Street protest, no-confidence vote can’t unseat Najib, says ex-editor

Veteran journalist Datuk A. Kadir Jasin last night said he believed Datuk Seri Najib Razak will remain in power till the next general election, and that neither street rallies nor attempts to hold a vote of no confidence against him would force the prime minister out of office. The former group editor-in-chief of the News Straits Times said he was pessimistic because Malaysia was in a situation where the prime minister did not need the people's support. “If our purpose this weekend is to overthrow Najib, it will not happen. Street protest will not change Najib because if he wants to resign, he would have done so,” Kadir said in reference to the two-day Bersih 4 rally in Kuala Lumpur, which will also be held in Kuching and Kota Kinabalu. “He does not need 30,000, 40,000, 50,000 or 100,000 people at a Bersih gathering. He does not need us. "He does not need a no-confidence vote because I think whatever happens within this five or six months will not make Najib resign," Kadir told the forum “Protes Rakyat atau Dewan Rakyat” (People's Protest or Dewan Rakyat), organised by news portal Malaysiakini in Petaling Jaya last night. He said Najib was clinging to power to avoid other consequences if he stepped down, and was able to do so because he had built an exclusive circle around him. "He will remain as the prime minister until the next general election because he knows if he were to go now, he will face many problems. It's better to hold on to whatever little power that he has now rather than not having any,” said Kadir. "He is also a person who is very exclusive with the group of people around him," he added. The government is also adopting a siege mentality, he said, causing it to become more exclusive. "Wisdom would tell you that if the economy is crashing, you retreat like the previous prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman, who resigned after the May 13, 1969 incident happened. But then we are facing a leader who is unconventional. "This is why I said no street protest or no-confidence vote in the Dewan Rakyat will unseat Najib,” Kadir said. He added that anyone who had a "right mind" would have stepped down after being "continuously undermined and insulted". Others who spoke at the forum last night were former deputy minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah, Centre for a Better Tomorrow chief Gan Ping Sieu, and Bersih 4 rally organiser Maria Chin Abdullah, who heads electoral reforms coalition Bersih 2.0. The rally will begin at 2pm this Saturday and is expected to last 34 hours, to demand institutional reforms, measures to save the economy, the right to protest and corruption-free and clean government. Maria has likened the rally to a public vote of no-confidence against Najib, who is under pressure over alleged financial scandals involving his brainchild 1Malaysia Development Bhd and the RM2.6 billion "donation" in his personal bank accounts. The prime minister has also been accused of a cover-up in several moves made against agencies investigating 1MDB and the transfer of funds. – August 27, 2015.