DIE IS CAST: Power shakeup in Umno unstoppable, Najib to be replaced - all eyes on WHO?

Beleaguered Malaysian prime minister, Najib Tun Razak, is facing mounting criticism to quit office and resign soon as more and more of the ‘rakyat’ feel he is doing very little to alleviate their increasing suffering and misery.

Since he has taken over the reins of power from Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Najib is coming under closer scrutiny and what is being felt on the ground is that he has not only failed to live up to expectations but he has actually caused the country to regress.

The fact that he was away in sunny Hawaii to play golf with the United States president and possibly suck up to Obama for endorsements while Malaysia was facing its most severe floods ever goes to show his apathetic and indifferent attitude.

Forced to cut short his sunny respite and return, he turned out to do nothing much and merely paid lip service to the problem while the root causes went unaddressed. This is really the way and nature of the prime minister, to fail to get down to doing hard work and getting to the root of problems.

This is not the first time Malaysians are up-in-arms with Najib and his wife Rosmah, both of whom now face a wane in their popularity even within their stronghold of UMNO and have come under increasing attack from the political party’s supremo, Mahathir Mohammad.

Discontent among Malaysians

If there is discontent among Malaysians that is threatening to fester and disunite the country, it can be boiled down to the fact that Najib has failed to look into the future and see where the country is heading.

Racial polarization is still a common theme that is being played up by his critics, the fact that Najib has failed to secure greater unity within Malaysia’s diverse population. This has caused a concern that the multi-racial fabric of the nation is under threat.

Besides this, there are the long running religious tensions in this country, especially the persecution of Christians by overzealous Islamic authorities sparking renewed fears of Islamophobia among Malaysia’s minority religious groups.

Under Najib’s reign of power, there are increasing fears alarming people in this country that Malaysia will go the way of the Taliban although overtly there is that show of bravado that Malaysia is rooting as a nation of moderates.

If Malaysia really is all for the Global Movement of Moderates it will show and it will not create the tensions and underlying fears that there are covert attempts to try and go Islamic in every way possible and trample on the rights and freedom of worship of the other religions.

Najib while in front of the world community goes to show that he is all for egalitarian values, on the domestic front he tends to do the reverse as in the case of assuring the international community that he will repeal the archaic and obsolete Sedition Act 1948.

But upon his return to Malaysia and after strong pressure from UMNO diehards, he succumbed and instead, not only reversed his decision, but actually had the cheek to say that the Sedition Act 1948 will be strengthened.

Najib’s fractious tenure as PM

There is no doubt among many Malaysians that Najib’s spineless leadership has led a significant number of government servants to go in defiance of his authority and his instructions are not being actually followed or adhered to by more and more of his officials.

This is why there is widespread dissatisfaction and unhappiness among Malaysians and the actual reason why the country is in a mess. Who calls the shots? This is the question on the minds of many Malaysians.

While Najib is officially the PM, it is widely believed that the real person who calls the shots in this country is the aging Malaysian dictator Mahathir. Still feared and revered, the old maestro has been busy behind the scenes tinkering with the reins of power.

While it is difficult to ascertain what actually Mahathir still aims to achieve, it is speculated widely that he wants to see his family in the pinnacle of power in business and politics and for his group of cronies and sycophants to back him up in his ploy.

Is Najib’s days numbered?

The rift between Najib and Mahathir has noticeably widened and there are concerns that the latter will soon raise a possible candidate to displace Najib whom Mahathir considers as being frivolous and failing to live up with the ideals of UMNO.

Mahathir laments a lot that there are no able and capable Malay leaders in this country today and concedes that “Najib’s leadership is very weak.”

Mahathir states further that the future looks bleak for Malays in this country as they are being outpaced and displaced in every sphere of Malaysian life by the other races and foreigners that it won’t be long “before Malays are polishing the shoes of the others in this country.”

For this Mahathir places the blame squarely on his replacements Badawi and Najib whom he feels have reneged on their promises to do all that is within their power to safeguard and promote UMNO. Instead UMNO and the Malays in this country are disunited and at loggerheads with each other.

This is what irks Mahathir terribly and he vows to see that his legacy is intact and strengthened and aims to do so by making his move to create a power shake-up in this country after a number of major bungles and fiascos by Najib and his followers.

The stage is set for a showdown and it’s really a matter of time before Malaysians become witness to more drastic political changes in this country, changes everyone must follow to accordingly plan the agenda of their own lives and those of their families and business concerns. - MAILBAG