Najib Razak has been sworn in as Malaysia’s Prime Minister for a second term but opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim refuses to accept May 5’s result, saying the election was stolen by government parties.

    Malaysian Prime Minister hindered by slim win

    NAJIB RAZAK was sworn in as Malaysia’s prime minister Monday for a second time, a day after his ruling coalition, one of the world’s longest-serving, swept to power in general elections slammed as “fraudulent” by the opposition. Najib, 59, took the oath before King Tuanku Abdul Halim Mu’adzam Shah at Istana Negara palace, urging all Malaysians to accept his coalition’s victory.

    “We have to show to the world that we are a mature democracy. Despite the extent of the swing against us, we did not fall,” he said in a nationally televised news conference. Barisan Nasional (BN) won the general elections May 5 by a simple majority of 133 parliamentary seats, two less than the seats it held before, to opposition alliances’ 89 in the 222-seat Parliament. May 5’s vote saw a record turnout of 80 percent.

    “It’s been a long and hard-fought election. Now it’s time to move toward national reconciliation,” he tweeted. “This election was true, fair and transparent. I hope the opposition accepts the result with an open heart.”

    Bringing people together after the general election will be one of the main tasks of Najib.

    “My next task is to harmonize the racial makeup of Malaysia,” he said in an interview Tuesday.

    Najib said he would also focus on a multi-billion-dollar modernization program because “expanding the size and scope of the country’s economy would help draw support back to Barisan Nasional.”

    Najib said he now aimed to push through a US$444 billion plan to boost consumer spending and make the nation more competitive against countries like South Korea and Singapore.

    “There are those who will expect a bit more because they voted for you but you still have to keep things in balance,” said Najib.

    The ruling coalition won the election to continue its uninterrupted 56-year rule, brushing aside the challenge posed by the three-party opposition alliance led by Anwar Ibrahim. Anwar, 65, a former deputy prime minister, said in a statement that he would not accept the result because it was marred by “unprecedented” electoral fraud.

    Anwar said the Election Commission must answer to the allegations of electoral fraud. “My decision stands. I do not think it is fair to expect me to make a decision primarily based on an election that we consider fraudulent,” Anwar said. He called for a rally in the capital Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.

    Calling the commission a failure, Anwar, who retained his Permatang Pauh parliamentary seat, said he suspected something was amiss with the early voting and postal voting process. “The ballots were overwhelmingly in support of Barisan National, which is not the norm with the current voting pattern,” he alleged.

    A petition has been started at the White House’s website, asking for America’s help “to ensure the election can be conducted in clean and fair manners.”

    Its authors allege that foreign workers were brought from Bangladesh to vote in Malaysia’s general election.

    According to the White House website, the petition has been signed more than 160,000 times since it was created.

    Accused by the opposition, Najib now faces a difficult task persuading his dominant United Malays National Organization (UMNO) to press ahead with economic reforms and phase out policies favoring majority ethnic Malays over other races.

    Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, still a powerful figure in UMNO, told reporters last year that Najib must improve on the 140 seats won in 2008 or his position would be unstable.

    Ethnic Chinese, who make up a quarter of Malaysians, continued to desert Barisan Nasional, accelerating a trend seen in 2008. They have turned to the opposition, attracted by its pledge to tackle corruption and end race-based policies, undermining the Barisan Nasional’s traditional claim to represent all races in the nation of 28 million people.

    MCA, the main ethnic Chinese party within the ruling coalition, only won seven seats, less than half its 2008 total.

    Najib, the son of a former prime minister, said he had been taken by surprise by the extent of what he called a “Chinese tsunami.” Alarmingly for Najib, support from ethnic Malays also weakened, particularly in urban areas, a sign that middle-class Malays are agitating for change.

    Najib, who polls show is more popular than his party, could face a leadership challenge as early as October or November, when UMNO members hold a general assembly and elect the party leader.

    “In the next round of elections within UMNO, you will see some dissidents emerging and asking for Najib to resign,” said a senior official in UMNO, who has held Cabinet positions in government. He said Mahathir would be among those who back the dissidents.

    Despite of the outcry, Former Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi says his successor is still the best person to continue leading the country after the general election.

    Abdullah said he was giving Najib his full support and hoped the latter would continue with his agenda for transformation.

    “Malaysians have sent a clear message that they want change and Najib must respond to this by intensifying his transformation program to address issues such as corruption, crime and the cost of living.

    “I believe he has the right strategies in place to demonstrate improvement in these areas,” Abdullah said in a statement yesterday.

    Najib, the son of a Malaysian founding father, hails from the Muslim-majority nation’s revered ethnic Malay nobility, and has served three decades in UMNO.

    His father was Razak Hussein, Malaysia’s second prime minister and a key figure in securing independence from Britain in 1957.

    Najib studied economics in England and in 1976 at age 23 won the parliamentary seat made vacant by his father’s death.

    He later took high positions at Malaysia’s central bank, the state oil firm and in the Cabinet, including the defense portfolio.

    Najib has moved to water down policies that give Malays advantages in business and education but which irk minorities, and claims to have shielded the economy from the global woes with huge public spending and cash handouts to citizens.

    He has been linked to allegations of huge kickbacks in a 2002 purchase of French submarines while defense minister, a case later connected to the gruesome 2006 murder of a beautiful Mongolian woman involved in the deal.

    Najib denies wrongdoing, but the episode — one of a litany of UMNO graft scandals — has never been fully explained, and an ongoing probe by French justices threatens to revive it.

    Najib’s wife Rosmah Mansor is also widely seen as a liability, ridiculed for an imperious demeanor, a reputation for meddling in Najib’s work, and allegations of high-ticket overseas shopping forays, which she denies.(SD-Agencies)