Is Hishamuddin distancing himself from Najib?

Yes, Dato Hishamuddin Hussein Onn is together in the entourage with Prime Minister, Dato Najib Tun Abdul Razak to Saudi Arabia. But that is in his capacity as Defense Minister. Malaysia is in the Northern Thunder military exercise. 

Politically, Hishamuddin seemed to distance himself from Dato Najib in the same manner he distanced himself when Najib was under a barrage of slanderous attack on the accusation towards him and his wife on the Altantunya-Perimeker affair towards the end of Tun Abdullah's premiership.

He only start to throw the 'cousin brother' term around when Najib finally became Prime Minister. It was said he could hardly be seen at Sri Satria, official residence of the Deputy Prime Minister those days.

Fine, the knife would be out if he is seen too cousin-cousin with Najib and not giving Pak Lah the respect then. But why is he is still distancing himself now that Najib is PM and in need of support?

Insecure

UMNO Pagoh accused Hishamuddin as acting Chairman that he had set-up Tan Sri Muhyiddin be suspended and he rattled. Hishamuddin was too quick with his denialand tai chi as consensual decision and elaborately discussed. Rather tame and defensive answer.

Dato Nazri Aziz is more committed to defend Najib than Hishamuddin. He was reported saying, "Right or wrong, I stood by my leader". Same admirable quality seen in Dato Aminuddin Omar's defense of Dato Mukhriz. 

Tan Sri Sanusi Janudi always spoke of loyalty as one of the quality found in the ethos of the Japanese, German, Indonesian and Korean that made them proud and great races. 

It is quite understandable as a Prime Minister aspirant to be concern of his political path. It is heard he could face quite a challenge in defending his Vice Presidency. let alone attain the first Vice President position.

He could be concerned with the entry of Dato Khaled Nordin. In the last party election, Khaled was bitter with the unfair campaign restriction. He could block the Johor voting block from Hishamuddin since Johor cannot be seen to endorse two Johoreans. It would offend other state UMNOs and both Johor candidates will lose out.

Johor is another hot-bed of dissent against Najib. That explains Khaled's current posturing which is contrary to his mentor, Tan Sri Shahrir Samad's commitment to second cousin Najib.  

If the Johor block is only with Khaled, Hishamuddin will find it tough to negotiate with the major block like Sabah. For one, Sabah will not only want a replacement for Shafie, but also may have expectation that the Sabah VP be the first VP.

Sabah is the steadiest state for UMNO. Their leaders and people are the staunchest defender of Najib. One of the Aman brothers deserve the first VP or/and the position of DPM II to represent Sabah and Sarawak.

Sabah grassroot openly warm up to Dato Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi than Hishamuddin. Despite explanations, they are still blaming Hishamuddin for failure to make decision at Lahad Datu. The security situation in Sabah is still delicate and Hishamuddin is being blamed.  

If that is not enough, Hishamuddin only managed to scrape past Mukhriz's ragtag campaign team by 10 votes with the open support of His Highness the Sultan of Johor. This time, Sultan could be backing Khaled.

With Johor grassroot rather emotional with the perceived unfair treatment on Muhyiddin and it will take more than just a verbal sharing of conspiracy theory to cool off the hot heads, it could be the reason Hishamuddin is distancing himself from cousin brother.

Khaled is in the position to do horse trading with other states.

Whilst, Hishamuddin can only rely on Dato Dr Zambery Kadir for Perak's fragmented votes and Najib's directive and royal support like from Johor and Pahang.

If Dato Ismail Sabri join in the fray, Pahang may have to put aside their in-law and go for the son of Pahang. Hishamuddin will need a lot of convincing by his father in law to get another open support from Sultan. 

There is also Khairy Jamaluddin to contend with.

Both Hishamuddin and KJ is heard to be a part of tag team but both will be competing for the tough two slots of VP. Many other leaders is heard to join the race including Dato Mustapha Mohamed and rather far fetch now, Mukhriz.

What happens if delegates decide to give a place for the MB in view of the grassroot wave. Doubt Hishamuddin and KJ should trust each other.

In-decisive

It is quiet a predicament for the Hishamuddin often seen as lacking decisiveness and averse to decisions.

In the midst of the 1MDB debacle, Hishamuddin had then made a joint statement position together with Muhyiddin and Shafie. He even gave Najib three conditions for his support. That was sufficient for some to see him as distancing himself from Najib.

And Hishamuddin has long been very quiet and not his usual wide mouth.

With Tun Mahathir's declaration to leave UMNO and form a coalition with opposition, with March 27th as an important indicator of opposition strength, prior to Sarawak state election, Hishamuddin cannot be non-committal.

UMNO leaders like Dato Salleh Keruak and Tan Sri Anuar Musa commented feeling relieved with Mahathir's departure. Political scientist are saying Mahathir's departure will have no impact.

Mahathir may lack capable lieutenents like before but he is said to have handled it himself and the move to form coalition is to fill-up that shortcoming. He does not have position of power but he has political influence.

UMNO should realise that Mahathir's presence with the other side could blunt UMNO and BN's predictable script to attack opposition.

Since GE 12, there have been a trend in the voters profile that will move the voting power to the younger voters. Mahathir may capture their imagination and the prosperous past will be the dream selling that appeals to them in the light of the challenging economic present.

UMNO is not in the position to discard the warlords and put up more younger faces. The removal of Mukhriz will be something used to the hilt to show UMNO's reluctance to change.

Mahathir's challenge come with money, something the opposition coalition have limitation in the past. His corporate backers have held back donation to UMNO in the past election and saving up to the boss since the meeting of the taukeh IPP with Mahathir in Argentina many years back.

He is willing to pay clowns like Dato Khairuddin Abu Hasan and Anina. Some taukeh judi are willing to pay some of his diehards monthly salary in the tens of thousands. Pity the cybertroopers voluntarily stalking pro-Najib bloggers and facebookers as "makan dedak" and lawyers paid pittance while there are those earning big money.  

Mahathir's only challenge will be to appease DAP.  He is backing Azmin and said to believe in him as a potential PM. But, DAP wants to chop off Azmin in Selangor and ready to seize control of Selangor. They have ready a "boneka Melayu" as MB in Prof Aziz Bari.

Lim Kit Siang is already 75 and waited long enough. He has taste blood at the tip of his tongue and is not in the mood to compromise with a "losing" Mahathir willing to do anything to not ever lose a political battle.  .  

To what extent Mahathir have come to term with DAP, it is not known. What constitutional compromise was made on the rights and interest of the Malays, Islam and Bumiputera?

UMNO and former Semangat 46 have an old score to settle on Mahathir in this area of compromising to Chinese tycoon interest, including taukeh IPP Cina. Opposition will fire back to say UMNO have not got Malays out of poverty and continue to keep them in a state of dependence out of political expediency.    

There will be the Melayu Liberal and Islam Liberal debate to contend with, in which PAS may have an interest to defend their ideals for Islamic state and hudud.

The debate and campaign could be intense and the likes of Hishamuddin and KJ cannot be non-committal and continue to remain as by-stander. 

Can sense some intellectually challenged Hishamuddin supporters to misread this posting and make premature conclusion. The simplified message is Hishamuddin has to buck up and come forward. The nation is ready to bury the aristocratic class should they fail to provide the desired leadership.

Having their boys and bloggers doing covert attack on Zahid and Najib does not serve the current party needs. Personal politics have to stopped. Wayward operatives chopped off the payroll. 

As this blog wrote before, in which softy Life of Annie could not live to accept the realities of politics and war, "You are either with us or against us". -Another Brick in the Wall