Like Rosmah's FLOM, Najib self-styles himself 'Father of Transformation' or FOT

While his wife Rosmah Mansor was determined to grab and hold onto the First Lady of Malaysia title for herself, it appears Prime Minister Najib Razak is also keen to crown himself the "Father of Transformation".

Sadly, it is a tag few Malaysians have thought of giving him, considering the lacklustre achievements by his administration since he came to power in April 2009.

At a three-day event in Putrajaya called the One Million Youth Gathering, the 58-year old Najib gave the impression that 1,000,000 youths were there to cheer for him on Saturday.

However, the actual number was lesser than even 10,000. According several news portals, including Malaysian Insider, there were about 8,000-odd people present to hear his speech.

“If in Egypt one million youths gathered in Tahrir Square to change that country’s leadership, in Malaysia, one million youths gathered to defend Putrajaya. Are you willing to defend Putrajaya?” Najib told the crowd.

Jobs fair

Earlier, Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin told reporters the total number of visitors to Putrajaya for the 3-day event has so far surpassed the 1-million mark. Whether the DPM's figure was correct or exaggerated is difficult to tell.

But the event's top draw was a job recruitment fair where 15,000 vacancies were put on offer by 76 employers.

"It looks like we are in trouble if 1 million youths turned up because they needed jobs," PKR vice president Tian Chua told Malaysia Chronicle.

"It's hard to tell how excatly many were there today, but I doubt it was near to the number that turned up to hear the Pakatan in Sarawak."

Nonetheless, Najib continued to praise his own administraion and himself.

“Some call me the Father of Transformation; I don’t know, but you all are the catalysts of change,” Najib told the crowd.

“If the youths are with the government, our country will be peaceful and we can continue to make our country prosper."

He also promised an even grander National Youth Day celebration next year, saying that he expected two million youths to turn up then.

Aphabet soup and pie-in-the-sky numbers

Najib, who is also Finance minister, is known for his love of big numbers.

He has been sharply criticised for his pie-in-the-sky economic projections. Last year, he unveiled an Economic Transformation Plan worth RM1.4 trillion, the largest and the first-time ever that the Malaysian government has hit 'trillion' in its projections.

But now, one year hence, the PM is saying he is under pressure from escalating world oil prices and has to slash subsidies on consumer essentials, such as petrol, diesel, gas and sugar.

According to the government, the subsidy bill has since doubled from some RM10 billion to RM20 billion due to the higher crude prices. But the price hikes will hit the low-income groups the most.

"Maybe his math isn't so good. Whatever it is, the business community is not that impressed. To them, it is inconceivable how anyone can talk about transformation when there hasn't been any reform to show for it. Secondly, how can he unveil an ETP worth RM1.4 trillion, but his government cannot afford to bear just RM10 billion extra in susbidy costs," a senior economist at a local bank told Malaysia Chronicle.

- Malaysia Chronicle