TIME FOR THE MALAY RULERS TO STEP & REIN IN ROGUE PRIME MINISTER NAJIB RAZAK

The abrupt and un-Malay fashion of sacking of Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhiyuddin and several others for not towing the line on the 1MDB scandal is drowning a nation of people in a an avalanche of hate, hurt and disappointment over their prime minister.

Meanwhile, the new army of Cabinet loyalists with support through threats and warnings from the police against the newly hatched opponents within Umno are trying to dig in to staff off definite repercussions from Malays Muslim grassroots supporters of Muhiyuddin and Co.

The truth is, perhaps, we never anticipated that Umno will finally be put to the test so soon.

The current scenario is also far more precarious by comparison to the Semangat 46 struggles or the heights of the Reformasi following the sacking of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

The role and power of Information Communication Technologies as seen unfurling on the social media will be an unprecedented challenge to the Najib team and the law keepers too.

In the days well before the advent of the New Age media, disillusioned Malays running amok with parangs and sticks in hand would have been the sole challenge to fend off. The Printing and Publishing Act with ample muscle from the Sedition an Internal Security Acts would have made mass protests a mere storm in the tea cup.

Tan Sri Muhyuddin Yassin speaks to the media after he was sacked

But the scenario is very different today which the newly minted Minister for Communication and Multimedia must contend with. No amount of policing can stall the power of the alternate media. The more force used, the deeper will be the anger ravines among the hurt and slighted Malay Muslim Umno grassroots.

The talk in the market place – including the way news is being presented in the regional and global newspapers, clearly indicates that Umno Malays are falling out of love for their Party president. And as non-Umno members and non-Malays join the bruised Umno-Malays, Najib and his team will realize that they may have bitten off more than they could chew.

Indeed, at a time when economic and financial issues are becoming the major preoccupation of leaders around the world, Malaysia’s leadership has flowed into the mighty, uncertain ocean of Malay sentiment that has a symbiotic tie with Umno and its leaders and the Malay politicl culture.

To continue to peddle an alarm that Umno must be saved from Umno-haters has already lost its steam. How Najib and his team will be able to successfully sell a story line of protecting Malay interests when Muhiyuddin’s sacking is not going down well among grassroots, appears almost predictable.

A nation’s leader and the supreme icon of Malay struggles and supremacy is now being doubted. Najib is fast losing the appeal not only amongst Umno Malays but it cuts across a wider segment of the populationbeyond party lines and race parameters.

It is only a matter of weeks if not days before the Conference of Rulers convene in the best interest of national security and harmony. For we have a situation where the Umno Malays are reeling in shock having fallen out of love with the prime minister and their party president.

PM Najib

The sacking of a veteran politician and die-hard party man who comes from a State that is also the cradle of Umno, and simply because he stood in the way of the 1MDB debacle, has finally split the very core of Umno.

Will Najib resurrect the hurt and wounded Umno or will he be driven out by the very maimed and hurt Umno is no more a speculation. The outcome is written all over the nation, and even among the rural vote banks.

The real problem here is, Najib has cut too deep hurting the politico-cultural mindset of the Umno Malays. It is no more a power struggle to do better for the Malays but one of ‘meghina maruah Melayu and bangsa Melayu’.

In this regard, the Conference of Rulers will perhaps convene to save the nation from drowning in darkness. And pray it better be sooner. - MAILBAG