The PM Does Not Need You

A Kadir Jasin

THE BLOCKING of the whistle-blowing UK-based Sarawak Report by the Malaysian Communication and Multi-Media Commission (MCMC) on July 20 is another example of the many faces of Mohd Najib Abdul Razak as Prime Minister.

He may be weak and ineffectual, but there are still enough people – the latest being the once sensible Ahmad Shabery Chik – clamouring to serve him for power and cash. Cash, said Mohd Najib, is king.

The Prime Minister is a man of many policies, programmes and slogans. He is, by his own reckoning, a transformational leader. So he transforms.

It is his ability to transforms that makes it hard to pin him down and shoo him away from the Prime Minister’s office. He is unlikely to pack up and go anytime soon.

Let us consider the following:

1. He started his transformational initiatives by launching the 1Malaysia concept soon after he became Prime Minister in 2009 with the slogan “people first and performance now.”

2. On that basis he declared himself Malaysian first and attached the 1Malaysia label to all things possible. So there were the “salam 1Malaysia” greeting, 1Malaysia shops, 1Malaysia clinics, 1Malaysia people’s housing and, last but not least, 1Malaysia Development Berhad.

Has not lived up to people first, performance now

3. Then there was the New Economic Model, his answer to the New Economic Policy (NEP), which was founded on inclusiveness - hence the declaration “I am the Prime Minister for all” and “the  government does not know all." 

4. To replace (Tun) Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’sIslam Hadhari he launched the  Wasatiyyah or "middle of the road" concept - the Arabic version of his "moderation”.

The Transformation of the PM

I had been speaking in past tense because that is what has become of Mohd Najib. He had transformed. Consider the following:

A. His 1Malaysia slogan of “people first, performance now” has been rendered hollow as a result of the sputtering economy and the burdensome Goods and Services Tax (GST). Now it looks more like “Mohd Najib first rakyat later.”

B. From being Malaysian first he had transformed himself into a “Pahlawan Bugis” (Bugis warrior). In his April speech at the presentation of the Government Transformation Plan (GTP) and the Economic Transformation Plan (ETP) 2014, Mohd Najib alluded to his Bugis ancestry saying that a Bugis would not abandon his ship even though it was battered by giant waves, its rudder broken, its sails torn to shreds and the ship is finally swallowed by the ocean. A Bugis would toil on instead of returning to the harbour. (In 2005, as Deputy Prime Minister, he was bestowed the Bugis highest award of the “I Mappadulung Daeng Mattimung Karaeng Sandrobone Sultan Abdul Jalil”).  

The making of a Bugis Warrior

C. From being one of us via his inclusiveness, he distance himself from us by bragging about his blue blood. When speaking at a gathering in Kuching on June 4, he declared that he would not be disheartened because the blood in his body was no ordinary blood. 

D. From the Prime Minister for all he has become the Prime Minister for members of the Cabinet, the Umno Supreme Council, the Umno Liaison Chairmen and the Umno divisional heads. They number less than 300.

He thrives on love

E. His inclusiveness has change into exclusiveness. He is concerned only with those who support him. 

So, since Mohd Najib is concerned with only these few people, why should he want to step down even if the majority of the rakyat want him gone?

Mohd Najib is not concerned with the majority, especially the 52-per cent who voted for the opposition in the 2013 general elections.

His position now is determined by the 300 or so Umno warlords and Cabinet members. Only the Umno Supreme Council, the state liaison chairmen and the divisional chiefs can remove him. If he loses their support he loses the privilege to remain Prime Minister. But they are unlikely to revolt because they are beholden to him.

Fighting Separate Battles

So (Tun) Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the bloggers, Sarawak Report, the opposition, the Whatsapp chat groups, the Instantgramers and the Facebookers can shout and scream, and even claim victory but Mohd Najib will stay.

We are fighting two different battles in two separate battlefields.

Those who want the truth about 1MDB, a stronger economy and a respectable country are fighting in the battlefield of public opinion.

They may be winning but they do not have the power to remove the Prime Minister – at least not until the next GE.

Mohd Najib and his exclusive club of supporters may not be winning the public opinion battle but they have the political power – at least until the next GE.

Unless there is a revolt by Umno akin to the storming of the Bastille by the hungry and angry Frenchmen and women in 1789 that saw King Louis XVI and his inconsiderate wife, Marie Antoinette, being sent to the guillotine, Mohd Najib will stay.

He does not need the teeming nation to support him. He only needs the Cabinet ministers, the Umno chiefs, the mainstream media and the hangers-on to be loyal to him, even superficially.

Pemuda Umno is making sure he does not fall

And with the power vested in him by the 48-per cent Barisan Nasional voters during the 2013 GE he can continue to rule come rain or shine until the next general polls. 

That’s the reality for now.

Footnote: This is my 1,000th article since I started this blog in 2006. Thank you for your support.

Wallahuaklam.