MALAYSIA IN SERIOUS TROUBLE: Najib only interested in staying in power & NOTHING ELSE

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia’s future has grown unpredictable as a predecessor’s attacks have left Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak too engaged to focus on the faltering economy or capitalise on the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) opposition pact’s breakup, said the Financial Times (FT).

The UK business paper reported yesterday political analyst James Chin as saying that things will “get a lot worse before it gets better”, after the DAP and PAS ended their alliance in the seven-year-old coalition when the Islamist opposition party renewed its attempt to enforce hudud in Kelantan.

“The PM unfortunately is not handling it at all [well]. He’s preoccupied with trying to stay in power, because Mahathir is going for his head,” Chin, director of the Asia Institute at Australia’s University of Tasmania, was quoted saying, referring to former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

FT noted that Najib is unable to take full advantage of the opposition’s split, pointing to the controversy surrounding the debt-laden 1 Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) that Dr Mahathir has repeatedly targeted in his push for Najib’s resignation from office.

The business daily also noted that household debt in Malaysia is among the highest in the region and that the global oil plunge has affected Malaysia, an energy exporter.

Household borrowings in Malaysia is among the highest in Asia. Data from Bank Negara Malaysia shows that consumer debt reached 86.8 per cent of GDP at the end of 2013 from 80.5 per cent in 2012, forcing the central bank to introduce stricter lending rules.

Najib was also forced to table a revised Budget for 2015 in January, after falling oil price wiped out billions that the government had expected to gain in petroleum-derived revenue this year.

FT reported political analyst Ooi Kee Beng, deputy director of Singapore’s Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, as saying that Malaysia is caught in a limbo where Najib is not facing an immediate threat of removal, but is unable to “to silence or answer the growing criticism of his policies and actions”.

“There are too many shifting dynamics at the moment for anyone to predict the outcome,” Ooi was quoted saying. “This unstable situation is of course part of the strategy of those who wish to topple Najib”.

PM Najib

The FT also noted that the political battle has emboldened “religious radicals”, even as multi-cultural Malaysia aims to achieve developed nation status in less than five years’ time by 2020.

Shortly before the DAP declared PR “dead” and PKR announced that the opposition pact no longer functions “formally”, the conservative ulama swept to victory in the recent PAS party election. The ousted progressives are said to consider forming a new, more moderate Islamist party.

A PAS party leaders has also suggested an “all-Muslim” coalition to take the place of PR. - Malay Mail