Dr M: Muhyiddin can beat Najib for No 2

Should Muhyiddin Yassin challenge Umno deputy president Najib Razak, the senior vice-president can win the contest, said former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad today.

“People perceive Najib as a weak leader who has never had his own stand. He merely has been repeating ‘I support, I support. I’m very touch’,” said Mahathir while opening the party office of the Malaysian Indian Muslim Congress (Kimma) in Sentul.

In a broadside against Najib, the former Umno strongman ticked off the deputy premier for failing to project the “people’s vision”.

“People are generally disenchanted with Najib. So it is possible that (Prime Minister) Abdullah (Ahmad Badawi) may not be able to manipulate the general assembly to grant a victory to Najib.”

Both Abdullah and Najib have been endorsed by Umno leaders in six states so far to defend their party’s No 1 and No 2 posts respectively.

“If he (Najib) compete for deputy president, he would have compete again Muhyiddin. And it is quite possible that Muhyiddin will win and Najib will lose,” said Mahathir.

He said that by tradition, only deputy president can be deputy PM. Thus, should Muhyiddin is able to win the party No 2 post, he should be appointed DPM.

“Therefore, when the time comes for the PM to divest his interest in the government, Najib would not in a position to receive this award.”

Mahathir who had once supported Najib to be Abdullah’s successor appeared to now backing Muhyiddin.

It is still not clear whether Muhyiddin will be game enough to challenge Najib, but the senior vice-president has been left out in the cold after Abdullah announced last week that he would hand over power to Najib in two years’ time.