Can Najib & Umno-BN escape from the JAWS OF DEFEAT?

The 13^th General Election should have been held a year ago. Chances are that Barisan Nasional would have won with a simple majority. At least then, the 'moderates' in the coalition may have had the chance to try and save the country from further imploding due to race and religious strife.

But a greedy BN wasn't contented with a simple majority. They wanted a two-thirds majority so that it could continue to lord over the country. A simple majority would mean that every political decision would be scrutinized and political blunders couldn’t be swept under the carpet without the Opposition raising the alarm.

Prime Minister Najib Razak & team would be held accountable for every action and inaction. And to them, it was exasperating and stifling to be unable to bulldoze through business deals and to elect their favorite cronies for the job.

However, that hasn’t stop the BN from trying. The Ampang LRT expansion won by George Kent, a firm controlled by Najib's close friend, is but one example.

Greed

Najib was to be the interim prime minister, given enough time to lead BN out of its misery and to a two thirds majority. His tenure is only as good as his ability to secure a majority government.

But Najib after savoring the euphoric trappings of power much like Abdullah Badawi, doesn’t want to stay as a one term Prime Minister, at least not if he can help it.

Much to the consternation of the UMNO warlords, who had meticulously prepared for the next GE, Najib continues to postpone GE13, and this has prompted further infighting in UMNO. The impatience of the UMNO chieftains can be clearly felt across the corridors of power, especially of late.

A desperate Man

Najib knows too well that he won’t be in the hot seat for long. His time is up and he is overstaying his welcome. He knows too that if he can do the impossible and garner a two thirds majority, he can continue to be Prime Minister and have the power to do what needs to be done to bury forever all the accusations against him in the Scorpenes corruption and Altantuya murder cases.

Today, Najib is a very powerful man. Powerful enough to control the flow of information, powerful enough to control the government, the Civil Service, the Executive, Judiciary and Legislative pillars. And powerful enough to determine the next election date. But if he loses the premiership, he would be at the people’s mercy. Worse still, he would be at Umno's mercy!

Self-centred and unconcerned for BN

Najib's tenure was marred with ridicule. His initial denials of ever meeting Saiful Bukhary, who claimed he was sodomized in the trumped-up Anwar Ibrahim trial, were proven to be lies and he was forced to make an embarrassing U-turn. He also denied ever meeting Altantuya Sharibuu who was tied to the shady Scorpene submarines deal but few Malaysians believe him although he took an oath on the Quran.

Delaying the General Election is definitely not in the interest of the UMNO-BN and it is only hastening the coalition’s demise. But that doesn't appear to be Najib's chief concern? He is not even worried about the country’s worsening national debt and he won’t give two hoots on increasing government spending just so long that he thinks he can buy the victory he needs to cling on.

Lucky for the PR 

The Opposition coalition, Pakatan Rakyat, continues to thank their lucky stars for the delay as an early election, say in tandem with the Sarawak state polls last year, would have been risky for them. The delay has also given PR ample time to campaign and to expose more of BN’s dirty baggage.

In the past one year, more and more of BN’s buried filth have floated slowly but surely to the surface. Financial scandals such as Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud’s alleged RM45billion and the former IGP Musa Hassan’s alleged RM100million stashed away in Switzerland continue to shock the ordinary people.

Indeed, Malaysians are seething. They are also unh\appy that Najib bulldozed his way through the NFC and LRT scandals. All these intriguing, yet shocking corruption fiascoes would have been kept away from the public eye had BN won the election one year ago.

No wonder, the Opposition is biding time, letting BN delay the GE up to the very last minute. To PR, this will only confirm the BN's ultimate collapse and to be fair, BN is now really on thin ice due mainly to UMNO infighting as well as to the jostling for seats amongst the coalition partners.

Meanwhile Malaysians are getting more exasperated by the day, watching the government shoot itself in the foot, with ridiculous charges against whistle-blowers and trumped-up threats against popular NGOs such as Suaram and Bersih.

BN’s financial blunders and sickening propaganda

The scandalous May 13 film blaming the 1969 racial riots on the DAP is set to grace local cinemas in November, while another 'info-mercial' on the Selangor water shortage is now being filmed. How low can the BN government go with their propaganda?

Today we are kept reminded of former premier Mahathir Mohamad's RM30billion forex losses that make the RM12bilion PKFZ scandal look like loose change. Missing jet engines and over-pricing on the Scorpene submarines, Eurofighters, Littoral combat ships and RIV vehicles mar the Defence Ministry's procurement record.

Really, the number of financial blunders committed by the government of the day could easily fill a book as thick as the Yellow Pages if anyone cared to document them.

And then, there is the daily tirade by BN politicians trying in vain to explain the gross mismanagement blunders. It is a real wonder how our politicians manage to stupidly squander away so many billions without batting an eyelid. Yet somehow, these politicians think that they are smart enough to run this country while questioning Pakatan's ability to govern!

The clock is ticking

No matter what the political analysts and Dr Mahathir may say, BN today, is weaker than at any other point in time, and it will topple like matchsticks in the next election.

The Opposition has expressed confidence that it will recapture Perak, while Perlis and Negri Sembilan seem like easy pickings. Terengganu looks topsy-turvy and even Johore seems rather shaky. And with the Lynas rare-earth refinery and the cyanide gold-mining controversy in Raub looming like dark thunder clouds over Najib’s home state of Pahang, it looks like the Opposition is going to score big time there too.

The unnecessary delay in holding GE13 has also caused BN 'fixed-deposit' states Sabah and Sarawak to crumble slowly, with local political rivals  consolidating their strength to wrest power from the BN.

Actually, all the Opposition needs is a 7 percent vote swing and this will bury the BN for a long time to come.

The only card that BN can cling on to is the religious card, but the Malays are not going to be taken for a ride again, and a big majority are turning away from UMNO. Although Najib and his team have tried hard to cause trouble in PAS, with Nasharuddin Isa and Hassan Ali effectively neutralized, UMNO is really at a loss as to what to do next.

Playing with fire

Checkmated at every turn in the past 4 years, UMNO is running out of ammunition to discredit the Opposition. Depending on crude clowns like the MCA and Perkasa to lead the attacks has backfired, making the BN laughing stocks to the nation and the rest of the world.

BN's inability to check radical groups like Perkasa has lost it a lot of respect from the Non Malay voters. BN is seen as a lame party, unable to check the deterioration of race relations and basic human rights. It continues to let the sores of race and religious strife fester until these turn gangrenous. Now, it is too late. No amount of begging will entice the Non Malay fence-sitters to reconsider BN after such grievous slights.

Save for a few die-hard supporters in the MCA, MIC and Gerakan, UMNO has isolated itself from the non-Malay communities. This is why it needs the Malay vote badly to reverse the slide.

But that is not likely to happen as the Malays themselves are shunning UMNO like the plague. With the 'great' Mahathir now busily insulting the Malays for not returning to the BN fold, it looks UMNO will soon alienate itself from the Malay community as well.

Power-sharing deal

UMNO has badly miscalculated. It failed to see that the honest, hardworking and religious Malays would not tolerate rampant corruption or allow their religious beliefs to be further ridiculed. The Malays have matured, they simply refuse to be used any longer by the BN to further its own destructive causes.

The time has come for BN to wake up. If it is to survive, it must reconsider all options and negotiate with the Pakatan for a face-saving power-sharing solution, instead of threatening war, racial riots and oppressive laws ala Mahathir to cow the people.

Malaysians want to progress, not REGRESS!

Malaysia Chronicle