Expect the unexpected from Mahathir
Ariff Sabri says the former PM will triumph over Najib.
(Free Malaysia Today) – Raub MP Ariff Sabri has predicted that Dr Mahathir Mohamad will win his political battle with Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.
In a blog posting that ridicules Umno Youth for its excessive show of support for Najib last night, Ariff writes:
“With Mahathir, we must expect the unexpected. Never for one minute must we think that the 90-year-old Mahathir entered this battle without being prepared. He has hidden arsenals, which when trained and then released at Najib,” will cause “the ketum-driven Umno youths and the decadence-induced ketua bahagians” to abandon him “just as they now fete Najib as if he were a hero.”
Ariff believes that most Malaysians find Mahathir more credible than Najib. “What Mahathir has said and will say in the coming days resonate well with the people. The Umno people are three million strong, while outside there are 25 million people who believe Mahathir and will vote Najib and Umno out.”
Addressing Najib, he says, “The crux of the matter, Mr PM, is believability. The people believe Mahathir more than they believe you.”
Ariff belittles the Prime Minister’s attempt at projecting himself as a religious person in trying to win over Malay voters. He compares Najib with his predecessor, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who had an academic qualification in Islamic Studies: “People find it hollow when you speak of wasatiyyah and maqasid shariah. What can you – a person deficient in religious training until perhaps recently – do, when the Islamic-Studies-trained author of Islam Hadhari fizzled? It’s a question of believability, my friend.”
In his writings, Ariff has often spoken disparagingly of Najib’s abilities. In the current article, he says Mahathir has shown up the Prime Minister for what he really is – that “Najib is a zero.”
