Najib tries to damage control for Teoh, Church but Selangor exposes him

Prime Minister Najib Razak and his administration have been forced to run for cover, trying their best to save his controversial 1 Malaysia slogan from being ridiculed and exposed as a sham, but they may have failed as Malaysians scrutinise the constitutional crisis boiling over in Selangor where the opposition is being publicly bullied into submission by the combined forces of Najib's Umno party and the Palace.

“Nowhere is it more obvious than in Selangor where Najib and Umno are hiding behind the Sultan who rightfully should be above politics. Here it is crystal clear, despite the doublespeak, 1 Malaysia is nothing but sheer hypocrisy. It is being used to pull wool over the people’s eyes, and by right it should be outlawed because it is subversive propaganda aimed to divide the races - not to unite them,” PKR vice Tian Chua told Malaysia Chronicle.

“As we had feared, 1 Malaysia has gone the way of OneIsrael and OneAustralia. It is now not just a symbol of racial supremacy but also a symbol for corruption by the super-elite who expect the people to respect them without thinking or to judge for themselves. Is this right or wrong? “

Sultan "apolitical"

Indeed the manner in which Najib had marshalled the machinery of his federal government and his Umno party that has ruled Malaysia for 5 decade to ride roughshod over the Pakatan Rakyat Selangor government has been an eye-opener.

Even this morning, at the oath-taking ceremony of Najib’s blue-eyed boy Khusrin Munawi, whose controversial appointment as state secretary has been rejected by Menti Besar Khalid Ibrahim’s administration, the Sultan clearly sided with the powerful prime minister. He endorsed the federal government's choice without taking into consideration his own state government's wishes.

The obvious question of "why" is now at the heart of the bitter and escalating row between Khalid, the federal government and the Palace.

Although the Selangor Ruler insisted he was "apolitical", it would be interesting if a referendum was taken and the people asked if they believed that he was really neutral, or acting on his own, or as most people believe was siding with Umno. It would even be more interesting if the scope of referendum was expanded and the people asked to jot down why they thought the Sultan would want to side Umno?

Nonetheless, due to courtesy and protocol demands, Khalid had no choice but to attend Khusrin's oath-taking ceremony, but he and his Pakatan team say they are sticking to their pledges to the people. They have announced that they will carry on with all ways and means to dislodge Khusrin, including calling a state assembly sitting to amend laws that would invalidate his appointment.

Who would the people side with?

To counter this, Umno support organs have been busy spreading word that Pakatan's defiant behaviour showed they were anti-Palace and by extension anti-Malay.

Whether such a premise is logical is moot because Khalid and his team were the people’s choice. Khusrin is not. Even Najib was not elected by the people of Malaysia. He became PM because of an internal Umno power transfer. The Sultan is the Sultan because of birth right.

“This is what happens when the different parties overplay their roles and forget that they are mere cogs in the wheel of life. The super-powerful must remember to be sensitive to the people, who through education can think very well for themselves. Those born into privilege are already blessed by God. For them to come and stand on the side of wrongdoing and corruption in order to amass even greater wealth is to ask for too much,” a political analyst toldMalaysia Chronicle.

The Perak lesson

Indeed, Selangor is the second state in Malaysia where Najib and Umno have used might to steamroll over the opposition. In Perak, they toppled the Pakatan state government with the help of the Perak Sultan and the state secretary there.

Speculation had then been rife that Najib had allocated a huge business deal to the Perak royal family. Just weeks ago, the federal government confirmed a RM36 billion MRT project to MMC-Gamuda without open tender. Gamuda is controlled by the Perak royal family.

Apart from the Selangor Sultan-state secretary crisis, there are several other incidents over which Najib has recently stumbled. During Christmas, he tried to score brownie points by showing that he was not averse to visiting Christians. Unfortunately for him, news leaked out that he had ordered his minders to ensure that his image was protected, and they in turn had ordered Church officials to remove symbols of Christianty such as crosses and crucifixes during his visit.

This was to protect Najib from being photographed with any Christian symbol displayed in the background because to the Umno mindset, such an image would strike at the heart of Najib’s ‘Islam-ness’.

“That is Umno hypocrisy for you. The elite are not really that backward but instead of leading the party forward, they are only too happy keep the mentality of their members in the stone ages. Anything goes as long as they stay in power. They really have no moral authority to lead Malaysia,” Nizar Jamaluddin, the deposed Pakatan Perak chief minister, told Malaysia Chronicle.

Damage control: It's my fault! An RCI for Beng Hock!

An aide has since emerged to take the blame for Najib’s X’mas fiasco. But it is doubtful if her words will mean anything because at the heart of what ireally rks people and makes them lose trust in Najib and all things Umno is their insistence on cave-man politics. Just like in the episode involving the ‘apolitical’ Selangor Sultan and his preferred state secretary.

And also just like Teoh Beng Hock, the luckless Selangor political aide who died in suspicious circumstances after overnight interrogation by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, which coincidentally has also previously claimed that it is ‘apolitical’.

On Wednesday, after more than a year of inquiry, an inquest could not decide what caused his death. The Coroner delivered an “open” verdict – the biggest implication of which meant that the police would not have to pursue further investigations.

Amid the ensuing public outcry and if not for the fact that a by-election in Tenang – a constituency with a large Chinese population – loomed, there would probably be zero chances of Najib ordering the Royal Commission of Inquiry that his BN-media have reported he is mulling.

At the core - duplicity and intention to deceive

But of what use is an RCI bound by parameters aimed at protecting wrongdoers just as in the inquest, rather than exposing the culprits, pundits asked.

They pointed to a previous one involving former premier Mahathir Mohamad and lawyer VK Lingam, saying Najib's judiciary was now so bold-faced they could even dare to allow the findings of an RCI be challenged in court and an application sought to have it overturned.

“This is the duplicity of Najib. It doesn’t cost him anything to call for the RCI. He may tell the MACC not to worry, we cross the bridge when it comes because at the moment we cannot afford to anger the non-Malays as Tenang is too close by,” Gopeng MP Lee Boon Chye told Malaysia Chronicle.

“Same sort of deception going on in Selangor. The Sultan assumes a heavy-hand when he actually has no say over who becomes the state secretary and this has been confirmed by the Chief Secretary. At the same time, Najib sends his Umno NGOs and Utusan poking fire among the Malays. They say things like, Selangor is going to the dogs. It is becoming a colony of China, Pakatan doesn't respect the Sultan. If Khusrin is ousted, the Malays in Selangor are finished. You see the logic? No, there is no logic because it is pure emotionalism. This is the type of politics being played by Najib and this is the true meaning of his 1 Malaysia. It is really a very dangerous scam.” - Malaysia Chronicle