How to oust Najib while spoiling Dr M’s plan

Ariff Sabri urges BN MPs to join the opposition in a vote of no-confidence.

PETALING JAYA: Raub MP Ariff Sabri has suggested that conscientious Barisan Nasional MPs cross over to the opposition benches to enable the ouster of Najib Abdul Razak through a no-confidence vote while preventing former premier Mahathir Mohamad from installing his candidate in the Prime Minister’s seat.

In a blog article that expands upon the arguments he made in yesterday’s posting, Ariff says it is “futile to think that Najib detractors can pull off a no-confidence vote” under the current arrangement.

“The motion would have to be submitted to the Speaker and the Speaker will give time to the Najib forces to mount a counter attack. Now we all know the Umno MPs have skeletons in the cupboards, debts to pay, income tax owed, and cases here and there. These will be brought up most conveniently, forcing the detractors to toe the line.

“Now suppose there is a person who, in the thinking of the majority of MPs, will uphold the values of democracy, rule of law, good governance, committed to place the country on the foundations of fiscal decency, put things generally right, carry out just social policies, reform the judiciary, weed out corruption and the corrupted, help out the poor, MPs must decide on their conscience and cultivate and support such a person.”

Going by his posting yesterday, Ariff is referring to Umno veteran Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah.

“A certain number of MPs now on the BN side need only cross over and seek out such a leader,” he says. “The BN government is simply defeated if they don’t have the number of MPs on their side. Just do it for the sake of the nation.

“That means while we hear and heed Dr Mahathir, we need not agree to his solution.”

In yesterday’s article, he expressed fear that Mahathir’s choice would be “the best of the worst”.

“Extraordinary times require extraordinary conduct and resolve,” he says in today’s blog entry. “Think outside the box. Reject the conventional way.

“The Umno people, if they wish to save their party, must adopt a revolutionary way to find this new leader. They need to know they can’t govern the country in the way and manner it has been done in the past.

“Umno can no longer hold power by constructing a barrier of isolationist and exclusivist concepts of race, religion and monarchy.”

Ariff refers to a video showing Najib enjoying himself on the dance floor, commenting that it is indicative of the Prime Minister’s contempt for his critics.

“I have seen a video of the PM and his wife dancing with other guests,” he says. “Possibly they were dancing at the wedding reception of the century, rumoured to cost the people an obscene USD200 million. The PM of course loves dancing at private functions. That is his private business.

“But what can we deduce from the conduct of the PM on the dance floor? This is a conduct of a person who doesn’t care what others think. If they want to ferry 200 people on a private jet or two private jets, including bringing cultural dancers, what can the people do? Rosmah Mansor could well play the Marie Antoinette fiction of saying, ‘Let Mahathir and others eat cake. We can do what we like because we are the big bosses of the country.’

“They just want to see what the people can do to stop them.

“So it’s a challenge we must take up. We shall show to Najib that he can also be punished for the deceit and low class leadership he has displayed thus far.”