Najib will survive crisis, analysts tell CNBC
(FMT) – Rock-solid support within Umno, ‘control’ over investigative process and lack of challenger cited as reasons.
Prime Minister Najib Razak will likely survive the “multi-million dollar corruption scandal” he is facing, a political analyst has told CNBC in an interview.
Disagreeing with reports in the international media which claimed that recent allegations levelled by the Wall Street Journal at Najib were tantamount to a “smoking gun”, City University of Hong Kong professor William Case pointed to several factors, which in his opinion, were in the prime minister’s favour.
“As I see now, the way the investigation has been playing out, it’s playing to form,” Case said. “I think Najib has control over the investigative process. The investigation panel will report directly to him. In consequence, he will probably be able to survive this.”
Case also denied suggestions that Umno was “fracturing”, adding that Najib “still has rock solid support within his party.”
He also claimed that there was no obvious replacement for Najib in the upper echelons of government in the same way internationally and domestically.
Najib’s former political secretary Oh Ei Sun, now a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University, believes that the Prime Minister’s image has been greatly affected.
“[B]ut he will be able to survive because either the opposition or those in the party against him don’t have enough members of parliament to topple him,” Oh opines.
“If the allegations turn out to be true, Najib will have to clarify for what purpose (he took the money). If they are not true, he will definitely be taking legal action against the WSJ,” Oh was quoted as saying. “But he does need to do something more decisive than just denying the allegations for now.”
