MALAYSIAN Prime Minister Najib Razak will steer his party further back to its ethnic Malay roots at a meeting this week, seeking to shore up support after criticism from former leader Mahathir Mohamed.
After the worst-ever showing by the United Malays National Organization in last year’s election and with questions over his handling of the economy, Najib, 61, is under pressure to boost his standing in the 3.4- million strong Malay-based party. Backed by a rise in charges against opposition politicians, he will probably use the five-day meeting to again indicate the colonial-era Sedition Act will no longer be scrapped.
Among the nearly 640 motions for discussion at the meeting in Kuala Lumpur are proposals to boost controls on the Internet, scrap Chinese-language schools and retain the sedition law, the Malaysian Insider reported on November 11, citing United Malays National Organization (UMNO) Vice President Hishammuddin Hussein. The challenge for Najib will be to push back on measures that risk further driving Chinese and Indian voters toward the opposition led by former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim.
“The worry starts when those in UMNO continue to be vocally conservative after the general assembly,” said Wan Saiful Wan Jan, CEO of the Kuala Lumpur-based Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs. “They won’t affect government policy immediately but if this is prolonged there may slowly be changes that bring Malaysia backward.”
Bumiputera policy
HAVING dismantled some policies that favor Malays and indigenous people known as Bumiputeras, Najib reversed course in the aftermath of the 2013 ballot, which saw the UMNO-led Barisan Nasional coalition lose the popular vote for the first time even as it held power. In September 2013 he announced a 10-billion-ringgit ($3-billion) trust to support education and home ownership, while government-linked companies were urged to give more contracts to ethnic Malays on merit.
Najib told UMNO officials at a closed-door meeting on Tuesday that the “Malays will be damned” and the “religion will be at stake” if the party loses the next election due by 2018, Malaysian Insider web site reported, citing senior UMNO leader Puad Zarkashi.
Najib was publicly criticized in August by former leader Mahathir, who ruled for 22 years until 2003. Mahathir said his discontent started when Najib abolished internal security laws which allowed detention without trial. Minimum wage increases imposed by Najib’s government have not taken into account costs that are making Malaysian businesses and goods uncompetitive versus imports, he said.
UMNO outlook
NAJIB’S predecessor Abdullah Ahmad Badawi stepped down in 2009 with Mahathir, 89, at the forefront of calls for his resignation after a poor election showing in 2008. Najib will address the outlook for UMNO, as well as the future of the sedition law during the party meeting, according to his press office.
“UMNO is dialing to the right. Najib has no choice but to follow,” said Ibrahim Suffian, a political analyst at the Merdeka Center for Opinion Research. “They are getting sensitive, going after all perceived insults to the Malays, Islam and royalty, as well as the government.”
Sedition act
POLICE have charged at least 14 people under sedition laws since 2013, including opposition lawmakers, New York-based Human Rights Watch said in an e-mailed statement.
Rafizi Ramli, secretary-general of the opposition People’s Justice Party, said at least 20 people have been charged with sedition since the election. Opposition leader Anwar is awaiting word on his appeal of a court decision that overturned his 2012 acquittal on sodomy charges, and faces five years in jail if his appeal fails.
“UMNO and the government haven’t quite moved into the 21st century,” Rafizi said. “They cannot take public criticism and public discussions about issues. They will be left behind.”
Najib will probably not act on some of the proposals, to avoid alienating other groups, Wan Saiful said. Chinese voters shifted to opposition parties in 2013, with Chinese parties in the government winning nine seats compared with 23 in 2008.
Still, he will need to make some concessions to the Malay base, and he may face a backlash after moving last week to scrap subsidies for gasoline and diesel. A goods and services tax of 6 percent will start in April, an added burden on businesses and households, and consumer prices are forecast by the government to climb 4 percent to 5 percent next year in Southeast Asia’s third-biggest economy, the fastest since 2008.
The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI Index has lost 1.4 percent in 2014, the worst performer among Southeast Asia’s stock markets.
Key reforms
“NAJIB has given handouts to Malays to appease UMNO but he has also delivered on two key reforms—GST and fuel subsidies,” Chua Hak Bin, a Singapore-based economist with Bank of America Merrill Lynch, said on Tuesday by phone. “I think investors are willing to see that UMNO politics will not totally affect government policy directions.”
Najib will probably signal to the meeting he does not plan to abolish the 1948-enacted Sedition Act soon, despite describing it in July 2012 as part of a “bygone era” when the British colonial government in Malaysia fought ethnic Chinese communists.
The act, which criminalizes criticism of the government and justice system, as well as hate speech against ethnic groups, has broad support within the Malay community, according to UMNO Secretary-General Tengku Adnan Mansor.
“They want the act to defend the rights of the Malays and ensure everyone will know their place in this country,” Tengku Adnan, who is also a cabinet minister, said in a November 22 interview.
Mahathir whereabouts
MAHATHIR probably won’t attend the opening of the UMNO general assembly on Thursday, the Star newspaper reported on Tuesday. His aide Sufi Yusof said it was not confirmed yet whether he will be there, while Mahathir wrote on his blog on Tuesday that because he is too unwell to travel overseas for another commitment he “might attend” the UMNO meeting.
UMNO and Barisan Nasional have no choice but to continue supporting Najib due to a lack of an alternative leader, Mahathir said in a May 2013 interview.
“Until now, UMNO members have not taken a stance to go against the party leadership. They respect Tun as a veteran leader but they support the current leadership,” Najib told the Utusan Malaysia newspaper on November 23, referring to Mahathir by the title Tun. “I will do what I think is good for the party and the country.”
Image credits: Bloomberg