TR EMERITUS

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s incoming prime minister Najib Razak needs to take swift action to reverse declining support for the government that has ruled for 51 years, said former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad.

‘A lot of people are uncertain. Having watched Najib’s performance as deputy (prime minister), he did not shine,’ he told Reuters in an interview yesterday, a week before the United Malays National Organisation, leader of the ruling coalition, holds internal polls.

‘Najib can do well, but we will have to see, because when I asked Abdullah to appoint him as deputy I had a lot of hope for him, but he did not perform the way I expected,’ he added, referring to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Tun Dr Mahathir, prime minister for 22 years until 2003, helped catalyse opposition in Umno against his successor Abdullah, which led him to quit office early.

Datuk Seri Najib will take power at the end of this month. He will have to deal with the worst economic downturn since the Asian financial crisis of 1998 and also rebuild a party tainted by corruption and bruised by last year’s big election losses.

Despite his criticism of Mr Najib, Dr Mahathir praised his action as finance minister in putting together a RM60 billion (S$25 million) spending package to try to offset the looming recession, contrasting it with PM Abdullah’s performance as the previous finance minister.

However, Mr Najib comes with baggage that no other Malaysian leader has had on taking up the prime ministership.

He has been linked on Internet blogs to the murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shariibuu. Although he has denied this and there is no evidence linking him to the killing, he was challenged again in Parliament last week over the issue by an opposition lawmaker.

‘Legally he has cleared his name. But whether people will perceive that he has cleared his name or not is something he cannot decide,’ Dr Mahathir said.

One way that Mr Najib can fight back against negative perceptions is to stamp out corruption in Umno and the 13-party Barisan Nasional coalition, he said.

‘Today the problem with Umno is that people see it as a corrupt party and it has no credibility and they really look down on Umno as being irrelevant,’ said Dr Mahathir. If Umno fails to tackle corruption, it would lose to the opposition and its leader Anwar Ibrahim, he warned.

‘He is not to be trusted. He will do anything to become prime minister,’ he said of Datuk Seri Anwar.

Source: Straits Times

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