KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 24 — In a classic two-pronged strategy, Umno president Datuk Seri Najib Razak is leading the party’s charge for the non-Malay vote while his deputy works on Malay groups such as Perkasa in the ruling coalition’s bid for more support in the next general elections.The strategy has also seen Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad emerging as Najib’s point man for the crucial Malay vote with the former premier’s warning yesterday that the community will lose political power if Pakatan Rakyat (PR) captures Putrajaya from Barisan Nasional (BN).
The Malaysian Insider understands that the Umno leadership believes it is courting disaster if it is seen to be pandering to non-Malays although the prime minister has been actively reaching out to religious and communal leaders to emphasise inclusivity and unity under his 1 Malaysia concept.
But Dr Mahathir and his ilk believe that the key to Najib’s big win in the next polls is resounding Malay support and crucial for Umno to work with Perkasa and other right wing groups The country’s
longest-serving prime minister is to expound on this theme when he addresses the Perkasa Kelantan rally tomorrow at the Pasir Mas Railway Station in Kelatan.
The former Umno president, who still commands widespread influence among Umno members and larger Malay community, pointed to the former PR mentri besar in Perak Datuk Seri Nizar Jamaluddin as an example of how Malay politicians had been sidelined by the fledgling coalition.
“We see Nizar in Perak...even though he was Mentri Besar he followed the instructions of DAP until he fell. The Chinese claim this was BN’s move to bring down a Chinese government.
“So they called it a Chinese administration and is it not possible that we can have a prime minister like Nizar, Malay in name and a Muslim but not really independent and a tool of others,” he said in an interview with the Umno Online website yesterday.
Dr Mahathir said that while Nizar represented PAS which supposedly champions Islam, he was actually used to secure Malay support.
He pointed out that there was no requirement for the prime minister to be a Muslim or Malay. All that was needed, Dr Mahathir said, was that the person had the support of the majority in Parliament.
“There is no restriction in law. In our Constitution there is nothing to stop a Chinese or an Indian from becoming prime minister. What is needed is support from the majority. If the majority agree there is nothing we can do,” he said.
Apart from Dr Mahathir, other Umno leaders such as Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin have been tasked to manage the Malay ground and recapture support from those who now back PAS and PKR, which has a number of former Umno leaders.
The strategy however will see the country’s top leaders sounding as different as night and day as they work their charm offensive on the non-Malays and Malays.
Najib’s recent praise of the tiny Malayalee community and support for an inter-faith group plus the project to re-brand Kuala Lumpur’s Brickfields suburb as Little India, to be officiated by his Indian
counterpart, will be balanced by ensuring that affirmative action policies stay in his New Economic Model (NEM) to be finalised next month.
The strategy has also seen Umno and Barisan BN secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor declaring that the ruling coalition will not support Ibrahim Ali in the next general elections only to see Najib and other senior leaders reversing that stand.
Perkasa chief Datuk Ibrahim Ali has denied his movement is political but said its members will decide which coalition to support in the next general elections. The independent Pasir Mas MP has stressed that his movement’s growing membership of 300,000 cannot be discounted and their views considered particularly over Malay rights and the monarchy.
The focus, however, is on Umno as its senior allies MCA and MIC struggle through leadership changes and appear to lose support from their respective communities.
The question that lingers is still whether Malaysians are going to buy the good cop/bad cop routine from the top Umno and BN leadership in the run-up to the next general elections. And whether it’s tenable to straddle the fence indefinitely in the face of PR’s ambitions to rule the country after its historic wins in Election 2008.
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