By 12 midnight in 16 hours time, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak would have created double “history” – firstly, first time in nation’s 56-year history, allowing a State Assembly (Negri Sembilan) to be automatically dissolved before Parliament; and secondly, establishing a record of “indecisiveness” as Prime Minister, even putting the fifth Malaysian Prime Minister Tun Abdullah to shame, while he continues to agonise on when to dissolve Parliament for the 13th General Elections!
There are no signs that Najib would dissolve Parliament before midnight tonight, ahead of the automatic dissolution of the Negri Sembilan State Assembly.
In fact, it now looks likely that another State Assembly, Pahang, will automatically dissolve on Apri 5, 2013 before the dissolution of Parliament.
This raises the question whether Najib will allow six other State Assemblies to be dissolved before the automatic dissolution of Parliament on midnight on 27th April 2013 – namely Johore and Malacca (19th April), Selangor (20th April), Perak, Perlis and Kelantan (26th April).
Already, Najib has chalked up many dubious “records”, including:
*the longest unelected Prime Minister without a mandate from the voters;
*leading an “expired” Cabinet and Government, as the present 12th Parliament is 18 days past its five-year natural life, as it was elected on March 8, 2008; and
*a Prime Minister who has been on election campaigning mode for the longest period in history – four years in a week’s time when it will be the fourth anniversary of Najib’s becoming the sixth Prime Minister on 3rd April 2009.
Najib has many other “dubious firsts” in his favour, as:
*the Prime Minister whose signature policy of 1Malaysia was immediately repudiated by his Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin who declared that he is “Malay first, Malaysian second”, resulting in the Cabinet, UMNO and Barisan Nasional Supreme Councils never officially endorsing the 1Malaysia policy in the past four years;
*the Prime Minister who has coined a blizzard and probably the world’s biggest collection of alphabet soups as a substitute for government policies and action, comprising unpronounceable and impossible-to-remember acronyms like GTP, ETP, PTP, NKRA, NKEA, EPP, NEM, GMM, etc. (Can all Cabinet Ministers remember what all these acronyms stand for?)
*a Prime Minister who beat previous five Prime Ministers in spending vast sums of public funds running into hundreds of millions of ringgit to consultancy firms like APCO Worldwide, FBC Media, etc to massage his message and spruce up his government’s image locally and overseas;
*a Prime Minister who has refused to convene an emergency Parliament for the nation through all MPs to pay tribute and fully honour the 10 fallen national heroes from the police and armed forces who sacrificed their lives in defence of national sovereignty and the people’s security in the Sabah Sulu crisis; and
*the only incumbent Prime Minister to be warned before a general elections that unless he could achieve a bigger election victory for UMNO/BN than the previous 12GE in 2008, he would have to give way to Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin – an ultimatum delivered by none other than Tun Mahathir who has emerged to be the most “powerful” man in UMNO/BN.
Najib has chalked up such a catalogue of dubious records because he has become a “kiasu” and “kiasi” Prime Minister – mortally afraid that the most famous political prophecy of RAHMAN in Malaysia will come true and he will be the last UMNO/Barisan Nasional Prime Minister!
In fact, there appears to be a conspiracy against Najib even among those who sang the highest praises for him in the public domain – with former Finance Minister Daim Zainuddin providing the most recent example.
Daim’s interview with New Straits Times, “I want Najib to win, Anwar not fit to be PM” (New Sunday Times March 24, 2013), purportedly to support Najib, is in fact a powerful indictment of the failures of Najib’s four-year premiership, demolishing Najib’s claims of success in delivering many economic and social initiatives implemented under his transformation agenda including his recent hour-long television interview of “Conversation with the PM”.
This is what Daim said:
“I will support Najib, but he must fight corruption and crime, strengthen the nation’s security and review the education system. Make English compulsory in all national schools. Without English, we are dead, especially the Malays.”
“On the nation’s security, every day in the media and on television, there are news reports of murder and crime. You say our country is safe, but if people don’t feel safe, they will not believe you regardless of the statistics.”
“On corruption, tell the rakyat that the government is serious in wanting to get rid of it…The government must come down strongly on those who are corrupt.”
Need more be said about the failures of Najib’s transformation agenda in the past four years when an “establishment” personality like Daim has such unflattering things to say about corruption, crime and education in what is supposed to a paean of an interview to praise the Najib premiership skyhigh?
Indeed it is true that with such friends, one does not need enemies!