Anwar in Jakarta but not to meet Najib: High stakes game in Umno with all eyes on Dr M

PKR leaders have confirmed that their adviser Anwar Ibrahim is in Jakarta but not for any hush-hush top-level meeting with Prime Minister Najib Razak as reported by a news portal aligned to the latter's camp.

"It looks like Najib is trying to approach Anwar for 'reconciliation'," PKR vice president Tian Chua told Malaysia Chronicle.

Despite winning on 89 seats in the 222-seat federal Parliament, Anwar's Pakatan Rakyat coalition comprising PKR, DAP and PAS won 51% of the total votes cast.

Refusing to concede defeat, Anwar has drummed up massive support from the series of Black 505 rallies he launched to protest electoral cheating and to pressure for "real" reforms to the country's electoral system.

The massive crowds Anwar has drawn has won him the title of 'the People's Prime Minister' and it is clear that unless concessions are made by Najib's Umno-BN government, Malaysians will remain disunited and disgruntled with the outcome of the election, and the predominant Malay community split even further down the line.

High stakes game: Sending a warning to Dr M

The news of the meeting broken by The Malaysian Insider also comes at a time when the 59-year-old Najib is facing tremendous pressure from within his own Umno party. Chances are high he will be ousted as Umno president, which means he will also be deposed as Prime Minister.

The high stakes game is now in motion at the very highest levels in Umno with 'master-puppeteer' Mahathir Mohamad said to be in talks with several groups at one time, including with former foe Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah. Hence, Najib may want to send his own 'smoke signals' to Mahathir, who leads the hardline faction in Umno.

"It is possible Najib may be using Anwar to gain profile for himself and to send a subtle warning to Mahathir. It certainly is hard to imagine Najib having the courage to break out of the Umno mold," Eddie Wong, a PKR veteran watcher, told Malaysia Chronicle.

Mahathir, the former prime minister who ruled Malaysia from 1981 to 2003, still wields tremendous influence and even Najib had to toe the line Mahathir set as he did not have his own mandate but merely took over from Abdullah Badawi, who was ousted by Mahathir-linked groups after underperforming in the 2008 election.

But should Najib successfully defend the Umno presidency, Mahathir's power over him will wane. During Najib's second term, those close to him expect him to come out from under the 87-year-old's shadow and this may be what Mahathir fears.

Hence the talk of Mahathir's negotiations or 'power-broking sessions' with Razaleigh and Najib's deputy Muhyiddin Yassin, who apparently has teamed up with Home Minister Zahid Hamidi and are waiting in the wings to challenge their boss.

Key dates ahead

The Umno elections will soon begin at branch level, while at the division ad national levels, the dates are due to be announced soon. The latest the party poll will be held is in October.

However, Parliament begins sitting this month, with Members of Parliament due to take their oath on June 24th. On June 22nd is a mammoth Black 505 rally that Anwar and Pakatan have organized to show the Najib government and the world the extent of public dissatisfaction over the "manipulated" outcome of the May 5 general election.

Be that as it may, whether Johari and Pakatan are able to continue drumming up public support given that Najib might order increased crackdowns against the Opposition leaders, the political stalemate will remain until the next election at the very least.

And whether, Najib himself manages to break free from the shackles of Mahathirism, the political divide within Umno itself and between Umno and the rest of the country has increased and will continue to widen as Malaysians become more attuned with democratic and universal values, demanding a civil society where their voice and vote will count.

Both situations are not sustainable.

Some, like Tian Chua, say this may be why Najib may have decided to seek Anwar out in Jakarta.

Twin strikes: Najib out to save his own skin

According to the Malaysian Insider, the meeting has been in the works for at least a week and was 'facilitaed' by Zahid Hamidi.

"A meeting has been set up with Najib before Anwar meets Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Satuday," a source told The Malaysian Insider.

"But Najib is facing twin strikes against him, so he needs to find some allies," another source told The Malaysian Insider.

Both Anwar and Najib were part of the Team Wawasan or Vision Team that swept top posts in the 1993 Umno polls. The Wawasan team also featured Muhyiddin, Muhammad Muhammad Taib and former Malacca chief minister Abdul Rahim Thamby Chik.

Zahid, then the Umno Youth leader, was another Anwar ally. It was Zahid who used the Indonesian term KKN for corruption, cronyism and nepotism in a thinly-veiled  attack against Mahathir in the 1998 Umno assembly.

Anwar, a former deputy president in Umno and former deputy prime minister, was sacked in 1998 on trumped-up sodomy and corruption charges. He has accused Mahathir and former finance minister Daim Zainuddin of fabricating the charges against him, which led to his being imprisoned for 6 years before he was freed in 2004.

Anwar then returned to active politics in 2007 and in 2008 led the Opposition to its biggest-ever electoral win, stripping the Umno-BN of its erstwhile invincible two-third majority of seats in Parliament.

Malaysia Chronicle