Najib to go for GE within months but not same time as Sarawak

Experts and opposition politicians expect Prime Minister Najib Razak to call for early general elections following Barisan Nasional’s victories in the recent by-elections at Kerdau and Merlimau.

They said Najib may decide to strike while the iron was hot against the Pakatan Rakyat led by Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim.

“BN needs to ride on the high wave before inflation sets in and undermine the feel-good factors,” Ramon Navaratnam, past president of Transparency International, told Malaysia Chronicle.

According to Ramon, Najib may not be able to generate the same positive response if he waited as economic growth was already starting to slow and this may be used as a battering ram by the opposition.

His views were shared by PAS vice president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man, who said it was now more likely that Najib would dissolve Parliament and call for nationwide polls within the next few months.

“The target of winning back Umno votes was successful in the twin by-elections. Because of this winning streak, the PM might call for elections much sooner ,” Tuan Ibrahim told Malaysia Chronicle.

Wait until economic projects get off the ground

BN had on Sunday retained both Kerdau and Merlimau state seats with higher winning margins compared to the 2008 general election.

Most noticeably, it was the Malay vote that swung back to Umno, while the Chinese were mainly still unconvinced by MCA and BN.

According to Ramon, this was good news for Umno and would bolster the PM’s confidence.

“Also the opposition seems to be in disarray. Unless politicking is reduced there may be a growing disillusionment of the people in opposition parties,” said Ramon.

However, Ramon did not think that Najib would hold the 13^th GE simultaneously with the Sarawak state polls. His views were supported by political analyst Professor Aziz Bari.

Aziz believes that Najib might hold out until the KL MRT project had gotten off the ground before calling for polls.

“Only the PM knows when he will decide to hold the elections, but there are signs it will happen soon,” Aziz toldMalaysia Chronicle.

“Personally, I think he will wait for the Sarawak state election to be over before he makes his final decision. Also, he might want to see more of his economic programmes like KL MRT project got off the ground before calling on the people to vote for him.”

Among criticism levelled at the scandal-tainted Najib was that he had not achieved any progress or managed to implement any economic policy since taking power in April 2009.

While he has unveiled a list of huge economic projects totalling RM1.4trillion under the Economic Transfromation Plan, most Malaysians see this as so much pie-in-the-sky. Malaysia has racked up record government debt and would be unable to fund most of these projects.

Pundits have said Najib might be keen to show that he had managed to get at least one mega-project off the ground before inviting the people to vote for him and his coalition.

In the 2008 general election, Malaysians had refused to extend the BN's long-held two-thirds parliamentary majority. They also gave control of 5 of the nation's 13 states to Anwar's Pakatan coalition. - Malaysia Chronicle