Pakatan claims Najib-Muhyiddin rift real
The deputy prime minister publicly pledged his loyalty to the prime minister yesterday, in a move to squash speculation of a rift with Najib which he suggested was the work of political rivals PR.
PKR supreme council member Datuk Zaid Ibrahim said today that despite Muhyiddin going through painstaking lengths to prove that “all was well” between him and Najib, there was friction between BN’s two top leaders and it was ultimately caused by BN’s “failure” to make headway with voters since the last general election.
“There is a real rift. Anyone can see that. The rift is there because BN has failed to gain significant traction among the people, voters since the last general elections.
“When they (BN) were rejected in 2008, Umno thought that by taking Pak Lah (Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi) out they would be able to gain more support. It is not only between Muhyiddin and Najib, the fight is very much real — it’s not a new development within Umno.
“At the time they blamed Pak Lah. Muhyiddin will (eventually) blame Najib,” said Zaid.
The former Umno minister-turned-PKR-supreme-council-member told The Malaysian Insider that Muhyiddin’s perceived contradictions of Najib’s policies — like 1 Malaysia — was a symptom of Umno’s uneasiness with Najib’s policies.
“Muhyiddin is a manifestation of Umno’s old uncertainty... it is very typical of Umno to do this. Najib has had a lot more western exposure, and is liberal in his policies to an extent. Muhyiddin is a home-grown DPM product.
“There is inevitably some clash. There is uncertainty among Umno’s old guards that Najib’s reforms would be useful at all for Umno to gain traction and support,” said Zaid.
Zaid also slammed the DPM for claiming that PR was creating the “impression” that there was a tension between the nation’s top two leaders.
“I think that it is a very, hollow excuse. They will blame us, and among themselves, too. Pak Lah wanted reform, too, during his time, but he was rejected by the enemies around him from within Umno.
“What is the difference now? I don’t think Umno guys are ready for change. Their idea of strengthening themselves is through control, through continued Malay dominance,” said Zaid.
The deputy prime minister has been at the fore recently, assuming temporary leadership of the Najib administration as the PM had been on leave for the past 10 days.
In Najib’s absence, Muhyiddin has had to deal with various issues, ranging from the cheating charge against former transport minister Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik to an increasingly unhappy MCA, whose president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek had claimed that competition between Umno and PAS to gain Malay support had resulted in the country being trapped as a “middle income” nation for more than 10 years.
Besides that, Muhyiddin was also forced to talk about 1 Malaysia, following stinging criticisms that the policy had failed to unite Malaysians as a whole as well as a renewed debate over the “Allah” issue.
The DPM recently agreed with Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad that Malaysians had not yet understood Najib’s 1 Malaysia concept, after the former prime minister said it had failed to unite Malaysians as a whole.
Muhyiddin had blamed PR as the reason why Malaysians had yet to grasp the 1 Malaysia concept, claiming that the opposition coalition had manipulated government policies for their own political interests.
This was, however, dismissed by DAP national publicity secretary Tony Pua.
“Why put the blame on us? If you want to put the blame on anyone blame yourself and Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon,” he said.
Pua said that Koh, who is the minister in the prime minister’s department, was responsible for defining the Government Transformation Programme (GTP), which also defined 1 Malaysia as being “Malaysian first, race second.”
“Why does it seem like the DPM has a very different understanding to the concept of 1 Malaysia? Because of him, 1 Malaysia has failed,” said Pua.
Pua suggested that Muhyiddin’s “earnestness” in denying a rift between him and Najib could be because Najib was unhappy with Muhyiddin.
“It could be because the PM is unhappy with Muhyiddin over recent events,” Pua told The Malaysian Insider.
DAP Socialist Youth chief (DAPSY) Anthony Loke claimed that Muhyiddin’s actions showed that the DPM was concerned with how the public were viewing him.
“He is afraid of public impression, over his actions. If there is no problem between the two, why bother to explain? If there is no problem, you do not have to worry about anything,” Loke told The Malaysian Insider this morning.
PAS vice-president Datuk Mahfuz Omar said Muhyiddin’s failure to stand up for Najib’s 1 Malaysia when Dr Mahathir had criticised it was tantamount to “betrayal.”
“Muhyiddin should have defended 1 Malaysia when Dr Mahathir had criticised it instead of agreeing with the former prime minister. People can see that by supporting Dr Mahathir and not defending Najib, the 1 Malaysia concept has ultimately failed,” Mahfuz told The Malaysian Insider.
A recent public opinion poll by the Merdeka Center found that a majority of non-Bumiputeras in the country considered Najib’s 1 Malaysia slogan a mere political gimmick.
According to the poll, only 39 per cent of non-Bumiputeras accepted the 1 Malaysia concept despite the fact that it had been introduced for over a year.
Forty-six per cent out of 3,141 respondents interviewed felt that 1Malaysia was only a “tactic to win over non-Malay support”, while another 16 per cent had either refused to answer the poll questions or claimed to have no understanding of the concept whatsoever.
Respondents were undecided on whether Malaysia had become more united under the Najib Administration, with 48 per cent saying yes and 43 per cent claiming that the country was still fractured.
Najib has been under fire lately as even veteran BN leaders have come out and openly mocked his 1 Malaysia campaign, in effect branding it an empty cause.
Veteran Umno politician and one time finance minister Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah said recently that the 1 Malaysia slogan was “hollow” and had lacked direction and vision and even compared it to Dr Mahathir’s Vision 2020.
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