Knives are out for Abdullah’s boys

Knives are out for Abdullah’s boys PDF Print E-mail
Posted by Raja Petra
Thursday, 13 March 2008

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For members of the fourth floor – Datuk Ahmad Zaki Zahid, Datuk Vincent Lim, Datuk Kamal Khalid and others – this is the latest instalment of an attack that began more than two years ago when politicians and Tun Mahathir Mohamad accused them of having too much influence on the PM.

His young advisers at receiving end of blame game



The knives are out – and they are being aimed at Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s circle of young advisers.

Gerakan’s Dr Lim Keng Yaik is blaming Abdullah’s political secretary for Chinese affairs for not reading the tea leaves correctly, and for interfering in the party’s election strategy in Penang. Wanita Umno chief Datuk Rafidah Aziz thrashed the head of his policy unit during the Umno Supreme Council meeting this week, and suggested that the PM should listen more to people like her than his advisers.

And on Tuesday night, a collection of the heads of government-linked companies led by UEM’s Datuk Ahmad Pardas Senin rounded on the performance of the advisers, known as the fourth floor, suggesting that they should take the fall for Barisan Nasional’s election results.

Yes, the blame game is alive and thriving in government circles today. It shows how a frustrated BN is lashing out in all directions in search of scapegoats. It is also a sign of why some BN component parties like Umno and Gerakan will have a gargantuan task reforming itself – they are unable to look themselves in the mirror and make an honest assessment of what they see, political parties which were rejected by Malaysians because they did not represent the hope and aspirations of the country.

But more than anything else, it shows the propensity of Malaysians to still blame those around Abdullah for all his mistakes and not hold the PM accountable for squandering a strong mandate in 2004 with indecision.

For members of the fourth floor – Datuk Ahmad Zaki Zahid, Datuk Vincent Lim, Datuk Kamal Khalid and others – this is the latest instalment of an attack that began more than two years ago when politicians and Tun Mahathir Mohamad accused them of having too much influence on the PM.

Graduates of good schools in the United Kingdom, they were portrayed as all powerful, having the ear of the PM and the architects behind policies that were unpopular in Umno.

Their critics slayed them for being inexperienced. Now Gerakan, Rafidah and others are saying that their inexperience led them to craft the wrong election strategy for the PM, and completely misread the mood on the ground.

Perhaps this is a diversionary tactic for Lim Keng Yaik – an easier option than having to explain why his party was deemed irrelevant by the people of Penang or why the DAP had more votes than those for MCA and Gerakan. He is seething that the PM’s Office tried to push Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon to name a Chief Minister before March 8, arguing that this was interference by Vincent Lim in the internal affairs of the party and sowed the seeds for Gerakan’s annihilation. He has a right to be sore about the interference but perhaps he did not read the mood in Han Chiang stadium that glorious night when 30,000 people turned up to listen to Lim Guan Eng and his gang. His party had become irrelevant to the voters of Penang.

For Rafidah, her attack on Abdullah’s advisers smells like an updated version of “better attack before being attacked’’. Umno strategists are wondering what went wrong with the vaunted Wanita Umno machinery that predicted that BN would sweep 196 parliamentary seats days before the polls. How could their reading of the Malay ground be so way off the mark? She knows that her time in government is drawing near but is making one last effort to stay in power. She is drawing up a dossier on the reasons for BN election failure and top of that list should be the simple fact that even Malay voters, especially those in urban areas, have only revulsion for the antics of Umno politicians, including their wanton flaunting of wealth. These voters are upset that Abdullah promised change but delivered very little of it.

It is not difficult to see why GLCs are uneasy with the new political landscape. They thrived in the old environment, where all the plum government contracts were handed to them even though their ability paled in comparison with their competitors in the private sector. UEM, MRCB and UDA dominate the infrastructure sector while Telekom Malaysia and others occupy privileged positions in other fields. The rumbling about how they are crowding out other businesses and their preferential treatment has been growing louder and louder.

The GLCs know that their days of milking the gravy train are drawing to a close now that five states are under the Opposition and the BN does not have an overwhelming dominance in Parliament. They know that they are going to come under much scrutiny all over the country, and some of them are going to come up short. For example, it is an open secret that UEM’s Penang second bridge is behind schedule and that there could be cost issues.

Perhaps that explains why Ahmad Pardas was one of the louder voices at a dinner on Tuesday night attended by Khazanah Nasional’s Azman Mokhtar, MRCB’s Shahril Ridzuan, CIMB’s Nazir Razak and other GLC heads. He knows that the days of not delivering and still getting a steady flow of contracts from the government are over.

But like the BN, even the GLCs are delusional. Sitting around the table, they offered each other as potential Cabinet ministers. Not accepting the fact that they too were part of the landscape that was rejected by many Malaysians. - THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER