UMNO PURGE: Najib won't go down without a fight, Mahathir will have to use all his RESERVES

Umno president and Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak’s chides that there are “bad elements” within Umno appears to be a strong signal sent to Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Najib has finally broken his silence, after coming under attack from within his own party.

If the DAP supremo, Lim Kit Siang is right with his ‘reading between the lines’ observations that Najib was gunning for the former prime minister and his men, then the war between Najib’s Camp and Dr Mahathir’s Camp has indeed begun!

Knowing that his own position has been shakened, Najib would not go down without a fight, unlike his predecessor. At this stage, his nemesis is unlikely to call a truce, despite knowing that he no longer has the support of Umno division leaders.

Springcleaning

PM Najib and Dr M

Calling these troublemakers in Umno ‘jemuan-jemuan’ (plural, to mean more than one), Najib has sent what appears to be a veiled but strong signal that he is now hell-bent to do some springcleaning within Umno.

After all, these ‘shameless’ people within his own party have no business helping attacking the party president and aligning themselves with the Opposition.

Najib appears to have earlier hit out against his attackers, when apparently, for no reason, TV3 allowed Opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim to openly criticise the party villains.

Given the current situation, before the axe could be used, was Najib trying to open the can of worms using Anwar to expose yet another major scandal?

The question is would he or would he not be able to clean these dirts from Umno’s slate? Or would Najib himself face the vote of no-confidence before he could grind his axe?

Turning Table Around

160 divisional chiefs' pow-wow with  PM Najib

Instead of being another sacrificial lamb, Najib is trying to turn the table around on his bitter enemies within Umno.

Najib blames Umno’s defeat on these bad characters. In order for Umno to win the people’s support, he said, these ‘pests’ would have to be removed first. ‘Jemuan’ simply means someone who is shameless – in short, a scoundrel or a villain.

The villains referred to by Najib in his speech would not be the ordinary street Joe, but they have to be people prominent enough, who can attract apple polishers. Certainly, Najib could not be speaking about his own apple polishers.

He made no mistake about it that the speech was indeed spoken during the Kedah Umno convention, which was ironically attended by Kedah Menteri Besar, Mukhriz Mahathir.

Mukhriz is the son of Dr Mahathir, who has been aggressively attacking Najib in the past few months.

Was Najib simply trying to send the signal to Dr Mahathir through his son, or was he trying to tell Mukhriz that he had better not follow the father’s footsteps or else Mukhriz, too, will be removed? Only time will tell.

Whatever it is, Najib’s latest speech reveals the possibility of a plot to purge out the bad hats in Umno within the next few months. It raises two important questions.

PM Najib and Mukhriz

Was Najib trying to blame his nemesis within Umno to cover up his own weaknesses as the party president? But, what is more of a concern to him is whether he will survive the unceasing attack within Umno.

While the members of the Opposition coudd be thrown into prison, would Najib dare to arrest Dr Mahathir and put him behind bars?

As mentioned by an observer, this will be an interesting year being Najib’s sixth year since he became the sixth prime minister of Malaysia. His father, too, did not live long enough to go beyond his sixth year as Prime Minister of the country. - MAILBAG