Red-hot talk Najib to announce dissolution of Parliament on Wed

More speculation about when Malaysia's 13th general election will be held is again snaking its way around the political arena. Tedious and annoying the guessing game might have become, nevertheless it would not do for political aficionados and participants to be caught off guard. And the latest from the Umno grapevine is that Prime Minister Najib Razak will announce the dissolution of Parliament tomorrow, Wednesday, March 3.

According to some Umno watchers, this is why Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin had hinted that GE13 would be held before the end of April. Yet others say it was Muhyiddin who had given Najib a "stark ultimatum", as to have Parliament undergo automatic dissolution on April 28 was too much humble pie for the party elders to swallow.

Given the state of flux caused by red-hot infighting within Umno, it is hard to tell who is telling the truth and who is not.

But Malaysians by and large will be most relieved to have GE13 held sooner rather than later. If Najib wanted to, he could actually delay elections until June as the Election Commission has two months after Parliament's expiry at the end of April 28 to conduct a nationwide poll.

"That is something we cannot discount. It would be really horrendous to keep waiting. Everyone is ready and primed, they just want to vote," the Umno watcher told Malaysia Chronicle.

Lagging behind the Opposition

If the latest rumor turns out to be true, Najib would have to really work fast. His Umno-BN coalition has not even released a manifesto, while the Pakatan Rakyat led by Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim has already launched theirs - complete with official website too!

The PR parties of PKR, PAS and DAP have also begun releasing the names of their candidates, while Najib has yet to name a chief minister-in-waiting for the Selangor state that he has proclaimed an all-out war to recapture.

His shock decision to let the Negri Sembilan state assembly dissolve automatically has created larger ripples than he and his advisers care to admit. Umno members are not only confused, but sheepish and outright embarrassed at his inertia.

Nationwide joke

This has given room for the Opposition to launch direct hits, and as a gauge of how far down the line Najib's dilly-dallying has travelled, even in ceramah or small political rallies held in the kampungs or villages, his indecisiveness has become a key topic, often greeted and discussed with jeers and derision.

"Each day that passes, each moment will take us closer to the inevitable day/ Compared with the previous 5 prime ministers, PM Najib has taken longest time to dissolve Parliament. All his predecessors did it in less than 5 years. If we make a rudimentary analysis, this shows there is weakness in Umno. If it is really strong, it would have dissolved Parliament long ago," Ustaz Rahim Nasir, a PAS grassroots leader, told a ceramah in Taman Melati, Setapak on Sunday night.

"But let us be patient and not get side-tracked because the day will surely come. Some say the announcement will be made on Wednesday at 11am but I don't believe. They have taken us in too many times."



Malaysia Chronicle