The ugly battle for Selangor

Najib's political future lies in him successfully reclaiming Selangor in the next general election.

COMMENT

Is not our Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak a man of principle?

From the time he entered politics as the youngest MP ever to everything that he has done since, he has been guided by this one principle – his “political survival principle”.

Nothing demonstrates this more than what Najib is doing in the run-up to the 13th general election.

A simple majority in Parliament will give the Barisan Nasional government – but not Najib – another term to lead the country. But taking Selangor back from Pakatan Rakyat will allow Najib to become the prime minister.

And upon Selangor, Najib has staked his political future and the future of his FLOM. Najib as the Selangor Umno chief says that he will take Selangor back from Pakatan by winning at least 32 state seats out of 56. So he says. That means an increase of 12 seats from the present 20 held by Umno.

How can Najib be sure that he can have these 12 additional seats?

He should know because he has the “resources” and the political will to make it happen.

Remember, BN controls the federal departments and the state agencies within that state, and these federal departments and state agencies have been sabotaging PKR efforts within Selangor in more ways than you can cook an egg.

Not only have they made the work of government by Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim’s administration difficult but, also more worrying, the effect at ground level is to make the electorate in Selangor question PKR’s ability to deliver on good governance.

With their “assistance”, the taking of 12 additional seats is not impossible given the vast resources at Najib’s disposal.

Najib’s resources

And how vast are Najib’s resources?

For a start, we know about Umno’s RM40 million election fund that has recently been brought to our attention. And that money, so Umno says, is for Sabah – a state not as important as Selangor is for Najib.

For sure this is but just the tip of the iceberg but what does BN need the money for?

BN does not need the money to buy airtime from any of the television or radio stations to get its messages out to the electorate because it “owns” these stations.

BN does not pay to advertise in any of the mainstream media. It “owns” these media, too.

Billboards? Nope. Maybe BN pays for the construction of the board and the artwork but not the rental of space.

So no television or radio ads to buy, no media ads to buy too, so what does BN do with the cash in hand?

You must not forget the buntings and the banners, but then how many millions are needed? And that is if they pay the printers at all.

So what does Umno do with the millions if not billions of ringgits in hand? Two words – money politics.

And lots of money are needed to win Selangor for Najib. Yes for Najib, not for BN or Umno’s political survival. Money is needed in the billions to bring back Selangor into the fold.

The sooner Pakatan deals with this reality, the better prepared it will be to face the general election and the state election in Selangor.

CT Ali is a reformist who believes in Pakatan Rakyat’s ideologies. He is a FMT columnist.