Will Najib be the last Umno Prime Minister?

“Najib is not going to be the last Umno prime minister”, so says veteran Umno leader Tan Sri Abdullah Ahmad at the 15th Malaysia Strategic Outlook Conference organized by Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute (Asli) today.

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak clearly does not share Abdullah’s confidence and optimism or he would have called for the 13th general elections already instead of dilly-dallying with hesitation and indecision in the past two years, gaining for himself a reputation of being an even greater Flip-Flop Prime Minister than his predecessor Tun Abdullah.

Nor the Johore Mentri Besar, Datuk Ghani Othman who told Kulai Chinese organizations less than three weeks ago that Pakatan Rakyat could win Putrajaya in the 13GE although he warned that the most the PR could win would be a slim majority of 5% to 10% of the parliamentary seats – i.e. a majority from 12 to 22 parliamentary seats.

Nor the UMNO/BN eminence grise, Tun Mahathir, who seems to be increasingly pessimistic about UMNO’s chances of winning Putrajaya in the 13GE, causing him to call on Malaysian voters to support “the devil you know than the angel you don’t”, and recently, making more and more reckless and desperate statements, like:

• his baseless accusation that the historic peaceful and successful Himpunan Kebangkitan Rakyat at Stadium Merdeka (KL112) by over 100,000 Malaysians from all races, religions and region was an attempt to topple the elected UMNO/BN government by violent means;
  
• his baseless accusation that the first Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman had given citizenship to one million unqualified non-Malays before Merdeka in 1957 in an attempt to justify his “citizenship-for-votes” scam in Project M in Sabah, even suggesting a Royal Commission of Inquiry into Tunku Abdul Rahman’s issue of the one million citizenship to non-Malays before Merdeka.
  

However, despite the private doubts and diffidence of Umno/BN leadership about retaining Putrajaya in the 13GE, there can be no doubt that the UMNO/BN leaders and propagandists have ratcheted up their campaign which has gone into an overdrive in the mainstream and social media to convey the impression that they have supreme confidence not only to defeat Pakatan Rakyat in the 13GE, but going to win big by regaining two-thirds parliamentary majority.

But, as the Prime Minister knows, whether Najib is going to be the last UMNO prime minister is still very uncertain and undecided – and it is not going to be decided by the Umno leadership but by the 13 million Malaysian voters in the 13GE.

Undoubtedly the pre-eminent issues to be determined in the 13GE is whether Najib is the last Umno Prime Minister bringing UMNO/BN government to an end 55 years after Merdeka – liberating Malaysia from UMNO hegemony and set on the path of a normal democracy where voters can choose the Federal government they want through the ballot box during general elections.

Lim Kit Siang DAP Parliamentary Leader & MP for Ipoh Timur

Media statement by Lim Kit Siang in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, 31st January 2013