Read here article by David Chance in Reuters
Excerpts: Read here for more
MAHATHIR PULLING THE STRINGS?
...An unseemly scramble for power around Malaysia's deputy premier Najib Razak could damage his efforts to rebuild the government.
That could damage Malaysia's chances of attracting new investment and fending off the fallout from the global financial crisis, which is set to cut demand for its exports.
Local investment bank CIMB this week cut its 2009 growth forecast to 3.0 percent from 5.0 percent.
After decades in power (read: 21 years of Mahathir's regime), corruption and nepotism have grown to plague UMNO and the entire Barisan Nasional governing coalition, alienating core Malay voters who feel they have gained little while party leaders and the elite have prospered.
Najib's possible challenger, former finance minister Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, said corruption was on the rise in UMNO.
One of the first critics of Abdullah was Mahathir Mohamad, former prime minister for 22 years.
It was Abdullah's decision to end some of Mahathir's expensive infrastructure projects that triggered his decision to quit UMNO and his subsequent sniping.
Now that Abdullah is going, Mahathir will return to UMNO -- and possibly his influence.
"It's not Najib that is going to rule. It's Mahathir going to pull all the strings from now on, from behind the scene," said Terence Gomez, professor at the University of Malaya.
That means Malaysia is unlikely to see big reforms under Najib of the kind that are needed to reassure investors who want issues such as lack of transparency in the judiciary addressed.
At the same time, the prosecution of bloggers and others who challenge the government is likely to rise under Najib.
A recent crackdown at has drawn criticism from human rights and journalist groups and important trading partners such as the U.S. "We are going to see a clear repression or suppression of media space," Gomez said.
Related Article
Mahathir May Return to Centre Stage
by
Baradan Kuppusamy
Excerpts: Read here for more
Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi’s planned stepping down in March 2009 may well see a return to the authoritarian rule familiar to Malaysians during the 22-year iron rule of his predecessor Dr. Mahathir Mohamad.
"Mr Najib is a carbon copy of Dr Mahathir and we fear in his rise to power a possible return of iron-fisted rule and intolerance for dissent and curbs on the political opposition," said a diplomat with a European mission, on condition of anonymity.
Critics said Najib’s rise to power would also see the return of Mahathir to political centre stage, probably as a tenured advisor to the government.
"I welcome the departure of Abdullah and am ready to give advise to the new government," Mahathir told local reporters after confirming that Abdullah was leaving.
Dr Mahathir had said last year he picked Abdullah as a "temporary substitute" to hold the seat for Najib.
"Abdullah would be remembered as a pleasant man who simply did not have the skills or the gumption to rule," said a Chinese newspaper editor who declined to be identified. " He tried to please everybody and in the end failed to please anybody."
4 comments:
Mahatir had all along planned to be the pupperteer manipulating the puppets behind the scenes and that is why he chose Badawi because Pak Lah was the weskest of all the senior members of UMNO. I observed this early in Badawi's first general Election, when Badawi rejected Mahtir's offere to help Badawi in his first election. Mahatir was told not to camapign for Badawi, but Mahatir lost face from this rejection because it had dawn on him that Badawi wanted to be his own man. I believe that this was the begining of the animosity between Mahatir against Badawi.
I do not claim to know what or who Badawi is, but he has that streak of decency that is more human than what Mahatir has, but as fate would have it, Badawi lost the support of the Malaysian people and now we will see Mahatir come back into what he had originally planed and failed with Badawi and going to realise with Najib. I can only say that Malaysia will deserve the Prime Ministership of Najib.
He expanded Rm.100 million to send a man into space on the back of a Russia space craft; this is jsut so much bullshit because what is the value of such a misadvanture; Malaysia can hardly accord such stupidy and waste.
Mahatir will continue to tear the social fabric of Malaysia from where he left off. MCA, MIC & Gerakan will go on a lick the arseholes of UMNO big wigs and get rich. Back to the future. The irony of the PMship of Najib is that he will be the tool of Mahatir for his tarnished recent conduct. Najib will not be his own man.
It is tragic that Malaysians do not see the opportunity to have an Dato Seri Anwar led government because Malaysian politics has stood stock still from the first day of independance. Nothing has changed from the very first day of independance.
Three new Polls on UMNO Elections: -
1. Who do you want as the new Youth Chief for UMNO?
2. Who do you want as the new Deputy President for UMNO?
3. Should Members of Barisan Nasional converge to form a Single MULTIRACIAL Party?
HERE - http://thexblogs.blogspot.com/
In the history of nations, very rarely a nation will produce a natural leader who has the vision to understand the problems that the nation is facing and how to slve them; our great leader Mao Tze Tung was one and Mahatmagandhi was another and there is no denying that our great Lee Kuan Yew ia another. These were leaders who saw their nations' problem and how to solve them. I believe Dato Seri Anwar is one of such a leader for Malaysia.
I had in an earlier post said that the most retarding force for Malaysia is the divisiveness and that in any society and in fact in all societies that practises sectarianism, they have failed without any excepton. If you know of any nation where sectarianism is practised and they have achieved success, please point them out in response to my belief to prove me wrong. Therefore if it is acceptable that sectarianism is a false assumption to base one's nation's CORE VALUE, then why continue on such a false and self defeating course of actions ?
Mahatir prepetrated a lie to the MALAYS that the Chinese had exploited the naivete' of the Malays and that the British colonial government of Malaya favoured the Chinese in awarding government contracts and that Chinese community will only deal with our community to the exclusion of the Malays and hence, this retarded the progress of the Malays. This was the lie that the Malays readily aaccepted as truth and that if they had been treated fairly they will have the talents to succeed. This lie is now proven to be a lie, because since 1969, with Mahatir's NEP in place the Malays still remain where they had been since 1957; nothing had changed, so much for the Malay Delemma"
Yes I can anticipate that you will raise the question "the NEP has lifted thousands of Malays into the middle class", WHY IS THAT NOT TO BE CALLED "SUCCESS?" In short, the NEP failed miserably because the NEP produced a false middle class. The education that exist today arising from this NEP produced an Army of non functional "PROFESSIONAL" class; again in short, this class created UNDER-EMPLOYMENT in the areas that they are supposed to EMPLOY THEIR TRAINING AND EXPERTISE. They more often than not cannot function in their job, as an example, go to the offices of Bank Bumiputra and you will see that every level of their building are occupied by the clarical stuff of Bank Bumiputra; this is a joke in a day and age of the computer.
Has the NEP produced a meaningful and functional entrepreneurial class. Here again there is a lie that is perpetrated under the NEP. It is not useful to say count and name who among the Malays have succeeded in business, but it will be more meaningful to name the big projects that were undertaken or "bought into" by Malay entrepreneurs and to see if they had succeeded. Bumiputra interests bought LOTUS for a few hundred millions at a point in time when Lotus was going BUST ! What profit has Lotus brought to these Malay entrepreneur ? The Langkawi Airlines was sold to Mr Fernandez for Rm 1 (one) and was that a good idea ? I read in the media that the successors of this airline owes the Malaysian Government some 120 million in arreas for landing fees. The Malaysian lost close to Rm. 1 billion in a misconcieved TIN SPECULATION some decades ago. The most visible failure is that crack pot "PROTONG " car manufacturing project. Not only did that project failed miserably but it totally distorted the car market in Malaysia and it is still ongoing; the Malay government still does not know how to stop the losses that the project is haemorraging today !
It is most important to know the biggest problem and mistake that still exist today, please know that the largess that the UMNO government squandered over these 50years were generated from revenue from oil or at lest 80% of this wealth. I believe Malaysian oil is depleting and by 2030 will be gone for all time. There has not been any capitalisation of this largess. The billions have all gone to send a Malaysian dentist into space for Rm.100 million; puff of hot air.
Singapore, Swizerland, Hong Kong, Taiwan and lots more prove that natural resources are not the determinant for the success of a nation; HUMAN CAPITAL IS ! Singapore has been the biggest beneficiary of the Malaysian NEP; most of the young Chinese professionals have migrated to Singapore, Australia, China, Canada, USA Britain Hong Kong etc.. I have very often pointed out the most obvious fact that at the begining of Malaysia there were 5 million Chinese and 6 million Malays, but now after 50 years there are now 22 million Malays and still 5 million Chinese. This is undeniable. Singapore had only human capital and nothing else, but why is it that Singapore is ranked top 10 most competitive nations in the recent "stats".
The Chinese have for the last 50 years not been supported by the Malaysian Government and we are not too concerned about any change because we have no expectation; but all the same, if there are any upside for our gloomy conditions then why not. THERE IS NO SOLUTION EXCEPT FOR MALAYSIA TO REALISE THE BENEFITS OF ALL MALAYSIAN WORKING TO ENLARGE BIGGER THE NATIONAL CAKE FOR ALL MALAYSIANS. The NEP is a dismal failure.
I fully endorse the proposal of Ku Li in an earlier post in Malaysian Unplugged, that the answer is to form a ONE PARTY STATE something like what is the People's Republic of China's. I am not holding my breath because the is a natural opposition to anything Chinese but yet you do not have anything better to offer in its place.
I would like to make a prediction in the relationship between Mahatir vs Najib. There is now many opinions that Najib will be manipulaated by Mahatir. I thought that that might be the case, but after thinking these couple of days, I retract this assumption as a mistake.
After considering what human nature will have on Najib, I believe that Najib will accommodate Mahatir for only until the end of UMNO General Elections and after that Najib will reject Mahatir's interference in Najib's affairs. Najib will deny Mahatir direct access the Najib. This is what I predict.
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