BN gets F on its report card

GE14 is just about three years away, and Najib has much to contend with even with a weakened Pakatan.

COMMENT

The sun must be shining for Najib and BN with the Umno victory over PAS in Pengkalan Kubor. Didn’t Umno do better with a widened margin in PAS’ stronghold state? That must surely be a report card to be proud of if only PAS and Pakatan Rakyat were in their usual fighting form.

PAS’ campaign was lame this time and it tumbled downhill when Pakatan big names failed to lend support. Umno did do better than PAS, but for the wrong reasons. It was not because of Umno’s strength, it was the MB chaos in Selangor that made PAS a listless contender.

Najib’s fortune is Umno’s fortune. And it is common knowledge that Umno now represents BN more than ever because of the dismal showing of MCA, MIC and Gerakan in GE13. The non-Malay components of BN in the peninsular have been relegated to the back seat since. They have to hang on to Umno’s coattail like siblings in a dysfunctional family, which is made even more fragile with Umno’s own internal strife.

While MCA and Gerakan are trying hard to make a comeback, DAP seems able to hold on to it’s chauvinist support. At the same time, it is extending its appeal and membership to young non-Chinese.

There was a time when Umno could count on its fixed-deposit states of Sabah and Sarawak to deliver at every GE. But with rumblings for greater autonomy on the one hand and the Home Ministry aggravating the situation with threats of a clampdown on the other; Najib may have made his last withdrawal from the Sabah account in the last GE. And Adenan Satem may be a veteran politician, but he doesn’t come across as having the firmness and decisiveness of Taib Mahmud to manage BN in Sarawak. Expect more hardship for the common folk while Adenan struggles to get a grip on fractious party politics.

Little Napoleons

The consensus among Najib’s critics is that he has a weak team in the cabinet and he has surrounded himself with confidantes and advisers that are even weaker. The fanfare of his administrative goals is impressive but the implementation of such leaves much to be desired. Najib does not have a tight grip on the civil service; so the little Napoleons in the ministries will continue to be an embarrassment to his administration.

If the results of the Asia Risk’s 2013 Asia-Pacific Fraud Survey are anything to go by, then we can rubbish Pemandu’s assertion that things have been getting steadily better with regard to tackling corruption. “Malaysia, along with China, has the highest levels of bribery and corruption anywhere in the world,” said the Asia Risk report. What it politely avoids saying is that Malaysia ranks the highest.

The citizens will ask themselves how the government view could be so far from the reality.

PM Najib has two good things going for him – the great sound bites garnered from his frequent travels abroad and similar accolades for his efforts at retrieving the remains of Malaysian casualties from the MH17 crash site. But how long can he keep milking his successes abroad when the home front is in disarray?

His local image doesn’t quite shine with the same lustre. Former PM Mahathir Mohamad has been raining on his parade almost weekly since August. When the Tun is not holding the hose himself, his trusty lieutenants Zainuddin Mydin and Kadir Jassin happily fill in for him.

It is hard not to notice Najib’s shortcomings when Mahathir draws public attention to his faults with PowerPoint precision. The former PM is a maestro at the media game; he has been making the news more regularly as a retiree than the serving PM. Let us not forget that the main problem he has with Najib is in his approach, which is another way of saying “everything”.

Najib has much to contend with even with a weakened PR. In just over three years, BN will once again have to face its foe in GE14. Will Najib manage to get the BN house in order, quell the dissenting voices from within Umno and deal with the dissatisfied customers in the safe-deposit states of Sabah and Sarawak? Three years is not a long time to resolve these difficult issues even if no new problems crop up to add to his current burden.