Mukhriz waiting in the wings

Dr Mahathir Mohamad seems unable to retire and for the time being, Umno president Najib Tun Razak has no choice but to ape whatever he says.

COMMENT

Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad is preparing the ground for the inevitable ouster of Najib Tun Razak.

He’s getting help from Muhyiddin Yassin who allegedly sold whatever available land there was in Johor when he was the state menteri besar.

The other fellow waiting in the wings is Mahathir’s son, Mukhriz, who will team up with Muhyiddin.

For the time being, Najib has no choice but to ape what Mahathir says – that the country has no future under any government but Umno-Barisan Nasional.

So Najib continues to criss-cross the country airing slogans loudly.

During the recent Umno gathering that saw thousands of Umno members being transported to Stadium Bukit Jalil, a jubilant Najib announced that he felt so uplifted that he was thinking of meeting the king to declare election then.

But that was only loud noises coming from a nervous prime minister.

The ground, as former national economic adviser Daim Zainuddin told Najib’s personal emissary Jamaludin Jarjis, is not ready to support Umno-BN.

But Jamaluddin said Najib is confident. He said: “We have reports saying that the ground is supportive of Najib and look at his personal rating.”

So the chief political seer (Daim) in this country retorted by asking Jamaluddin: “Can you believe all those reports? If they are prepared by that eager-to-please-his-master Rais Yatim, then you are dead [wrong].

“Rais will inflate BN chances by 50% and downplay Pakatan chances by 30%. You are going to decide on flimsy foundation.”

‘Najib is sloppy’

Hence Najib had to postpone the general election that he wanted to hold in June.

In Malacca, Najib boasted that Umno-BN will win the 13th general election with a “football score of 14-0”.

If that is so, Najib would have announced the election date yesterday.

Truth is Najib knows that the unity which Umno pretends it has will disintegrate by 30% the very day he announces the BN candidates for polls.

So how to face the election with a house divided?

When both Mahathir and Najib have expressed their fears about a dismal future under Pakatan, they were actually showing their nervousness about losing power.

Mahathir believes Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim will never make it to Putrajaya.

He cannot believe why people don’t believe what the government is saying and instead are willing to accept Anwar – warts and all.

So what exactly does Mahathir want?

What he actually desire is for Mahathirism to be translated correctly which Najib isn’t doing.

Najib is sloppy relying heavily on others doing the thinking for him.

Mahathir’s hand

Mahathirism needs a man of sterner stuff. Mahathir does not believe Najib has got what it takes to implement the doctrine of Mahathirism.

Mahathirism in politics means the concentration of power in the chief executive (the prime minister) and the emasculation of all other contending forces – the judiciary and the civil service.

Mahathirsim needs ISA. Mahathirism needs a yielding judiciary. Mahathirism needs a pliant civil service headed by a sycophant.

Najib seems to have got only that part right in appointing Ali Hamsa as the new chief secretary to the government.

Mahathirism in economics means the economics of cronyism.

Since 1981, the economics by organic growth was replaced by the economics of choosing and picking winners.

Since Mahathir took over the country, policies aimed at driving economic growth of the Malays were replaced by policies of picking winners by Mahathir.

That’s when we saw the emergence and accelerated rise of Mahathir’s golden boys.

They were given licences, concessions, monopolies and the opportunities to privatise state-owned revenue-generating resources.

The “golden boys” grew fabulously wealthy, while the rest of Malays were left deprived and dependent.

The writer is a former Umno state assemblyman but joined DAP earlier this year. He is a FMT columnist.