January 9, 2012: The start of the Najib riots

Nawawi Mohamad

It is true. A back-to-the-wall Umno is really mulling the possibility of instigating street riots not just in Kuala Lumpur but in every major city, including Sabah and Sarawak, two key states which they cannot afford to lose to the Pakatan Rakyat led by Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim.

Scare-mongering and stirring up street riots has long been a policy tool for Umno, which has ruled the country since 1957.

In fact, Prime Minister Najib Razak’s father was accused of masterminding the May 13, 1969 racial riots in Kuala Lumpur, which enabled him to seize power and oust the then premier, Tunku Abdul Rahman.

Therefore, it is not surprising that Awang Selamat of the Umno-owned Utusan newspaper has been trying to instigate fear that Anwar’s supporters will riot soon after the Sodomy II verdict is announced on January 9, 2012.

Anwar is widely expected to be found guilty of sodomizing an aide. The charismatic democracy icon has insisted he is innocent, blaming Najib and wife Rosmah Mansor for framing the charges against him to derail the opposition, which is gaining popularity by the day.

Desperate measures for desperate times

The main reason for such a wild plot – reminiscent of the spy and communists threats plus arbitrary arrests and detentions in the runup to the July 9 Bersih rally – is because Najib is feeling very desperate once again.

Umno is preparing for the 13th General Election and it is expecting the worst. And well, it should.

From the day he took over from ex-premier Abdullah Badawi in 2009, Najib – who is also the Umno president – has done everything wrong. After creating havoc for the country and economy, he even managed to start a ‘civil war’ in Umno, where unprecedented infighting is poised to destroy the already weakened party.

To halt the slide, Najib’s advisers have come up with the latest ‘idea’ in a desperate bid to halt the decline – not in the fortunes of the country or his Umno party – but to salvage his own personal political grip.

In developing the plan to riot, Najib would have considered the various pros and cons, scenarios and how riots could help him maintain his position in Umno.

Deflect an internal revolt

First to try and close ranks in Umno since Najib is now facing an imminent revolt from members fed up of his weak leadership and bid to keep all the ‘winnable’ seats for his own men. Yes, he is bound to fail because his motive is not sincere – in that it is not really unity he is trying to forge in Umno but merely to coax members into a false sense of belief that he is doing something for them, when in actual fact, he is only doing something for himself.

The various debacles and corruption revelations have opened the floodgates of discontent in Umno. A pent-up free-for-all grabbing for various posts and goodies is bound to follow as members try to snatch a last slice of the pie for themselves.

Najib is hoping his riots can divert the attention of Umno members, get them to rally around him and provide him with a critically-needed boost for GE-13. This would strengthen his hand and help him to stave off a challenge for the Umno presidency at party polls due to be held shortly after the national elections.

His rivals in Umno including deputy president Muhyiddin Yassin will have no choice but to grin and praise his courage and brilliant tactics, in other words, forced to commit ‘harakiri’ as far as internal Umno politicking is concerned.

Nationally, Malaysia’s image and more importantly – her economy – will take a beating it may never recover from. But that of course is not what Najib nor his wide Rosmah Mansor are concerned about! It is Putrajaya and holding onto the reins of the federal government and the national coffers that count the most.

Counting on Chinese cowardice

Secondly, the Najib riots hope to inculcate fear amongst the rakyat or populace especially amongst the timid-hearted Chinese community. It may seem implausble but there are many Chinese who may vote the Umno-BN for fear their childern’s safety might be threatened.

Short-sighted and stupid this group of Malaysians may seem, but brute force and bullying did help Umno leaders to stay in power and remit more than a trillion ringgit in illicit funds out of the country and into their overseas bank accounts!

Amid physical violence and unrest, Najib’s camp also reckons the rakyat or people would forget about poverty, unemployment, the national debt, corruption, injustice, Rosmah’s overspending on the US$24 million diamond ring, the RM7 billion but useless Scorpene submarines and many other issues.

Umno, and Najib to be specific, have brought nothing fruitful to the people. Everything in Malaysia under Umno, from independence in 1957 until today, is of inferior quality and overpriced – the two key symptoms of massive corruption. So, divert the attention of the rakyat by using the fear factor Najib must, and can be expected to try his best to do so.

Jail as many Pakatan leaders as possible

Thirdly, Umno wants Anwar’s supporters to riot so that they can use the still existing Internal Security Act and the restrictive Peaceful Assembly Bill to put as many opposition members in jail as possible to ensure that Umno-BN has a chance of winning GE-13.

Reprising May 13 in the footsteps of his dad

Fourthly, Najib is just starting to build up the tension and he would not want to start the rioting just yet. In other words, his grand reprisal of the May 13, 1969, street riots which his father, Abdul Razak Hussein, was accused of masterminding, will only start after the results of the GE-13 is known.

Then just like the infamous May 13, Najib may give the tacit order for bloodshed just like his dad is believed to have done in 1969.

In case something goes wrong, to blame Muhyiddin and Dr M

Lastly, should Najib chicken out or if the idea fails to gain traction in Umno, he would have lost nothing but an opportunity to gain the upperhand over his partymates.

Then, Najib could let out the news that Umno was just bluffing. In fact, depending on the public sentiment at that point in time, Najib may even shift back into his dusty and long-forgotten 1Malaysia costume and get his media to spin news that it was the right-wing in Umno led by Muhyiddin and Mahathir Mohamad, who wanted to create a very tense situation just before the GE-13.

However, ‘thanks’ to his interference the plan came to naught, so the news would be spun.

Sad to say, Malaysians aren’t going to believe in him – Mr 1 Malaysia – anymore. He would have already committed political suicide and no amount of oxygen or CPR could revive him.