Umno begging for non-Malay votes puts Najib at odds with party, says ex-editor

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s appeal to non-Malays for support has failed to improve the lot of Barisan Nasional, which fared badly in last year’s general election. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, December 23, 2014.

It is Umno which is begging for non-Malay votes and this has put Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak at odds with his party, said veteran journalist Datuk A. Kadir Jasin.

He said Najib, who is also the Umno president, had portrayed himself as desperate for non-Malay support, especially from the Chinese, at the expense of the Malays.

The former group editor-in-chief of New Straits Times said despite Najib fashioning himself as the prime minister for all and wooing the Chinese community with gifts, he and his ruling Barisan Nasional pact was "resoundingly" and "unequivocally" rejected by the community during last year's general election.

"But all his strategies in this direction had not produced results," he said in his blog, in reference to BN's poor performance in the 13th general election which Najib had blamed on "Chinese tsunami".

In last year's general election, BN, of which Umno is the lynchpin party, failed to retain its customary two-thirds federal majority for the second consecutive time.

The ruling pact fared worst in GE13, winning only 133 federal seats, seven fewer than in the 2008 elections.

Last Sunday, former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had sounded a warning, claiming that the Malays’ grip on politics was weak due to disunity, prompting them to beg support from other races to remain in power.

He had said the Malays who made up 60% of the population should be politically dominant. But that power has weakened.

"Now Umno, PKR, and PAS have to beg for support from DAP to win the general election. When we become beggars, we no longer have power," the statesman had said, adding that even if the country achieved developed-nation status, the Malays might be left behind. 

Malaysia's longest-serving prime minister claims had been rebutted by political analysts and PR politicians, including DAP's Bukit Bendera MP Zairil Khir Johari who had said the Malay dominance in every sphere of Malaysian society was actually at its peak.

Kadir said currently, the Malays were neither here nor there, and with Malay-based parties split to three, it has forced them to appeal to the Chinese to remain in power.

"Being used to enjoying the support of the non-Malays for so long, BN is the one that is more desperate. If it continues to lose non-Malay support and the younger Malays continue to lean towards PR (Pakatan Rakyat), BN could find itself on the opposite side of the house in the (next) general election," he said.

In contrast, Kadir said political begging of votes by Malay-dominated parties in PR, namely PAS and PKR, was less obvious partly because there was no dominant party in the grouping.

"It is a partnership of equals. PKR, DAP and PAS are of equal strength," he said.

In reiterating political control was important to the Malays because they had the numbers, as evident in Parliament where 157 out of 222 federal lawmakers were Malays-Bumiputeras, Kadir nevertheless said he was unsure whether they still played an effective role in leading the debate and setting the agenda.

In terms of economy, he said, there was intricate interdependence between the Malays and the Chinese, and despite the best efforts of the National Economic Policy and other successive affirmative-action policies, the Malays were still lagging behind the non-Malays.

As such, he wanted Najib to ensure that the Bumiputerea economy was firmly integrated into the national economy, warning that it was a recipe for failure if the Bumiputera economy was detached from the overall economy.

"I hope, in between the urge to globe-trot and fiery speeches, the prime minister stays home and does the needful for the sake of the country and the people. The outlook for the coming year is frighteningly bleak."

- TMI