from flour. This means you remove the hair without spilling any flower — unlike what PKR is doing in Selangor regarding the MB issue (the flour is being spattered everywhere).
What I mean is this. Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin ‘reminds’, ‘warns’ or ‘threatens’ (depending on how you see it) the Chinese regarding May 13 and Najib gets blamed for it.
The Selangor religious authority triggers a controversy regarding the Bible issue and refuses to comply with the state government’s directive to return the confiscated Bibles and Najib gets blamed for it.
There is a water crisis in Selangor and Najib gets blamed for it. There are problems regarding conversions to Islam and the issue of where to bury them and who gets the children and Najib gets blamed for it.
Nothing happens in Malaysia without fingers being pointed to Najib as the cause of this problem. When Najib keeps quiet he is accused of no action and of not doing his job. When he says something he is accused of political interfering. Nothing Najib does is the correct action.
