Guessing game begins: Who’ll follow Hisham?

Things don't look too good for Najib with his cousin showing dissent, says blogger Shahbudin

PETALING JAYA: Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein’s controversial tweet has sparked a guessing game on whether any other Cabinet member will follow suit to indicate dissent against Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s handling of the 1MDB issue, according to political analyst Shahbudin Husin.

He notes that Hishammuddin comes third after Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and Rural and Regional Development Minister Shafie Apdal in expressing differences with Najib.

Shahbudin’s blog article today is a comment on Hishammuddin’s reaction to Najib’s ultimatum to Cabinet members to resign if they can’t agree with the way he is dealing with the 1MDB issue. The Defence Minister, in a Twitter message yesterday, said: “Agree, with conditions: 1) rationalisation of 1MDB, 2) accountability if there is wrongdoing, and 3) transparency on (conditions 1 and 2).”

“Hishammuddin, Najib’s own cousin, joining the two on the bandwagon doesn’t look too good for the Prime Minister,” Shahbudin says.

He surmises that Hishammuddin may have read the mood of the people correctly on the issue and does not want to be buried along with Najib, cousin or no cousin.

“Although blood is thicker than water, it’s a different matter when it comes to the people’s interest and when one’s own political future is at stake,” said the analyst, who has written a few books critical of Najib.

“Are Hishammuddin’s three conditions an indication that he would abandon Najib soon?”

Not surprisingly, he notes, the tweet has invited an avalanche of support for the Defence Minister’s stand although many have also expressed surprise.

“People are asking, ‘What’s happened to Hishammuddin to embolden him to impose conditions on the Prime Minister? Doesn’t he want to be with Najib anymore?’”

Besides blood ties, there are other reasons why party members did not expect much from Hishammuddin when it came to literally taking on Najib, Shahbudin says. “For starters, it was the Prime Minister who was instrumental in swinging crucial votes from Pahang to enable him to retain his Umno vice-presidency in the face of a stiff challenge by Kedah Menteri Besar Mukhriz Mahathir.”

There was also speculation, he adds, that Najib saw Hishammuddin and not the aging Muhyiddin as his successor when the time came.

Who would have thought that the Defence Minister would be among the first to signal willingness to part company with Najib, Shahbudin muses. “The general consensus was that Hishammuddin would be the last person on earth to abandon his cousin Najib when push comes to shove. He was seen as willing to swim or sink with Najib.”