Challenges mount for Malaysia's Najib
By Anil Netto
PENANG - Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak took a big step towards taking over
the premiership when he was returned unopposed this week as president of the
United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the dominant party in Malaysia's
ruling coalition. His men also bagged most of the leadership posts in the
recently concluded party elections. As head of the UMNO, Najib automatically
becomes premier, although a formal handover date has yet to be announced.
Najib has been hammering home a message of change and reform, but many
Malaysians wonder what his vision might entail. There is little doubt that UMNO
needs to reform after the ruling
coalition suffered a severe setback in last March's general election. The long
dominant party lost its coveted two-thirds parliamentary majority at those
polls, while five of the federation's 13 states fell to the opposition. It
represented the party's worst setback since independence from Britain in 1957.
Many Malaysians, especially those exposed to independent online media and
critical blogs, have grown tired of accounts of corruption, abuse of power,
rent-seeking and the perpetual undermining of government institutions by
UMNO-led governments. Meanwhile, minorities and disadvantaged groups have
started to more strongly assert their rights.
Najib is taking over power at a challenging time for the country, both
politically and economically. Malaysia's trade-oriented economy is on the brink
of recession, with exports and manufacturing both slumping badly. Within his
party, there's a sense of siege as a resurgent opposition alliance, led by
Anwar Ibrahim, continues to challenge the ruling coalition's eroded dominance.
Among activists and dissidents, there is a sense of foreboding that Najib and
the new UMNO leadership will resort to authoritarian measures to affirm their
grip on power. Outgoing premier Abdullah Badawi, who was blamed for the
coalition's poor showing at last year's election and forced out of the UMNO's
presidency by party chieftains, warned the party against resorting to its old
ways, which some commentators have referred to as a return to "Mahathirism".
There are ominous signs Najib will aim to model his premiership after former
prime minister Mahathir Mohamad's 22-year tenure. In moves reminiscent of
Mahathir's heavy-handed rule, police have in recent days disrupted opposition
rallies, while two opposition party newspapers were suspended for three months.
"Sadly, there are still those who feel that we do not need to pursue reforms,"
lamented Abdullah in his farewell speech to the party's annual general
assembly. "They believe that UMNO will regain its glory if we revert to the old
ways - the old order, by restricting the freedom of our citizens and by
silencing their criticism."
Abdullah warned that if the party returned to the old path, it would lead to
regression and decay. "It is a path that I fear will hasten our demise. If we
do not take courageous steps to reform in the face of this dynamic
transformation of society and the radical global changes taking place, then we
shall live to witness the end of our beloved UMNO. What is the point of
fighting tooth and nail for positions in the party if all that remains of us is
an obsolete husk?"
Politics of reform
On Abdullah's rise in 2003, few UMNO delegates seemed keen to stay the course
of Mahathir's authoritarian era. Against the odds, they picked Abdullah's
ambitious son-in-law Khairy Jamuluddin over Mahathir's son Mukhriz for the
leadership of the party's influential youth wing. Khairy, more than the other
youth leaders, had been speaking the language of liberal reforms, though he had
also played the communal card in his rise up the party ranks.
Mahathir failed to show up at the assembly after his son lost and started a
campaign of criticism against the party he once led. The former premier, who
handpicked Abdullah as his successor, but later locked horns with him over his
style of governance and decision to scrap infrastructure projects Mahathir had
approved, has warned that UMNO has become a party of the corrupt. "Whether it
is the members or the leaders, all of them are out there for their own
self-interest," he recently said.
The just-concluded party election process should have instilled confidence
among the people that UMNO was prepared to fight corruption, Mahathir said.
"But what has happened shows that UMNO does not care about reforming the party
and winning the 13th general election. They are more interested in becoming
UMNO leaders using any means. Their hope is that if they become UMNO leaders,
they would become Cabinet Ministers and obtain contracts and other benefits for
their self interest."
Those are strong words coming from a man whose own 22-year tenure was plagued
by scandal after scandal - but all the same worth listening to, as Mahathir has
intimate knowledge of how the UMNO works. For instance, Mahathir claimed that
many of the nominations for the party's Supreme Council by the party's
divisions were the result of "offers". "Many of those nominated were widely
known to have bought votes," he alleged.
Najib has a chance to repair the party, said Mahathir, by refusing to appoint
those tainted by corruption to his Cabinet when he takes over as prime
minister. However, there is also the matter of public perception - beginning
with Najib, who has been implicated in blogs and opposition media in the
sensational murder of a Mongolian woman interpreter.
Najib, for his part, strenuously denies any involvement but has not sued his
critics nor testified in the ongoing murder trial, in which two special forces
operatives linked to him have been charged with the murder. The scandal has
brought shame to the nation and damaged the country's international
credibility, according to the sidelined UMNO veteran Razaleigh Hamzah, who had
earlier announced he was in the running for the party's leadership.
"For the honor of the nation, for the honor of the office of prime minister,
for the honor of the sovereign institutions expected to endorse, confirm and
lend authority to him should he become prime minister according to UMNO's
plans, [he] should finally face these suspicions and implied charges, submit
himself to legal scrutiny, and come clean on them," Razaleigh said.
He claimed the country had fallen into a spiral of institutional and economic
decline and that the next government "must not only be fully committed to
restoring the legislature, the judiciary and the rulers to their proper dignity
and independence, it must be seen by the Malaysian public to be capable of
doing so".
No matter what UMNO does, the race-based politics the ruling coalition has
perpetuated since independence is less appealing to a younger generation of
Malaysians who are less influenced by the state-manipulated media. This has
prompted Khairy to suggest offering Malaysians direct membership to the ruling
coalition instead of via the main race-based parties.
Zaid Ibrahim, a former cabinet minister in the Abdullah administration who
stepped down due to the slow pace of promised democratic reforms, is confident
that Malaysia will more towards a more pluralistic society through the forces
of globalization. Yet he warned: "We will not succeed in promoting a united
country and allow for the evolution of Bangsa Malaysia [a Malaysian race] if we
do not subscribe to the rule of law. We need the openness, freedom and social
justice that will be possible only with [the rule of law] in place and
democracy."
All eyes now are on the transition from Abdullah to Najib and the composition
of Najib's new cabinet. Depending on how those appointments are publicly
received, Najib's first big test will likely come in three hotly contested
by-elections on April 7. UMNO has in recent months lost crucial by-elections,
in which Najib helped campaign, to Anwar's National Alliance. Not only will the
upcoming polls be viewed as a public referendum on the ruling coalition, but
the first measure of public opinion on Najib's ascension to Malaysia's top
political spot.
Anil Netto is a Penang-based writer.
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