Najib’s compromise

Tay Tian Yan, My Sinchew

The Umno president’s opening speech in this year’s general assembly could have been one of the most important and most watched speeches ever made in this whole year.

It doesn’t matter if you are an Umno member, a Malay or a non-Malay, everyone is keen to know how the party’s president cum the country’s prime minister is going to lead this country, and often the answer can be found in this speech.

Sure enough party members and non-members have very different expectations from the speech. So do the Malay and non-Malay communities.

Najib is well aware of his dual role. He cannot afford to just please the members of his party while overlooking the response from the society in general. Similarly, he must not try to dance to the tune of the outside world and go against the will of party members.

As a consequence, such an important opening speech must be able to strike a delicate balance between external and internal expectations.

So, he focused his speech on two things: national solidarity and the Sedition Act.

On national solidarity, he cited some of the major recent incidents such as the Lahad Datu intrusion, MH370 and MH17 as well as older things such as the Malayan Communist Party and the May 13 incident, saying none of these have segregated the country and Malaysians have stood together to overcome the trials and have remained united until this day.

All this should have been targeted at all Malaysians in a bid to express that Umno and BN have transcended beyond a single ethnic group to take care of all Malaysians, and that this has been a successful formula that has contributed towards national unity.

This is a relatively effective way of pleasing people, as no one would oppose solidarity despite the varying definition of the same among people of different ethnic backgrounds. What else can bring people of such diverse backgrounds together other than solidarity?

Moreover, such a high-key manifestation of national solidarity targeting Umno delegates is meant to illustrate the point that Umno must not just fight for the its own goals and interests, but must extend the struggle to fight for other races in the country.

This will serve to suppress the ambitions of the conservatives so that they will not have the chance to bring up sensitive racial issues.

However, Najib must also take care of the needs of the conservatives and respond to their requests in a bid to evade intense backlash.

So, the Sedition Act has become a second major axis of his speech this year.

Najib has to compromise and keep the Sedition Act in response to the needs of party members.

As for the civic society, retention of the Sedition Act has contravened Najib’s earlier pledge to repeal the act. It is almost certain that he will come under criticisms, especially from the opposition and dissidents.

That said, the pressure from within the party has gained in strength, They feel that abolishing the Sedition Act will bring about further liberalization, threatening the status of bumiputras and Islam as well as the federal government’s control and Umno’s influences.

However, he said the enhanced Sedition Act would not only defend Islam in the future, but would also make sure that other religions would not be offended as well.

The general public are against the Sedition Act in that there are many grey areas that could be abused to tackle dissidents, giving people the impression of selective prosecution.

In order to convince the public of the necessity to keep the Sedition Act, he must make sure that the amended act will be even more equitable and transparent, incorporating the spirit and elements of the proposed National Harmony Act.

The retention of the Sedition Act has won the applause of many delegates, allowing them to have a new focus to debate the act next.

Meanwhile, the Sedition Act has successfully diverted the delegates’ attention from other issues such as the existence of Chinese primary schools and the presumption that Chinese Malaysians do not support the BN.

To be honest, this year’s speech has not promised any major breakthroughs or included any major administrative policies. Nevertheless, Najib has opted compromise and balance to dissolve the conflicts and pressure from all quarters.