Dark clouds looming in Pahang
(Malaysian Mirror) – Dark clouds are looming in the home state of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, with talk of strained relations between him and Pahang mentri besar Adnan Yaakob.
It is not something new said sources, who claim to be ‘in the know’, as the seeds of contempt between the two had been sown since the critical days of Umno being without a deputy president, following the sacking of Anwar Ibrahim in 1998.
At that time the favourites to fill the vacant post were Najib and Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, both vice-presidents.
Najib was banking on much support from Adnan, a person he is said to have coached right up to the latter’s appointment as mentri besar.
Adnan, however, rooted for Abdullah – who went on to become the deputy Umno president and deputy prime minister. When Dr Mahathir Mohamad decided to step down as party president and prime minister, his annointed successor was Abdullah.
Pak Lah, the affectionate name for Abdullah, gracioulsy took Najib as his deputy and – later – successor to him as the PM.
Not the timefor vengeance
While one would have thought that Najib would vent out his vengeance and remove Adnan as the mentri besar, this could not happen as Adnan was Abdullah’s candidate in the March 2008 general election and his term as MB would only expire by the next polls, scheduled to be held in 2013.
An alternate course is to do it via a by-election and put Adnan in Parliament. This, however, would be costly and not in tune with Najib’s current mood of focussing on stabilising the country’s economy.
Furthermore, Adnan is said to be close to the halls of power in the Pahang palace and to ruffle any royal feathers would spell the PM’s doom.
Yet, Najib, who is Pekan MP, cannot just ignore the rumours that there is a dispute between him and his former protege.
“At best, the PM can only bear and grin through the problem, while he scouts around for Adnan’s replacement at the next general election,” said one source, claiming to be an ‘Umno insider.’
“You thinik there is nothing to these so-called rumours? Just try to look at some of the blogs and see the comments about Pahang Umno,” he said, adding that there is ‘no smoke without fire.’
Pahang is rich in natural resources and provides some of the major tourism destinations in the country. However, it does not have a thriving industrial sector and the skilled people that it has have largely left for greener pasteurs in nearby Selangor and Kuala Lumpur.
For more than 10 years, the state had been operating on a deficit budget and without much investments coming in, the economic situation looks bleak.
Some observers feel that Adnan had ‘overstayed’ as MB and the time has come for Pahang to look for a leader who is better-versed in matters of
trade and commerce to lure big spending industralists to the state.
More important the prospective successor to Adnan’s post must be someone that Najib can trust to carry out his ‘1Malaysia’ plans, which rely on key performance indices in economic strategies and development.
The current crop
A random look at the current crop of Umno leaders in Pahang indicates that the party’s state deputy chief Mohd Sharkar Shamsudin could be among the forerunners in the quest for a new MB.
The Lanchang state assemblyman, who is also a state executive councillor, at least meets the eligibility of being close to Najib.
Others that could be in the running are Shafik Fauzan Sharif (Inderapura assemblyman), Mohd Soffi Abdul Razak (Benta) and Ishak Muhamad (Bebar).
Politics being such, things could drastically change when the people themselves make the decision. And while Pahang is seen to be one of the safest states for the Barisan Nasional in the peninsula, the ruling coalition cannot pretend that ‘everything is okay.’
Don’t forget the political tsunami of March 2008, which left a lot of dirt and debris that the coalition had to clean up.
It’s a ‘wait and see’ situation in Pahang and much depends on whether the the two luminous sons of the state – Najib and Adnan – can clean up their act before the next polls.
