The Malaysian Insider

By Syed Jaymal Zahiid

KUALA LUMPUR, July 11 – A recent survey which showed Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is rapidly gaining the support of the Malaysian majority has set off alarm bells in the opposition coalition.

DAP’s Lim Kit Siang cautioned his fellow PR comrades that the 65 per cent approval rating given to Najib’s 100-day performance as prime minister poses a strong challenge to Pakatan Rakyat (PR).

“No doubt as reflected by the poll, Najib’s newfound esteem poses a challenge for PR to meet or otherwise we would become irrelevant,” he told The Malaysian Insider in an interview at the party’s office here.

Najib scored a comprehensive pass when the poll by the Merdeka Center showed that his approval rating is 65 per cent, a jump up from the tepid 46 per cent in mid-May and 42 per cent just before he became the country’s sixth prime minister.

Much of the support can be attributed to Najib’s bold liberal economic policies.

In his 100 days in office, he dismantled parts of the decades-old affirmative action regulations.

The survey findings have also presented further evidence to PR that the days of it contending with a weak and unsure leader in Putrajaya are over.

But history, and in this case, Malaysian political history has proven men wrong time and time again, said Lim, reminding how then prime minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had also enjoyed a “dizzyingly high” popularity rating, a startling 98 per cent, when he first entered office five years ago.

“And it was drastically slashed to 42 per cent four years later,” said Lim referring to the March 8 political tsunami that wiped Barisan Nasional (BN) from five states causing it to lose its two thirds parliamentary majority for the first time in decades.

Najib’s rating, said Lim, is also the lowest compared to the rating given to his predecessors.

This, he said, is caused by none other than the failure to “walk the talk”. Many promises, like introducing laws with real power to reform the judiciary to the police, were not met and Najib is already showing signs that he’s not going to be able to clean up the mess.

Alongside the mentioned issues are also the unresolved RM12 billion Port Klang Free Zone scandal (PKFZ) to the BN power grab in Perak and Lim said Najib’s government is following the trail of past administrations; abundant with rhetoric, bankrupt in implementation.

But unlike his predecessor, Najib, perhaps surrounding himself with better tacticians than Abdullah, stays above the fray, shielding himself from opposition assaults by a simple yet effective tactic: ignore them.

And while PR struggles to form a cohesive and adhesive front, Najib has been studying his opponents carefully, even “hijacking” some of the policies made by PR.

Najib’s liberal policies are not new. PKR and DAP have long called for the opening up of the market and the stripping down of race-driven governmental policies.

The sixth premier, however, learned quickly. He didn’t bother wasting time worrying about pleasing sides with conflicting wants like Abdullah tried. He implemented the policies, claiming all the credit while PR are left high and dry.

Lim, however, said it’s all right for Najib to hijack PR’s ideas as long as policies with just aims are implemented and not remain as a mere “public relations hijacking.”

And if Najib believes he is “above the fray”, Lim advised the premier to think again.

“Every action taken by the government will always go back to the prime minister’s office,” said Lim concluding the interview.

Comments (16)

Show/Hide comments

Show/Hide comment form