By Neville Spykerman -The Malaysian Insider
Najib is banking on his Government Transformation Programme to win over the hearts and minds of the people. - Picture by Jack Ooi
But commentators and analysts say that such a strategy can work only if he is not sidetracked by race rows and other controversies.
And with yesterday’s racist comments by a senior aide severely embarrassing the prime minister and the ongoing “Allah” row not going away, it remains a “big if.”
“The GTP is a vote winner but the key to it’s success is BN’s ability to avoid another issue such as the ‘Allah’ controversy,” said James Chin, a political science lecturer at Monash University here.
He noted the prime minister has carefully based the GTP on key bread and butter issues faced by the public and BN’s calculation is that as long as these issues are addressed other factors will have no major impact on the results of the next general elections.
Chin said he expects the GTP to be successful because most of the measures for the transformation programme were already in the pipeline even before the GTP plan was put in place.
His optimism is supported by ING’s recent quarterly Investment Dashboard Survey which was released last week.
The survey reported that the investment scene in Malaysia was stabilising, with investors remaining optimistic over the current economic outlook.
It also indicated stability in the local jobs market and measures to sustain the property sector was boosting investor confidence that Malaysia will be able to achieve a gross domestic product (GDP) growth of three per cent this year.
Policy analyst Khoo Kay Peng also agreed that most Malaysians were concerned with economic well being while issues such as democracy and rule of law only concerned a small segment of society.
“Sadly the majority will put the economy ahead of social issues.”
However he said the success of the GTP would depend on a cumbersome civil service and Najib’s leadership, which he said has so far been unconvincing.
Khoo points out that Najib’s handling of a slew of recent controversies such as the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal, the theft of Royal Malaysian Air Force jet engines, Teoh Beng Hock’s death and the recent ‘Allah’ row were missed opportunities for him to demonstrate his leadership.
“These were opportunities for him to show his leadership but instead it hurt his credibility. ‘‘
Prof Shamsul Amri Baharuddin remarked that the GTP has so far been a ‘top down’ effort with limited participation from the public.
He described the GTP as a grand design but said that what was lacking was an inherent mechanism where the public can be consulted.
“Yes it can work provided the public can participate.” said the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) director of the Institute of the Malay World and Civilisation.
His UKM colleague Prof Dr Mohammad Agus Yusoff agreed that the GTP and economy were steps in the right direction to win over the public.
However he said transforming policies into real benefits would be key to the GTP’s success.
“The people must experience real impact,” he said.
Political scientist Wong Chin Huat said the GTP and a recovering economy may have been enough to win over the public in the past but was unlikely to be enough today.
“It may have worked ten or 20 years ago but ever since the last general elections, Malaysians have woken up.” he said adding that the public was now more demanding.
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