MALAYSIA AS GOOD AS DOWN THE DRAIN: NAJIB PLOTS LONG STAY AT THE TOP WITH HELP OF PAS, MUSLIM EXTREMISTS

The columnist writing under the pen name of Banyan in The Economist’s Asian edition ahead of the recent UMNO General Assembly meeting notes that although beset by scandal, Najib Razak looked safe in his job as Malaysia’s Prime Minister (The Economist, 5 December 2015).

Banyan is also of the opinion that “at home and abroad, many have reason to cheer Mr. Najib’s ability to roll with the punches”. Banyan’s assessment and admiration of Najib’s skill in staying in power was not only confined to the Prime Minister’s repulse of Dr Mahathir’s efforts to bring him down.

He also lists Najib’s ability to survive the charges of involvement or complicity in a murder case, bribery and corruption in the purchase of French submarines when Najib was the Defence Minister (in the Mahathir Cabinet), and other alleged wrongdoings and abuse of power, including the current 1MDB and RM2.6 billion donation controversies. Any of these scandals would have killed off the career of other politicians in many countries.

Noteworthy is his view of Najib as a political master at pulling the twin levers of patronage and punishment that underpin Malaysian politics as defined by UMNO; and the Prime Minister’s ability “to present himself as both the defender of the Muslim-Malay majority, and as the best protection the Chinese and Indian minorities have against resentful and assertive Malay political dominance.” That last assertion, however, needs to be qualified.

Political Opportunism or Winning Whatever the Price

Should Najib’s political career of forty years be put under the microscope, it can be seen that while he may be a moderate or even liberal in his racial or religious leanings, he has had absolutely no compunctions about stoking the toxic mix of racial and religious extremism found in his party and the Malay community, if it brings him personal advantage.

This characteristic of politically opportunistic behavior is, of course, found with most, if not all, politicians. In Malaysia, the trait has been developed to an extreme degree. The objective of gaining power and holding on to it at any price is especially deeply embedded within the ruling coalition with its Machiavellian and self-centric political philosophy and culture.

Today Najib is not only busy repulsing the opposition from within UMNO. He is also preparing the groundwork for the extended continuation of his rule. Two apparently diametrically opposed but in fact self reinforcing approaches are discernible.

One is the wooing of PAS and the formation of a new strategic alliance with UMNO’s former number one political adversary. Never mind that the current political leadership of PAS under Awang Hadi has made the attainment of a rigid and uncompromising Islamic state and the immediate implementation of hudud as its precondition for any political cooperation between the two parties.

What Najib would do for Political Survival–Sleep with the Mullahs

Najib sees a partnership with PAS as the main – perhaps only – way to prevent UMNO’s rank and file from abstaining or voting against the party. Desertion of UMNO’s supporters would lead to loss of power in the next elections. Needing a distraction that can divert the Malay electorate’s attention from the dirty political linen associated with him and the party which the opposition will undoubtedly focus on, he appears close to doing a deal with PAS President Hadi – an offer of 2nd Deputy Prime Minister perhaps – that will put Najib’s personal interests, and the interests of the ultras in UMNO, ahead of the interests of the Barisan coalition.

Will this strategy work? A Malay and Muslim electoral front approach will make a mockery of the multi-racial and multi-religious credentials claimed for BN. Unless the Peninsular non-Malay and Sabah and Sarawak based Barisan parties reject this new realignment in Malay politics, it may very well marginalize them while producing the election victory result that will ensure Najib’s continued stay at the top.

And what if the strategy does not work? Or what if he cannot control the religious hardliners and supremacists that he has unleashed?

National Security Trump Card

Well, the Prime Minister appears to have a backup plan in the National Security Council bill that is being rushed through Parliament. Among the key strategies of political opportunists operating in a situation where there exists unknowns is to be prepared with options which enable them to strengthen their position while responding to a threat of breakdown in that situation. Prime Minister Najib has done exactly that with the NSC legislation.

The government claims that it is now necessary in the national interest to permit the Prime Minister – with simple majority support in Parliament – to declare any area of the country a “security area”. This would allow security forces to impose a curfew, use force, conduct arrests, search without warrants and confiscate property.

Critics of the new legislation have noted that this bill would provide arbitrary and excessive new powers to the Prime Minister and have argued that it poses an unprecedented threat to our civil liberties.

More sinister motives can be discerned in the new bill which would provide legitimacy to a small group led by the Prime Minister to virtually declare a national state of emergency based on their judgement of what constitutes a security threat. This would result in the dismantling of the existing checks and balances to the imposition of martial law and authoritarian rule in the country.

Malaysians are forewarned that security threats as defined by Najib and the present government could emanate from any source. A foreign incursion. An ISIS inspired act of violence. An upset victory by the opposition in the coming elections resulting in reaction by extremists. These threats can be concocted or imagined, and not only real ones.

Let’s not forget that the last time an emergency was declared in the aftermath of May 13, 1969, the present Prime Minister’s father was one of the masterminds behind that episode; and that it saddled the country with the Alliance and BN Government for the next 45 years. - dinmerican.wordpress.com