Look for new leaders, Kadir urges all parties
Analyst calls for trust and credibility, notes that Najib’s fate lies in the hands of 300 Umno people, media and bloggers
(Free Malaysia Today) – Political parties should look beyond their present leaders, for the sake of the country’s future and that of the rakyat, wrote political commentator A Kadir Jasin today.
He said Malaysians deserved a brighter future, through better leaders who could earn the trust of investors and consumers, and he called upon all parties to look beyond Najib Razak (Umno), Anwar Ibrahim (PKR and Pakatan Rakyat), Lim Kit Siang (DAP) and Abdul Hadi Awang (PAS).
Kadir, a former chief editor of New Straits Times Press, is a known associate of former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, who has urged Najib to step down as Umno president and prime minister.
Significantly, however, Kadir went beyond Najib’s future in urging for a change of guard in all parties, in what might be seen as placing collective responsibility for Malaysia’s current political and economic crises on all the main players in the power game.
Kadir said Najib Razak has fenced himself in while facing double political and economic crises, and his survival now lay in the hands of about 300 people in Umno, and the controlled media and bloggers. There were already “signs of unease” among many of Najib’s supporters and “their fear and, possibly, conscience” were “causing them to seethe and sweat”.
Kadir said Najib had become an exclusive leader, dependent on that circle of supporters, from attempting to be an inclusive Prime Minister for all Malaysians at the beginning of his government.
“The 300 or so Umno leaders, comprising Supreme Council members, state chairmen and divisional chiefs, are the people who determine whether he stays or goes,” wrote Kadir in his latest blog posting.
The majority were either loyal or beholden to Najib for the present, as he had given them power and money and “in some probable instances, knows their dirty little secrets”, said Kadir, a former chief editor of the New Straits Times Press, who is close to former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad and former finance minister Daim Zainuddin.
He believes this uncertainty of support had stymied Najib in his efforts to carry out his government duties, in dealing with the controversial 1Malaysia Development Bhd scandal as well as Malaysia’s looming economic problems.
