Najib: 100 Days in office, directions and values?

Najib came into office on 3 April 2009, carrying with him the post-March 8 anti-BN sentiments, a looming economic crisis and a tarnished personal reputation.

On 7 April 2009, his administration received its first slap by losing two by-elections of Bukit Gantang and Bukit Selambau while retaining Batang Ai. There were many who claimed that the status quo was maintained, but a nuanced look at the figures would have told you that the electorates were not giving their endorsement to the Najib administration. In both Bukit Selambau and Bukit Gantang, the Pakatan Rakyat candidates won larger majorities than PR did in the March 8 General Elections. What's more, Nizar's victory in Bukit Gantang was even taken as the silent memorandum to BN that the Perak coup in February 2009 was unacceptable.

Civil liberties
To show commitment in improving civil liberties, one of the first few moves by the new Najib administration was to release the ISA detainees. Recently, there have been talks by the Home Ministry to repeal the ISA.

But how much civil liberty can we really expect from the Najib administration? Or rather, should we expect for more civil liberty from Najib and his team?

The events that ensued in the second month of his administration have had far more etching effects on the general Malaysian public than did the release of ISA detainees and talks on repealing the ISA.

It started off with the launching of 1 Black Malaysia - an act of civil disobedience promoted by political activist Wong Chin Huat of the Bersih (Coalition for Free and Fair Elections), along with a few PR MPs like Tony Pua, Teo Nie Ching and R. Sivarasa. The campaign aimed to show peaceful protest against the Najib administration, as well as to call for fresh elections for the Perak state assembly.

Almost immediately, Chin Huat was arrested under the Sedition Act. His arrest was soon followed by what was termed the darkest day in Malaysian democracy - the Perak state assembly fiasco - which also saw the mass arrest of over a hundred PR supporters. The mass arrest has since been termed Operasi Lallang II.

Since then, not one candlelight vigil or peaceful protest can be held without the fear of police arrest. Even a Facebook group organised peaceful gathering of Black Thursday Kopi O has risked being disrupted once. Arrests can be done so arbitrarily these days, it seems.

Economic liberalisation
On 30 June 2009, Najib announced that the 30% Bumiputra equity requirement when companies seek public listing would be removed, in an attempt to further liberalise the nation's economy. The liberalisation has not only been well-received locally, but has also been widely featured as international headlines.

In Oon and Kian Ming's Realpolitiker podcast, the decision was termed "unpredictably strategic". I, however, am slightly more conservative. True enough, like many other Malaysians, I was pleasantly surprised when the announcement was made, but I stopped short of calling it an "unpredictable" move.

With the 100th day looming ahead, the Najib administration would have been pressured for a more drastic or significant policy to be announced. To expect for political democratisation is almost unthinkable, but to liberalise the economy will be far easier.

Realistically, economic liberalisation alone cannot be the magic bullet to reverse totally the anti-BN sentiments, but it might help to swing the votes of certain community. After all, recall the 1999 General Elections and it was the Chinese business community who helped BN to retain the two-third majority, despite the height of the Reformasi movement which had led to a great swing in Malay votes to the Barisan Alternatif.

While there maybe some Malays who are still a bit apprehensive about Najib's liberalisation acts, the generally more confident Malay community these days is more likely to allow for better acceptance of the liberalisation as compared to decades ago.

Vision 2020 vs 1 Malaysia
Nearly two decades ago, when Dr Mahathir proposed Vision 2020, he laid out a clear vision of a developed Malaysia which would be four times richer in real terms by year 2020. Supplied by the prosperity of the 1990s, it was a structured idea of collective economic development, which had helped to build the Bangsa Malaysia through the concepts of nationalism, regionalism, vision and prosperity, as Khoo Boo Teik has well elaborated in Beyond Mahathir.

When Najib ascended to the position of Prime Minister, he brought along with him idea of 1 Malaysia, which was a concept first introduced to the public through his new website last September. The new PM has claimed that 1 Malaysia will complement the Malaysian journey towards accomplishing Vision 2020.

However, there is a glaring lack of structure and concrete ideas in the concept of 1 Malaysia when compared to the more structured Vision 2020. Also take into consideration the very distinct sociopolitical background of 2009 from that of the 1990s.

Will 1 Malaysia be able to inspire nation building and capture Malaysians' imaganitation, as what Vision 2020 has did?

Directions and values?
In dealing with the issue of Science and Mathematics in English, Najib and his team have demonstrated more decisiveness than did his predecessor. So were his decisions to not compete in the Penanti by-election, to shoot down Dr Mahathir's revival of the third bridge idea and although he did not provide a concrete solution to the annual problem of PSD Scholarships, Najib was quick to come up with the announcement of a new category of "merit scholarships".

While his decisiveness is commendable, Najib will most likely be spending much of his term trying to reverse the anti-BN sentiments since 8 March 2008. He will launch policies based on strategies to win votes, particularly the non-Malay votes. His policies will be short term and will be more inclined to solve the problems at hand, rather than trying to provide long-term guidelines to achieve distant concrete goals. In fact, we are seeing much populism by the Najib administration, with the latest being the '100 day goodie bag'.

By doing so, as political analyst Phoon Wing Keong has so aptly put it, the Najib administration will go as one without any core values or principles of administration.

While Najib may be carrying much political baggage with him, he has a formidable team in UMNO and strong grassroot support. These are two factors which his predecessor very much lacked and these are also two very important factors that can help him to implement long-term reforms. Yet, throughout the last 100 days, I am still seeing very little of his team's potential being actualised.

Against the political landscape of post-March 8 and post-Perak, confronting a PR alternative government that is trying hard to show what are transparency and corruption-free in governance, with a more educated electorate that is slowly learning more about democracy and the potential of people's power, can Najib and his team go far with populism and little core values?