Wednesday, 29 January 2014


The Malaysian Insider as usual with all their crap news. Below is the whole statement. They are more keen to spin and lie. No such meet taking place.

Najib to meet supporters tonight to stem party revolt
BY THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER
January 29, 2014

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak will tonight move to head off a campaign in Umno by his critics to build up a groundswell against him that began after the party's general assembly last month.

The Malaysian Insider has learnt that the Umno president will meet division chiefs, opinion makers in the party and his supporters to address criticisms against his leadership by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Tun Daim Zainuddin and other party veterans.

Najib is expected to outline what he believes are motives behind these attacks that have been played out in cyberspace, similar to the campaign that finally unseated Tun Abdullah Badawi in 2009.

Following the closed-door briefing, the Najib loyalists are expected to go down to the ground and spread the PM's message to stay the course and ignore the critics.

The briefing is a sign that Najib and his advisers finally accept that the sustained attacks against him are a serious matter and having an effect on his hold on power.

Najib won the Umno presidency for the second term uncontested and has most of his men in the party's highest decision-making body, the supreme council, but that has not stopped mounting criticisms about his leadership.

But there is no immediate danger of Najib losing his hold on power in the party or Parliament although there has been speculation that his critics want him to resign before the year is out.

Najib's mandate as party president runs until 2016 and the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) has until 2018 before its term expires.

His public silence over the attacks within the party and in cyberspace has been seen as a sign of weakness, akin to Abdullah's "eloquent silence" when the former prime minister was castigated and dubbed as "Slumberjack".

Najib strongman and party secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor have told critics to use party channels to voice their grouses in an apparent swipe at Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir for saying Najib's subsidy cuts would affect BN's support in the next general election.

Mukhriz's father, former prime minister Dr Mahathir, has also not minced his words about BN under Najib, saying the coalition was weak and the government should cut expenses rather than subsidies – running counter to the prime minister's reform agenda.

Daim, the former government economic adviser and finance minister, had also told a closed-door briefing in Merbok Umno 10 days ago that BN could lose the government if elections were held now with current BN policies.

The prime minister has also been the butt of jokes in cyberspace over his remarks that people should be grateful to the government for falling prices instead of just blaming them for price hikes.

Sources within the Prime Minister's Office say Najib's aides have also accused his younger brother, CIMB boss Datuk Seri Nazir Razak, of a "vicious, veiled attack" on his brother in an article to commemorate the death anniversary of their father, former prime minister Tun Abdul Razak Hussein, who died in 1976.

In the article published by The Malaysian Insider and two other media outlets, Nazir praised his father for his integrity and frugal ways and said the country's leaders should return to the path to develop the country.

Najib came to power in April 2009 promising reforms and liberalisation under his 1Malaysia platform, saying that the days of "government knows best" were over.

But his reforms floundered as BN lost more seats in the general election last year and Malaysia's economy slipped in tandem with the gloomy global outlook, forcing Najib to cut subsidies and introduce a consumption tax to keep positive financial ratings.

The subsidy cuts and mandatory minimum wages together with rising living costs come at a time when the prime minister is under attack for his frequent trips abroad.
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