Challenges mount for Malaysia’s Najib

Among activists and dissidents, there is a sense of foreboding that Najib and the new UMNO leadership will resort to authoritarian measures to affirm their grip on power. 

By Anil Netto, Asia Times Online

Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak took a big step towards taking over the premiership when he was returned unopposed this week as president of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the dominant party in Malaysia's ruling coalition. His men also bagged most of the leadership posts in the recently concluded party elections. As head of the UMNO, Najib automatically becomes premier, although a formal handover date has yet to be announced.

Najib has been hammering home a message of change and reform, but many Malaysians wonder what his vision might entail. There is little doubt that UMNO needs to reform after the ruling coalition suffered a severe setback in last March's general election. The long dominant party lost its coveted two-thirds parliamentary majority at those polls, while five of the federation's 13 states fell to the opposition. It represented the party's worst setback since independence from Britain in 1957.

Many Malaysians, especially those exposed to independent online media and critical blogs, have grown tired of accounts of corruption, abuse of power, rent-seeking and the perpetual undermining of government institutions by UMNO-led governments. Meanwhile, minorities and disadvantaged groups have started to more strongly assert their rights.

Najib is taking over power at a challenging time for the country, both politically and economically. Malaysia's trade-oriented economy is on the brink of recession, with exports and manufacturing both slumping badly. Within his party, there's a sense of siege as a resurgent opposition alliance, led by Anwar Ibrahim, continues to challenge the ruling coalition's eroded dominance.

Among activists and dissidents, there is a sense of foreboding that Najib and the new UMNO leadership will resort to authoritarian measures to affirm their grip on power. Outgoing premier Abdullah Badawi, who was blamed for the coalition's poor showing at last year's election and forced out of the UMNO's presidency by party chieftains, warned the party against resorting to its old ways, which some commentators have referred to as a return to "Mahathirism".

There are ominous signs Najib will aim to model his premiership after former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad's 22-year tenure. In moves reminiscent of Mahathir's heavy-handed rule, police have in recent days disrupted opposition rallies, while two opposition party newspapers were suspended for three months.

"Sadly, there are still those who feel that we do not need to pursue reforms," lamented Abdullah in his farewell speech to the party's annual general assembly. "They believe that UMNO will regain its glory if we revert to the old ways – the old order, by restricting the freedom of our citizens and by silencing their criticism."

Abdullah warned that if the party returned to the old path, it would lead to regression and decay. "It is a path that I fear will hasten our demise. If we do not take courageous steps to reform in the face of this dynamic transformation of society and the radical global changes taking place, then we shall live to witness the end of our beloved UMNO. What is the point of fighting tooth and nail for positions in the party if all that remains of us is an obsolete husk?"

Politics of reform

On Abdullah's rise in 2003, few UMNO delegates seemed keen to stay the course of Mahathir's authoritarian era. Against the odds, they picked Abdullah's ambitious son-in-law Khairy Jamuluddin over Mahathir's son Mukhriz for the leadership of the party's influential youth wing. Khairy, more than the other youth leaders, had been speaking the language of liberal reforms, though he had also played the communal card in his rise up the party ranks.

Mahathir failed to show up at the assembly after his son lost and started a campaign of criticism against the party he once led. The former premier, who handpicked Abdullah as his successor, but later locked horns with him over his style of governance and decision to scrap infrastructure projects Mahathir had approved, has warned that UMNO has become a party of the corrupt. "Whether it is the members or the leaders, all of them are out there for their own self-interest," he recently said.

The just-concluded party election process should have instilled confidence among the people that UMNO was prepared to fight corruption, Mahathir said. "But what has happened shows that UMNO does not care about reforming the party and winning the 13th general election. They are more interested in becoming UMNO leaders using any means. Their hope is that if they become UMNO leaders, they would become Cabinet Ministers and obtain contracts and other benefits for their self interest."

Those are strong words coming from a man whose own 22-year tenure was plagued by scandal after scandal – but all the same worth listening to, as Mahathir has intimate knowledge of how the UMNO works. For instance, Mahathir claimed that many of the nominations for the party's Supreme Council by the party's divisions were the result of "offers". "Many of those nominated were widely known to have bought votes," he alleged.

Najib has a chance to repair the party, said Mahathir, by refusing to appoint those tainted by corruption to his Cabinet when he takes over as prime minister. However, there is also the matter of public perception – beginning with Najib, who has been implicated in blogs and opposition media in the sensational murder of a Mongolian woman interpreter.

Najib, for his part, strenuously denies any involvement but has not sued his critics nor testified in the ongoing murder trial, in which two special forces operatives linked to him have been charged with the murder. The scandal has brought shame to the nation and damaged the country's international credibility, according to the sidelined UMNO veteran Razaleigh Hamzah, who had earlier announced he was in the running for the party's leadership.

"For the honor of the nation, for the honor of the office of prime minister, for the honor of the sovereign institutions expected to endorse, confirm and lend authority to him should he become prime minister according to UMNO's plans, [he] should finally face these suspicions and implied charges, submit himself to legal scrutiny, and come clean on them," Razaleigh said.

He claimed the country had fallen into a spiral of institutional and economic decline and that the next government "must not only be fully committed to restoring the legislature, the judiciary and the rulers to their proper dignity and independence, it must be seen by the Malaysian public to be capable of doing so".

No matter what UMNO does, the race-based politics the ruling coalition has perpetuated since independence is less appealing to a younger generation of Malaysians who are less influenced by the state-manipulated media. This has prompted Khairy to suggest offering Malaysians direct membership to the ruling coalition instead of via the main race-based parties.

Zaid Ibrahim, a former cabinet minister in the Abdullah administration who stepped down due to the slow pace of promised democratic reforms, is confident that Malaysia will more towards a more pluralistic society through the forces of globalization. Yet he warned: "We will not succeed in promoting a united country and allow for the evolution of Bangsa Malaysia [a Malaysian race] if we do not subscribe to the rule of law. We need the openness, freedom and social justice that will be possible only with [the rule of law] in place and democracy."

All eyes now are on the transition from Abdullah to Najib and the composition of Najib's new cabinet. Depending on how those appointments are publicly received, Najib's first big test will likely come in three hotly contested by-elections on April 7. UMNO has in recent months lost crucial by-elections, in which Najib helped campaign, to Anwar's National Alliance. Not only will the upcoming polls be viewed as a public referendum on the ruling coalition, but the first measure of public opinion on Najib's ascension to Malaysia's top political spot.

Anil Netto is a Penang-based writer.