Mariam Mokhtar
As
soon as Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak announces the date for 13th
general election, it will probably sound his political death knell.For
the benefit of the rakyat, and in front of the television cameras and
news photographers, Najib and his Cabinet present a united front; but
behind the scenes, another story emerges.
Damaging
leaks about the shortcomings of his leadership continue to undermine
Najib. His grip on the party is tenuous. His strongest ally, the
self-styled First Lady Rosmah Mansor, will do her utmost to ensure he
succeeds.
Last
month, the independent organisation, the Merdeka Centre for Opinion
Research, found that Najib had high popularity ratings of 63% among
voters in Peninsular Malaysia.
For the
sake of “completeness”, why not a survey among voters in Sabah and
also, Sarawak? It would have been interesting to gauge Najib’s
popularity in Sabah, before and during the proceedings of the Royal
Commission of Inquiry (RCI) for Sabah.If the
same survey had been conducted among ministers in Najib’s own Cabinet,
the results would be a good gauge of their confidence in his
leadership.
The war
that is being waged against Najib is on two fronts – he has to defend
himself against the opposition and fight off guerrilla raids from
invisible enemies, within Umno.
Najib, the
son of Malaysia’s second prime minister, has had a poor grounding in
life. Born with a silver spoon in his mouth, he is only exposed to the
suffering of the rakyat, in the months before election. To alleviate
their pain, Najib distributes bags of rice and food, and tars their
roads, rather than sorting out the issues which have plagued the
people, over the past five years.
The prime
minister’s privileged schooling is denied to the ordinary Malaysian.
Najib may have been a product of a mission school, but mission schools
are dying a slow death, deprived of money and support from the
Education Ministry.
In his
secondary schooling at Malvern College, a Church of England school,
Najib would have attended daily chapel services, compulsory Sunday
service, Remembrance Sunday, and Carol services in the Christmas term.