Will Najib train his guns on Zahid next, asks veteran newsman

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A veteran newsman has highlighted the possibility of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak training his guns on his number two Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

A Kadir Jasin noted how the deputy prime minister, who was the BN director of operations for the Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar by-elections, had upstaged his boss.

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

“Now that the by-elections had been fought and won, Najib can start fiddling with his next task – reshuffling the cabinet,” he said in a blog post.

It is towards this end, the former News Straits Times group editor in chief pointed to what he claimed were pro-Najib bloggers speculating that Dr Mahathir Mohamad wanted to replace Muhyiddin Yassin with Zahid in a proxy war with the prime minister.

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

Talk of such an alliance, Kadir claimed, would provide justification for Najib to act against the deputy prime minister.

“Since the sacking of Muhyiddin as deputy premier in July last year, Zahid has emerged as the strongest and most popular Umno leader with the potential of challenging and replacing Najib at some future time.

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

Their choice, according to Kadir, is Najib’s cousin and Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, whom they believe is weaker, and therefore more easily manipulated.

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

“Zahid may still be genuinely loyal to 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 Zahid ‘demoted’ in the coming cabinet reshuffle make sense,” he added. - Mkini