Malaysian PM battles former leader to retain his political life
NAJIB RAZAK, the prime minister of Malaysia, will face a fight for his political life today as the nation of 31million goes to the polls to decide between his scandal-tainted government and an opposition alliance led by Mahathir Mohamad, his one-time men- tor and former authoritarian leader.
Mr Najib is widely expected to retain power, thanks to a first-past-the-post system that opponents charge is skewed in favour of his ruling Barisan Nasional coalition, and traditional support from rural areas.
However, the prime minister may lose the popular vote as the momentum throughout the short and bitter election campaign has been with the Pakatan Harapan – a united opposition front of former political enemies – who have launched an offensive over corruption allegations and the rising cost of living.
An unconvincing victory could leave Mr Najib, 64, facing an internal leadership challenge from within his United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) party.
That would be a huge political upset for a leader who has weathered uproar over an international multi-billion-dollar graft scandal that engulfed a state investment fund, 1MDB, that he set up.
The US justice department has been investigating allegations that billions were siphoned from the fund and laundered through foreign bank accounts.
But the prime minister has consistently denied any wrongdoing and has been cleared of any offence by the attorney general of Malaysia.
In a statement released on Monday night, Mr Najib underscored his government’s economic achievements, stressing the creation of 2.7 million jobs, an average growth of 5.4 per cent and an increase of over 50 per cent in Gross National Income since he came to power in 2009.
He used the statement to argue that introducing a controversial Goods and Services Tax (GST), which has hit lower-income families hard and may yet prove to be his Achilles’ heel, had been a tough decision but would have long-term rewards. Mr Najib also lobbed withering personal attacks at his formidable opposition in the lengthy text, labelling Dr Mahathir, 92, who ruled the country for 22 years, a “former dictator” who could not be trusted.
The four-party opposition argues, however, that joining forces with Dr Mahathir, once regarded as their political nemesis, is a show of strength against a government they believe is running Asia’s fourth largest economy into the ground.
Dr Mahathir, a defiant political strongman known as the architect of modern Malaysia, told The Daily Telegraph he had emerged from retirement to save Malaysia from a prime minister for whom “cash is king.”
In one of the biggest about-turns of his 70-year political career, he plans, if he wins, to cede the top job to Anwar Ibrahim, the opposition icon whom he sacked as his deputy and who was then jailed in 1999 for graft and sodomy.
Nurul Izzah, 37, Mr Ibrahim’s daughter, an incumbent MP and a leading light in the opposition, said in an interview that it had been a “difficult process” to team up with Dr Mahathir but that she had chosen to do so for the good of the country.
“He’s an incorrigible optimist,” said Ms Izzah of her father.