A politician under siege

For Najib, events that will come next will overtake him as he stands utterly alone, powerless and unable to do anything to save himself.

COMMENT

Najib Tun Razak’s curse is that everything came too easy for him. Born with a silver spoon and into a life of privilege, he did not want for anything. He was the son of Malaysia’s second prime minister and nephew of the third.

At the age of 23, with the memory of his father’s recent death still fresh in the mind of all of us, Najib won election unopposed as MP for Pekan. At 25, he was appointed a deputy minister and at 29 became the Pahang menteri besar.

He married at the age of 23, divorced 11 years later and married again.

He became deputy to prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi because his name came up every time Pak Lah prayed for divine guidance in his choice for a deputy. Divine help for Najib if you insist!

Having become a deputy to Pak Lah, Najib profited from Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s spiteful and relentless pursuit to oust Pak Lah.

Everything came too easily for Najib. At each juncture he was the victim of circumstances as events overtook him. He was never the master of his own destiny. Najib was always content to allow the tide to take him anywhere, and eventually the tide took him to Seri Perdana.

For Najib the alignment of the stars converged in April 2009 when a beleaguered Abdullah, having had enough of Umno’s politics, handed the prime ministership to Najib without so much as a whimper.

Abdullah was a man for whom the giving up of political power was something he could do with ease because his commitment to Allah was greater.

So with no great effort on his part Najib found himself as the prime minister of Malaysia and by his side he had the formidable (both physically and in her determination to be the better half of their partnership) Rosmah Mansor: An asset to any man who would want his life partner to ride shotgun in his life’s adventures.

Now after so much success in his life, Najib is about to find out that with great success also comes great failures. And like everything in his life, Najib is finding out that failure too comes easily to him.

Politics of opportunism

We are familiar with Najib’s political trajectory. It peaked when he was picked by Abdullah as his deputy – not when he became prime minister.

I say this because after he was picked by Abdullah to be deputy prime minister, Najib did not conduct himself with honour as Pak Lah’s deputy. Muhyiddin deserted Pak Lah in his hours of greatest need. Najib too did the dishonourable thing.

As in countless times before, Najib allowed himself to be carried away by the politics of opportunism. He allowed himself to be used by Mahathir to oust Pak Lah.

What he also now finds is that he is in a position where he must be the master of his own destiny.

He has run out of tides to ride, the sea is becalmed and he has to make his own waves if he is to be carried onwards towards his next destination after this slim, slim win yesterday.

It is quiet obvious that Najib is all at sea in trying to do this by himself.

Nothing in his time in politics had prepared him for what is to come. And it shows! For the millions of Malaysians what Najib need first to clarify beyond reproach is his involvement (or not) with the tragic death of Altantuya Shaaribuu. How did Najib deal with this?

“Wallahi, Wabillahi, Watallahi [with Allah as my witness], I swear I do not know or have any connection with the Mongolian woman,” he said.

Najib, we live in the 21st century. Please grow up and leave behind those days when as kids we swear undying loyalty (on the head of our father) to each other and pledge to make life for Minah as miserable as it is possible because she was the teacher’s pet!

Today we have the judiciary (however tainted) to try and make some sense of innocence or guilt. You need to submit yourself to it.

But that was the easy part because in Malaysia the office of the prime minister can be a refuge (or a sanctuary if you want to put religious connotations to it) and as long as Najib is prime minister, there will still be questions to be answered of Altantuya’s murder and his involvement (or not) in it.

Pyrrhic victory

What he is not safe from is his Pyrrhic victory from the general election yesterday. From within Umno, he has Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Muhyiddin Yassin and the Umno warlords to contend with. From without he has Anwar Ibrahim and Pakatan Rakyat.

Nothing he has done so far in his political life has made it any safer for him to venture outside the ever decreasing claustrophobic confines of his present circumstances – a politician under siege, up a creek without a paddle, rats seeking to leave a sinking ship… you get my drift?

So for Najib, as in the past, what will come after this, will overtake him as he stands utterly alone – powerless and unable to do anything to save himself.

Mark my words: failure will come easily to Najib. Let us wait what he will do with failure. I am sure he will not disappoint.

CT Ali is a reformist who believes in Pakatan Rakyat’s ideologies. He is a FMT columnist.