NAJIB’S UNCERTAIN POLITICAL FUTURE

I am not a ‘tukang tilik’ nor a ‘dukun’, but having heard from the many people that I met who are generally non-partisan in politics, I tend to be influence and is in agreement with what they say concerning the bickering within UMNO today over the up-coming party elections, and most importantly the change over of party leadership to Najib.

Najib was reported to have said recently that he has no knowledge of a specified date for the change over, and leaves it entirely to Pak Lah to decide. To most observers, this is a departure from the norm, especially with the date of the general assembly being just a few days away, and a significant event such as the change over of party and national leadership is yet unknown.

This uncertainty in the change over has given rise to various perceptions and speculations among the concerned public.

There was one which says that because of the immense pressure for Najib to clear all allegations leveled against him, particularly in respect of the murder of Altantuya, corruption and his tarnished reputation in the international arena, Pak Lah may decide to stay on a bit longer until Najib’s problems are resolved.

Another speculation is that Pak Lah will hand over the leadership to Tengku Razaleigh (former finance minister), with the latter assuming the post of Prime Minister for an interim period, allowing sufficient time and space for Najib to resolve his problems. In this scenario, Najib will have to relinquish his post as Deputy Prime Minister, and hand it over to who ever is elected UMNO’s deputy president in the general assembly.

A third scenario will be that Najib will be asked not to accept the position of party president, and to allow the elected deputy president to become the Prime Minister. The post of deputy Prime Minister will be given to the person having secured the highest votes in the contest for UMNO Vice Presidency.

Should UMNO chooses any one of the above scenario, Najib’s future in UMNO is sealed.

But if Najib is to survive the general assembly, and to prove the above speculations wrong, he will be faced with the unending allegations, accusations and worse still, mocking by the opposition and the public, that will make his tenure as the sixth Prime Minister an unsettled one.


CRUSADE AGAINST CORRUPTION
Posted at 12.10 am on March 13, 2009