The two by-elections boosted Najib’s confidence

By: Wang Jing Wen (translated name)

Kwong Wah Daily, July 14^th 2016.

With Barisan Nasional easy victories in the two by-elections in Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar, the Prime Minister hit the iron while it is hot seen by his relentless deadly attacks at his political rivals.

 

Firstly, he ridiculed the former Prime Minister Tun Mahathir verbally who had lost his influence. The people had rejected Tun Mahathir shown through the two by-elections.

 

Subsequently, Najib decided to sack Muhyiddin and Mukhriz from the party and suspended Shafie’s UMNO membership.

 

Following through, Najib revamped his Cabinet. The most interesting part of this Cabinet reshuffle was the Second Finance Minister Ahmad Husni who resigned for good. He was appointed as the Cabinet spokesman for the 1MDB issue. He even resigned from all his posts in UMNO and Barisan Nasional. Nevertheless he still remains as a Member of Parliament.

 

Finally when news was out that the Chairman of MACC would go for early retirement, it acted high-handedly and detained the Chief Minister of Penang Lim Guan Eng for a night. The next day Lim was charged for two corruption charges in the court by the prosecution team headed by Attorney General Apandi personally.

 

The two victories of the by-elections boosted Najib’s confidence immensely and he took various actions towards the end of Ramadan month. Were such actions within the expectations of Najib?

 

After sacking Muhyiddin and Mukhriz, there were minor ripples of resignation from the UMNO branch in Pagoh which was regarded as the base of Muhyiddin. There were no retaliations from Kedah the home state of Mukhriz, the former Menteri Besar of Kedah.

 

However Shafie mounted his counter attack by organizing a mass gathering in his parliamentary constituency with a few thousands of UMNO members to declare he had resigned from UMNO. Later there were many supporters following his footsteps resigning from UMNO. Shafie bravely warned that his resignation from UMNO would have a conspicuous impact on UMNO in the next general election.

 

If Shafie’s warning carries weight, Najib should be cautious as East Malaysia like Sabah is regarded as a stronghold of Barisan Nasional. Subsequently Najib will be more focused in revamping Sabah UMNO to balance the impact brought by Shafie’s resignation.

 

Besides that there was news circulating that Mahathir would return to the political arena by heading a new party to recruit former UMNO members to join hands to counter Najib. Mahathir had also considered the option of working together with Pakatan Harapan to fight against UMNO and Barisan Nasional.

 

Although Najib will take note on the development, I think he will not worry about Mahathir returning to politics and recruiting former UMNO members. This was because the results from the two by-elections had proven that Mahathir, Muhyiddin and Mukhriz had no more influence.

 

However, the return of Mahathir heading a new party into the political arena will bring some technical problems or issues to be handled, compromised and solved amicably by Pakatan Harapan.