NAJIB MAKES 'EMERGENCY' MOVES: 'DISLOYAL' ZAHID TO BE PUNISHED FOR SECRET TALKS WITH DR M, COUSIN HISHAM TO TAKE OVER MoF & THEN DPM?

JUDGING by the roil in the cyberspace, the Barisan Nasional’s victory in Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar on June 18 does not appear to calm the nerves of the Prime Minister (Datuk Seri Mappadulung Daeng Mattimung Karaeng Sanrobone), Mohd Najib Abdul Razak.

Pro-Najib’s bloggers at home and abroad had revved up campaign that former Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, wants to replace (Tan Sri) Muhyiddin Mohd Yassin with (Datuk Seri) Ahmad Zahid Hamidi in a proxy war with Mohd Najib.

By way of explanation, there are two types of pro-Najib bloggers - ones who are paid by Najib’s outfit and those who are not paid but are on his side.

During the by-elections, they trained their guns at Muhyiddin with allegations of infidelity. That probably was meant to stop Muhyiddin from campaigning or to blunt his assault. In any case, Muhyiddin did not campaign openly against the BN.

The Mahathir-Ahmad Zahid narrative could not have surfaced so soon after the latter led the BN to victory in the parliamentary by-elections if it was not been orchestrated by Mohd Najib’s inner circles who handle bloggers and editors of the mainstream media.

Ahmad Zahid, by the virtue of his position as Deputy Prime Minister, was the BN director of operation for the by-elections. He did well for the party but had also taken the advantage to promote himself.

Zahid upstaged Najib in the by-elections

Banners and social media postings bearing his name and pictures outnumbered Mohd Najib’s. There appeared to be a taboo against displaying Mohd Najib’s pictures in the two places.

Now that the by-elections had been fought and won, Mohd Najib can start fiddling with his next task – reshuffling the cabinet.

It is in this respect that the Mahathir-Zahid blog postings come handy. They provide justification for Mohd Najib to act against his new deputy.

Since the sacking of Muhyiddin as DPM in July last year, Ahmad Zahid had emerged as the strongest and the most popular Umno leader with the potential of challenging and replacing Mohd Najib at some future time.

Some say he is genuinely more popular than Mohd Najib. This has not escaped the attention of Mohd Najib’s inner circles that do not really favour Ahmad Zahid because they fear that he might not play ball with them.

Their choice is Mohd Najib’s cousin and Defence Minister, (Datuk Seri) Hishammuddin Hussein. He is weaker and can, therefore, be more easily manipulated.

So they started sowing the seed of discontent and distrust against Ahmad Zahid by letting out bits and pieces of negative news about him including questioning his English language fluency, his past association with (Datuk Seri) Anwar Ibrahim and, more recently, his “secret” meeting with Dr Mahathir.

Ahmad Zahid may still be genuinely loyal to Mohd Najib but if ever the crunch comes, a loyal deputy is less reliable than a blood relative.

So the talks that Hishammuddin would be “promoted” and Ahmad Zahid “demoted” in the coming cabinet reshuffle make sense.

Crystal-balling the Reshuffle

For a wider look at the exercise, let me publish an article by the same member of the Kedai Kopi Assembly (KKA) whose two commentaries were recently published here. He wrote:

“THERE are two vacancies in the cabinet; one, Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities, as the holder (Douglas Uggah Embas) stood for state elections in Sarawak recently and was appointed deputy chief minister replacing, Alfred Jabu, the long serving DCM representing the Dayaks.

The other is Minister in the PM Department responsible for the Economic Planning Unit (EPU), Abdul Wahid Omar. He refused to continue to serve.

The rumours are two “mamaks” will join the cabinet because Najib is more comfortable with people of Indian heritage.

It is speculated that Shahrizat Jalil or Kak Ijat to her fans, would get back her old portfolio as her husband (Dr Mohamad Salleh Ismail) had been acquitted of the NFC scandal involving RM240 million of which Kak Ijat said she knew nothing about as she never talked to husband about it although they stay in the same house and, presumably, share the same bed.

The new Attorney-General Mohamed Apandi Ali used his discretion to discontinue the case after receiving a letter from defense council, Shafie Abdullah. Apandi told the DPP to stop case and agreed with defense counsel that the accused be acquitted after defense counsel spoke to AG.

The former AG, Abdul Ghani Patael decided to prosecute the accused and the court ruled that the case must go on. The new AG overruled that decision after receiving Shafie’s letter to him.

In the “bolehland” of Najib and the AG, all appears to be “boleh” (possible). So there is no reason now not to bring back Kak Ijat as all about her family’s business is “clean” now.

During her absence from the cabinet, their son applied for scholarship to go to Harvard Kennedy School and another “mamak” at the Khazanah approved it because Kak Ijat was said to have written a letter in support of the application.

Maybe the “mamak” at the Khazanah thought Kak Ijat was poor although she is an adviser to PM and enjoys the same salary as when she was minister. So the son and his wife went to America with rakyat’s money. We all know it is easier to get admission for masters than for 1st degree.

The Indian Muslim Factor

I have nothing against the “mamaks”. From time immemorial, the Indians and later the “DKKs”, have always have strong influence on the Malay Sultanates, the British Administration and later the Merdeka era.

Also references to ethnicity and “asal keturunan” should not be considered offensive since the PM himself declared that he is a Bugis and DPM a Javanese.

Let us face fact. Under Najib, “Mamakputra” with the high-powered “mamak connections” enjoy better privileges than “Umnoputras”. Why should the Malays and the Bumiputras be angry? Mamaks in UMNO are more Malay than Malays. First Lady’s advisors and key officers are also “mamaks”.

Present Chairman of Tabung Haji (Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim) is a “mamak” and is a very successful salesman for second hand cars. He was so good that he could convince the board of TH to subscribe to 1MDB bonds and later bought land at TRX to help out 1MDB.

And when the land purchase was criticised, he said he had a ready buyer and TH would make RM5 million in profit. Now we all know that it was all salesman’s talk. The purchaser never appeared. He forgot that to make an RM5-million profit, he must sell higher than purchase price plus RM5 million and more as TH has to pay RPTG and other expenses.

With time, people forget his promise and now we are told that the PM might bring him into the cabinet and maybe take Wahid’s place as he has been a successful businessman so can advise PM on the economy, which is now in a mess.

By appointing two ministers from the Peninsula, Sarawak will lose one cabinet seat unless PM enlarges the cabinet but it’s OK as, according to PM, in the recent state elections they supported him and 1MDB has nothing to with them. Only the Peninsula people have to pay 1MDB debts. So much for the Sarawakians supporting the PM during the state election. Hope people in Sarawak and Sabah will learn.

Rumours also say the PM will give up Finance Ministry and pass to his cousin, Hishammuddin Tun Hussein. He wants his cousin to clear 1MDB mess and give more power to him politically. The DPM, Ahmad Zahid may be sent to Education and Najib takes over the Home Ministry.

Remember before he was sacked from the cabinet, Muhyiddin Yassin was at Education when he was DPM. It seems that those the PM does not trust would be sent to Education. PM takes over Home Affairs so nobody will arrest him. Defense is vacant. Shafie Apdal was once Najib’s deputy in the ministry.

Will the Zahid be happy if he is relieved of the powerful Home Affairs? There is nothing he can do. He was told to keep quiet. If he does not keep quiet, he won’t be PM. He is actually in a precarious situation. Muhyiddin is Deputy President of UMNO with no powers but will take over from Najib as President with serious implications for Zahid. - http://kadirjasin.blogspot.my/