Malaysia's Najib named deputy prime minister

Producer: Bharati Jagdish
First broadcast: 7 January 04, Radio Singapore International

After months of speculation, Malaysia's Defence Minister, Najib Razak has filled the key post of Deputy Prime Minister in the fledgling administration of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

The appointment puts Malaysia one step closer to general elections that Abdullah is expected to call within months.

Najib's appointment answers one of the biggest questions left open since Prime Minister Abdullah took over from longtime Malaysian leader, Mahathir Mohamad.

Najib, a British-trained economist and the son of a former prime minister, had been the front-runner to become Deputy Prime Minister since last year after Mahathir endorsed him for the post.

The most likely alternative was Muhyiddin Yassin, currently the Domestic Trade Minister and, like Najib, an UMNO vice-president with powerful sway within the party.

For more on this, Bharati Jagdish (BJ) spoke to Professor Shamsul Amri (SA) from the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

SA: "Abdullah decided that the most important thing is not so much whether it's Najib or anybody else. He wants to have his say, he wants to establish his own patterns of work and organisation and his own emphasis on issues. Only then would he decide on who his deputy would be. Now he has decided on his deputy and this means that the deputy must also now break away from Mahathir's mould and become a deputy according to what Abdullah wants and not according to what he imagines a deputy should be under Mahathir. Abdullah, after having operated as a full-time Prime Minister for two months now, has been able to see the function of Najib and the function of Muhyiddin separately."

BJ: What strengths would Najib Razak bring to the Malaysian administration?

SA: "Well, he has had experience in some of the major ministries. He has been Minister of Agriculture, of Education, of Defence. These are all front-line ministries. His strength is therefore domestic in many ways. Internationally, he was never a foreign minister, but he has been giving lectures all over the world in various capacities. He is involved in the Malaysian Centre for Strategic Studies and Research which is a private organisation which has been almost his research wing for many years now, for the last ten or fifteen years now. In spite of his domestic orientation, he has an international outlook too."

BJ: Elections are likely to be called soon. How do you expect the strategy of the Abdullah-Najib partnership to evolve?

SA: "I think the most important thing is how to win back the Malay votes. The Malay votes have gone to PAS (Parti Islam Se-Malaysia), so now they have to get back the votes that are now with PAS. This is the key issue. Probably, Najib could become "baggage" in this case because in the religious arena, Najib has a lack of credentials. But Abdullah feels that Najib would be useful in terms of Malaysia's international outlook because he has been educated in England and he has been internationally known for various reasons. It is important that both of them focus on Malay votes, but I think Najib will end up looking after the interests in Barisan Nasional and Abdullah will end up looking after the Malay votes, so it will be a two-pronged attack and I think they will be able to complement each other."

BJ: Now, in the last election in 1999, Najib had merely scraped through with a slim majority of votes in his Pekan constituency. That would indicate that his popularity was diminished then. Have things changed?

SA: "People think that it will be a tough fight for him again. Local politics have got nothing to do with national politics sometimes and a lot of these candidates nearly lost because peoples' votes were based on individual personalities rather than for the political party they represent. So obviously, Najib was not the person they wanted. Pekan is a heavily Malay area and the PAS candidate there is working very hard, so Najib is likely to have a tough fight on his hands in Pekan."

BJ: Now, let's talk about the other cabinet changes. Muhyiddin, who was said to be the second choice for Deputy Prime Minister, has been appointed Agriculture Minister replacing Mohd Effendi. How strategic was this move? Agriculture does play a major role in domestic politics, doesn't it?

SA: "It is very significant that Muhyiddin is going to the Agriculture Ministry. Abdullah's main concern now is to look after the rural voters in the rural areas, so having a man of Muhyiddin's strength is very important because he has proven to be very combative. You can't have a Sarawak person there which is what Effendi is. PAS is very strong in the hard-core agricultural areas - Kelantan, Kedah and Terengganu. The choice for the Agricultural Ministry is very important because that's where the voters of the opposition are. They have to uplift the economic standards of these people who still feel that they are very backward and end up voting for the opposition"

BJ: Just one last thing, the 64-million-dollar question. How soon do you think elections are going to be held?

SA: "A lot of people think it's going to be held in March because right now, people are in the Haj mood and that's happening on February 2nd. After that, you need at least two weeks of campaigning. So give or take a little, it would have to be March."