Rosmah won’t let Najib quit, says Kadir Jasin
The veteran journalist believes the PM is likely to survive the current assault on him
(Free Malaysia Today) – It won’t be easy to oust Prime Minister Najib Razak because he has a strong support base and an ambitious wife, according to veteran journalist A Kadir Jasin.
In a blog article that speculates on the future of Malaysian politics, Kadir says Najib will likely survive the current assault on him because he is much stronger politically than his predecessor, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
In comparing the two, he also compares the personalities of their wives.
“Najib has an ambitious and determined wife who would want him to stay at all costs,” he says. “On the other hand, Pak Lah’s wife is not an ambitious woman and it was said that she urged him to resign.”
Kadir said Najib has probably learned to avoid Abdullah’s pitfalls.
He writes: “Pak Lah did not have too many people depending on him for favours – political, business and professional. Members of his kitchen cabinet numbered less than 10. Najib has hundreds. He built his influence by dispensing favours to as many people as possible.
“He runs the biggest Prime Minister’s Office in history and controls the party chiefs with the gifts of golden eggs (to borrow the expression of the Umno Secretary-General Tengku Adnan Mansor) and has surrounded himself with quasi-government agencies which are not under the control of the Public Services Department.
“He may not be liked and loved by Dr Mahathir, Umno veterans and bloggers, but he is loved by the upper echelon of the business community.
“The bumiputera businessmen get contracts and blessings from him. The Chinese also get contracts from the government while at the same time they take advantage of marketplace uncertainties to buy back their shares, double their profits and transfer their wealth abroad. The Indian tycoons too have benefited by being close to him and his household. They enjoy preferential loans and plump business deals, contracts and concessions.
“For now, the more likely scenario is Najib survives as Prime Minister, Umno President and BN Chairman but the BN could lose the next general election. The redrawing of election boundaries could be to the advantage of the BN in the rural areas but may not be enough to offset voters’ rebellion.”
