Enter Najib, Man of the Hour

PERDANA LIBRARY PERDANA LEADERSHIP FOUNDATION NEWSPAPER CLIPPING Newspaper New Straits Times Date 3/4/2011 Enter Najib, man of the hour • By Kamrul Idris a hero and saviour. He left few mementos. But ll of Malaysia's prime the image of the man in heavy ministers step into office spectacles, bush jacket and Aat fateful moments in the walking stick, tramping the newly nation's life. cleared hectares of a Felda Perhaps no other leader settlement, with miles to go before appeared at a more pivotal he slept, has stayed in the national historical juncture than Tun Abdul subconscious. Razak Hussein, who took over His death just before his 54th from the father of Independence, birthday in 1976 left a name Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra, when and an incomplete legacy that the country stood on the precipice beckoned to be carried on. of destruction following the May In the grand sweep of things, 1969 general election. there was never any doubt that In a little over five years as that greatness would be thrust premier, Razak brought the broken upon his eldest son, Datuk Seri polity back together, redefining Najib Razak. Malaysia from the ground up — Announcing his retirement as in the Rukunegara, the Barisan prime minister last October, Datuk Nasional, New Economic Policy, Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi the second Five-Year Plan and a hinted at the logic of a succession raft of social engineering projects. rich in symbolism. "I am the last At the fork in the road before of the Tun Razak generation. it, he made the right turn towards After this there will be no more. nation-building, swerving the Razak's son will lead the new country away from the failed- government." statehood faced by most of its The parallel is more than contemporaries in the post- hereditary. Both ascended colonial world. unexpectedly from predecessors Datuk Seri Najib Razak unveiling a picture of his parents at the launch of the Road to Nationhood: Unity Razak remains the least who, relenting to internal Amidst Diversity' exhibition in Kuala Lumpur. questioned of Malaysia's stewards, pressure, had graciously made an aristocratic avatar of duty, way. Both were bequeathed the looked less likely to be met. it not be said that Najib qualifies portfolios that father and son will loyalty, selflessness and hard work. top job in an hour of need. The notion, indeed ideology, of as the fixer of Umno and the BN's be most keenly compared. Malaysia is today nearly as wealth redistribution through an fortunes by pedigree alone. Razak was an architect of divided as it was in 1969, perhaps expanding "economic cake" is He has earned his political change, and part of the tiny more so in the class faultlines being undermined by a vertiginous stripes, winning his father's coterie of statesmen that that cracked open in the March 8, global recession whose bottom has parliamentary seat of Pekan pulled the country through 2008 general election. The house not yet been found. without contest at the age of its most radical alterations of that Razak built is creaking under Najib also heads a government 22 five weeks after Razak died, all — from colonial subjection the weight of the extra storeys without a two-thirds majority in becoming menteri besar of Pahang to independence in 1957, and piled upon it, its foundations too Parliament for the first time since and then joining the federal from independence to sovereign slight for the massive expectations 1969. BN's "big tent" is tattered Cabinet at 32. sustainability in the long slog that have accrued over a and Umno is struggling to reinvent Najib's ministerial experience afterwards. generation. itself from the caricature it has is unmatched in its length and Although the historical contexts It won't be a joyride for sunk into since its worst electoral breadth — a key job specification differ, not a lot less is expected of the scion. Najib inherits his outing a year ago. in a crisis, from which salvation Najib. And he knows it. father's mantle at a time when As destined as he may be to depends on exercising the engine "Change" was mentioned at those expectations have never follow in his father's footsteps, let of government to the fullest. least 18 times in his deputy He did not struggle when president's speech at the Umno thrown into the deep end, Youth, Wanita and Puteri annual contriving two stimulus packages conferences on March 24. in his first few months as finance Najib might not have all the minister, which combined into the answers yet but, as the change biggest economic rescue operation agent the new party president in the nation's history. and prime minister is very Only marginally ahead of his likely to be, he recognises all son. Razak was an old hand at the problems with clear-sighted politics and government by his candour. mid-30s, putting his stamp among Whatever the carping and others on an education report and calumnious opposition may say, a "Red Book" in rural development he is the best person for the that remain policy templates to transformational task he has this day. He was the Tunku's able taken upon himself to accomplish. deputy for a dozen intense years. Najib is, after all, his father's But it will not be in cabinet heir. .

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