Isn't it odd that survey after survey released in the past week ostensibly indicates that Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak - he with the effeminate pink lips and holding on thanks only to a few hundred semi-literate voters in Pekan - continues to remain popular.
It’s more than a little difficult to swallow the results from such surveys, commissioned as they are by some moneybags, since Najib hesitates to secure his own mandate from the nation. Instead, he piggy-backs on the one obtained by Abdullah Badawi, his predecessor. This is indeed a contradiction in terms.
For another, the surveys - some purportedly from opposition parties and some from the government-controlled universities - seem oblivious to the fact that he has so many skeletons in the cupboard that his conscience must surely be killing him, even if slowly, by now.
To rub it in, his wife Rosmah Mansor is no asset to him in his political career. She has been implicated with him as well in his numerous scandals which have come to public notice.
He seems unable for now to rein her in; much less tell her off for not knowing her place. She comes across to the public as stubborn, bull-headed, and having a fixation with leading a lavish lifestyle at the public expense.
Altantuya will dog him for life
To be fair to the man, he could claim to be as popular as Tunku Abdul Rahman and Badawi in their better moments if not for the fact that the ghost of C4-ed Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu hangs like the proverbial sword of Damocles over his head. He can’t wish it away however much he prayed.
The killing follows him like a bad smell everywhere and that’s suicide in politics. He declined to come clean because there’s no way that he can explain himself. There is also the matter of possible corruption in the related RM7 billion Scorpenes deal.
This is why he has so far trivialized the issue instead. But he’s kidding no one. Perception is all that matters in politics.
An on-going case in a French Court is likely to make things even worse for Najib in the months to come and perhaps just before the forthcoming 13th General Elections (GE 13).
The moment that we see even Najib’s deputy, Muhyiddin Yassin, keeping himself at a good distance in public from his boss, we will know that his (Najib’s) goose is about to be cooked.
Patently, there are still many unanswered questions from the Altantuya killing: her role in the multi-billion ringgit submarine purchase from France and Spain; who erased the records of her entry into the country from the Immigration Department computers; the link between Abdul Razak Baginda, Najib’s aide and reportedly a cousin, and Altantuya; and why the two convicted killers of Altantuya are still behind bars after being sentenced to death. The Judiciary, where heads are long overdue for a rolling, will have much to explain in the wake of GE 13.
These are all questions which will surface once more during GE 13.
Sodomy II
As if the stench from the Altantuya killing isn’t enough, Najib’s reported role in the on-going Sodomy II Trial is the proverbial millstone around his neck.
It has been admitted by the parties concerned that Najib met with Saiful Bukhari, the man who has accused opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim of sodomising him. The allegation has been pooh-poohed by expert medical witnesses and seems to suggest, as Anwar has claimed, a high-level conspiracy against him along the lines of Sodomy 1.
Sodomy 1, in hindsight, was engineered by former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad who had to pay the ultimate price when he was forced out of office by an Umno revolt in the Federal Cabinet led by present Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein Onn and present Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz.
Ultimately, the Court held upon appeal that Anwar did not sodomise Azizan Abu Bakar, his wife’s driver.
Even those who detest Anwar felt sorry for him and abandoned Umno even if they still declined to vote for him. Sodomy 1 cost Umno deeply at the polls.
Sodomy II, like Sodomy 1 engineered by Mahathir, will cost Umno even more dearly at the polls. Perak, stolen from Pakatan Rakyat by Umno several months after GE 12 in 2008, will return to the opposition alliance.
Terengganu and East Malaysia while Najib frolics
Perak aside, PR is set to re-capture Terengganu, add Negri Sembilan to its electoral haul, and make in-roads in Sabah and Sarawak, Umno’s so-called Fixed Deposit states because of the many illegal immigrants there on the electoral rolls. PR has been stepping up the registration of local voters to neutralise the number of illegal immigrants on the electoral rolls.
Najib has also been unable to escape the public perception that Mahathir is blackmailing him into submission at every twist and turn and corner.
This has not endeared him to the man in the street who has since come to see Mahathir for what he’s really like as a person and politician. This is a side that Mahathir kept hidden from the public for almost 22 years in public office i.e. until Sodomy 1.
History has a nasty habit of catching up
Other scandals dog Najib to complete with the Altantuya killing, Sodomy 1 and Sodomy II. These include Najib’s 11th hour betrayal of Kelantan Umno strongman Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah in the infamous 1987 Battle for the Umno Presidency with Mahathir.
Razaleigh has never forgiven him and continues to withhold his crucial support, preferring not to stand in the way of Pas, a member of the PR coalition.
The stench is equally strong as Altantuya from Abdul Razak, Najib’s father, over his (Razak’s) role in the searing Sino-Malay riots of May 13, 1969 in which Mahathir and former Selangor Menteri Besar Harun Idris were the other masterminds.
All three were also the masterminds in the ousting of Tunku Abdul Rahman as Prime Minister.
No magic can turn Najib from a Frog into a Prince
That Najib is dying a slow but sure death can be fathomed from the hundreds of millions of taxpayers money he is pouring into public relations to air brush his image. Examples are obviously the string of popularity 'surveys'. This recent spate is with compliments from a duly thankful and grateful media chief, newly appointed and based at NST.
But so pathetic is the effort, it is outright embarrassing. As they say, never flog a dead horse. Even Houdini could not transform Najib from a FROG into a PRINCE!
Whether he admits it or not, Najib’s conscience cries out for punishment, and severe cleansing too, and it’s anybody guess how the timing and manner of his downfall will come about.
Few will shed tears for Najib as Malaysia awaits a Messiah to lead her out from the troubles which have been storing up for more than half a century. The chickens are coming home to roost as the past has caught up with us in the present to haunt the future.
Najib is the wrong man for the job.
Malaysia Chronicle
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