Najib set to break tradition

Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak may break away from tradition by allowing the Johor state assembly to be automatically dissolved first before dissolving Parliament.

PETALING JAYA: It appears that for the first time since Malaysia’s Independence, the prime minister may allow a state assembly to be automatically dissolved before Parliament.

The Johor state government’s mandate expires this Thursday, paving the way for an automatic dissolution of its state assembly.

The next state assembly on the line to be automatically dissolved this month is Negeri Sembilan, with the mandate expiring on March 26.

Pundits have described that the 13th general election would be the toughest electoral battle Barisan Nasional would endure, forcing the government to break away from traditions.

Most state assemblies would be automatically dissolved next month, with Terengganu (April 7), Selangor (April 22), Perak (April 24), Malacca (April 26), Perlis and Kelantan (April 28), and Sabah (April 29).

Penang and Kedah would be automatically dissolved on May 2 while Terengganu’s mandate would expire on May 5.

Observers predict that Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak would not wait till next month to dissolve the Parliament, as speculations are rife that he might do it by end of the week.

Last Thurday, Najib held a closed-door meeting with BN component party presidents for about seven hours in order to finalise candidates for the general election.

He is also widely speculated to have a second meeting with component party leaders this week to iron out other details.

Mammoth gatherings

Najib, who is seeking his own mandate for the first time, had also attended huge gatherings of three major races in the last four days, in a final bid to shore up support for the ruling coalition.

Last Friday, the prime minister attended a mammoth gathering in Kelantan, attended by a predominantly Malay crowd, and criticised Pakatan Rakyat for committing “seven sins”.

Chief among the sins, according to Najib, was that Pakatan had allowed non-Muslims to use the word Allah to refer to God in their holy books.

After that, Najib attended a gathering attended by nearly 30,000 people, organised by the Negeri Sembilan Federation of Chinese Association in Seremban.

In the event, Najib said he was grateful for the support the Chinese had given him. In return the association praised Najib for being able to bring economic progress despite a bleak global economic outlook.

Yesterday, in the 1Million Women Purple Walk 2013 event held in Putrajaya, Najib, who also helms the Women Ministry, celebrated the successes of women folk.

And at night, the prime minister told a large Indian crowd in Klang that the government had many other programmes in store to uplift the well-being of the community.

He also announced that SPM students would be allowed to take 12 subjects, making it easier for Indian students to take up Tamil and Tamil Literature in schools.

Najib also announced an additional 1,000 matriculation seats for the community, making it 2,000 seats to date.

True to being a non-traditionalist, Najib is also scheduled to announce BN’s report card tomorrow, via a presidential style, in his “State of Union” speech.

The speech would focus on the Government’s Transformation Plan (GTP) and the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) and how much success it had brought to the nation.

It is widely expected that the prime minister would give high marks on his achievements, in a bid to create a feel good factor before dissolving Parliament this week.