Tide turning against Najib, says Zam

Former minister says 'Red Shirt support' for Najib does not reflect general views any more.

KUALA LUMPUR: Former information minister Zainuddin Maidin believes that the tide is turning against Umno president Najib Razak in trying to hold on to his party position and as prime minister.

Writing in his blog, Zainuddin highlighted Cheras Umno chief Syed Ali Alhabshee’s statement calling for speedy investigations into “flamboyant businessman” Jho Low, who has been linked to Najib’s family and to questionable financial dealings and investments by government-owned 1Malaysia Development Bhd.

Praising Syed Ali’s statement as an act of bravery, Zainuddin said Syed Ali’s expressed impatience with the investigations into 1MDB reflected Umno’s subtle ways of bringing about change in the top leadership.

Writing in his blog, the former minister said Syed Ali’s article was a clear rebuttal of those who claimed that “all the while Umno chiefs have been nodding their heads and accepting all the excuses the leadership has been giving them”.

He said there were Umno divisional leaders who realised that “Red Shirt support for the leadership does not represent the general views of the people as a whole any more,” he said in a reference to a meeting of 160 Umno division leaders in March who attended a meeting with Najib in the midst of attacks from former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Photographs of Najib surrounded by the Umno chiefs, all in red shirts and some with “I Love PM” placards, have been widely circulated as proof of Najib’s support.

Zainuddin said Umno’s internal crisis was no longer just a topic on the Internet but that people “hear it at weddings, at the suraus, mosques, the coffee shops, in open discussions and even closed ones among the top and grass root levels”.

He quoted a text message reply from “a person who formerly held considerable power” as saying: “What you picked up is the truth, the whole truth, I guess Najib must have been told about that. Now the vast majority of Malaysian don’t want Najib to be PM any more. What I hear is that, he won’t go unless Umno asks him to go…”

Syed Ali had said on the Cheras Umno web site that “the people are waiting and so am I” about the 1MDB investigation. “We have no patience for the delay in investigations. Jho Low must be investigated immediately because the money that was embezzled was meant for the development of the country and the nation.”

Zainuddin backed Syed Ali in his criticism by stating that the division leader has known for raising “sensitive issues” such as calling for the resignation of Wanita Umno leader  Shahrizat Abdul Jalil in the midst of allegations linking her family to misuse of government funds to set up the National Feedlot Corporation.