Najib’s first 100 days – long on form, short on substance
Authors: Siaan Ansori and Gregore Lopez, ANU
Malaysia’s new Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’ s first 100 days have been similar to the first 100 days of his predecessors—long on form, short on substance. His policies thus far do not address the root causes of Malaysian problems and continue to reflect patronage, religion and race-based politics with the overarching ideology of ‘Ketuanan Melayu (Malay supremacy)’ firmly entrenched.
Najib, who took office on April 3, came to power in at the worst of times. Real GDP contracted by 6.2 per cent (year on year) in the first quarter of 2009, Malaysia’s worst performance since the fourth quarter of 1998, when the economy shrank by 11.2 per cent during the height of the Asian financial crisis. 2008 also saw the weakest growth in six years and there is no sign of improvement for 2009, confirming the long term trends that Malaysia is fast losing its competitiveness. Najib also came in as the most unpopular Prime Minister in Malaysian history.