KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 5 - Barisan Nasional's election director and prime minister-designate Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak is in a tight spot.
Tomorrow, he leads a procession with BN candidate Datuk Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh to the nomination centre for the Kuala Terengganu parliamentary by-election, just 24 hours after former party strongman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad called the former senator a bad choice and a proxy.
As deputy prime minister, Najib leads all by-election campaigns with the last one in Permatang Pauh ended in disaster when Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim made a triumphal political comeback garnering a higher majority although Dr Mahathir had thought otherwise.
The bigger problem for Najib now is whether to respond to the latest salvo from the former party president, who ruled Malaysia for 22 years and quit in a huff last May 19 in his tireless crusade against successor Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
"The choice of the candidate is really very bad because people see him as a proxy to be used if Najib becomes prime minister," Dr Mahathir said in another wipe against Abdullah, who resigns next March after BN's electoral debacle last year.
Najib, who has taken great pains to stick with Abdullah's despite being pushed by the octogenarian to unseat the prime minister, is expected to ignore the comments as he leads the campaign to retain the Kuala Terengganu seat.
The ruling coalition won the seat with a narrow 628 majority in the March 8 polls last year and Wan Farid, who was political secretary to Abdullah, is up against popular five-term Wakaf Mempelam assemblyman Abdul Wahid Endut from Parti Islam SeMalaysia (Pas).
The by-election is seen crucial to both BN and Pas, which wants to shed its junior partner image in the Pakatan Rakyat electoral pact while BN needs to maintain its strength in the parliament where it now controls 137 out of the 222 seats.
But Najib has the bigger task as he goes all out to campaign for a bigger victory and dispel doubts about his leadership when he takes over as prime minister against a resurgent opposition bent on unseating BN from Putrajaya.
Dr Mahathir's comments will not be of any help in this by-election but any argument with him is the last thing that Najib needs if Abdullah's past four years is any indication. Najib will just have to let it go and pray for a Wan Farid victory.
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