Najib sworn in as Malaysia's new prime minister

·Badawi Friday afternoon officially handed over power to new PM Najib Tun Razak.
·The transfer of power ceremony was held at the fifth floor of the Prime Minister's office.
·Najib was earlier sworn-in as the sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur.

KUALA LUMPUR, April 3 (Xinhua) -- Outgoing Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi Friday afternoon officially handed over the leadership of the Federal Government to new Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak.

The transfer of power ceremony was held at the fifth floor of the Prime Minister's office in Putrajaya, the administrative center of Malaysia.

Malaysian outgoing Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and his wife attend the swearing in ceremony of Najib Tun Razak as Malaysia's new prime minister held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in this image from Malaysia TV1, April 3, 2009. Malaysia's new prime minister Najib, wearing a black traditional costume, was sworn in by Malaysia's Supreme Head Mizan Zainal Abidin at Istana Negara (National Palace) in Kuala Lumpur in a solemn ceremony on Friday.(Xinhua/Chong Voon Chung)

Najib, 55, was earlier sworn-in as the sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia before Supreme Head Mizan Zainal Abidin Istana Negara (National Palace) in Kuala Lumpur.

At the ceremony, Badawi handed over the blue desk file to signify the transfer of responsibilities of the high office to Najib in the presence of Chief Secretary to the Government Mohd Sidek Hassan.

Najib succeeded Badawi as the president of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the leading ruling party in the country, at the party general assembly last week.

Malaysian new Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak leaves the Istana Negara after the swearing in ceremony in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, April 3. 2009. Malaysia's new prime minister Najib, wearing a black traditional costume, was sworn in by Malaysia's Supreme Head Mizan Zainal Abidin at Istana Negara (National Palace) in Kuala Lumpur in a solemn ceremony on Friday.

Najib was born in Kuala Lipis, central Pahang state, on July 23, 1953.

Najib entered Parliament at the age of 22 in 1976 upon the death of his father, Abdul Razak Hussein, who was Malaysia's second Prime Minister.

His appointment is most significant in Malaysia's history in that this is the first time that a prime minister's son is holding the post.

He became the country's youngest deputy minister in 1978 when he was made Deputy Minister of Energy, Telecommunications and Post. He became Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports in 1986.

Other cabinet posts held by Najib were as the Education Minister from 1995 to 1999 and the defense portfolio twice. In 1993, he was elected an UMNO vice-president when he obtained 1,202votes.

He is an economics graduate of the University of Nottingham, Britain.

KUALA LUMPUR, April 3 (Xinhua) -- Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak was sworn in here on Friday as Malaysia's new prime minister.

Najib, wearing a black traditional costume, was sworn in by Malaysia's Supreme Head Mizan Zainal Abidin at Istana Negara (National Palace) in Kuala Lumpur in a solemn ceremony, local TV footage showed. Full story

Malaysian Supreme Head consents to Najib's appointment

KUALA LUMPUR, April 2 (Xinhua) -- Malaysian Supreme Head Mizan Zainal Abidin has consented to the appointment of Najib Tun Razak as the sixth prime minister of Malaysia, Chief Secretary to the Government Mohd Sidek Hassan said in a statement on Thursday.

Najib would be presented his letter of appointment as prime minister and would take his oath of office, loyalty and confidentiality before Supreme Head at Istana Negara (National Palace) at 10 a.m. local time Friday, the statement said.

Mahathir re-joins UMNO

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's former premier Mahathir Mohamad on Saturday rejoined the ruling UMNO party which he quit last year and immediately pledged to strengthen the beleaguered party.

Mahathir left the party after falling out with his successor Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who was replaced by Najib Razak on Friday as the new prime minister.

Mahathir, who spent more than two decades in power, had hand-picked Abdullah to replace him in 2003 but was enraged by Abdullah's decision to dismantle several of his pet projects.

"The image of UMNO has suffered in the last few years," Mahathir told reporters after handing over party membership forms to Najib, together with his wife Siti Hasmah and son Mokhzani Mahathir.

"The first thing is to clean the image of UMNO," he added.

Mahathir said he hoped his return would spur other former members to rejoin the party.

"I hope many other ex-UMNO members will return to the party. I am prepared to help UMNO regain the people's trust," he said.

UMNO, or the United Malays National Organisation, is the dominant political party in the country and leads the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition.

Mahathir last week endorsed a landmark speech by Najib in which he outlined radical reforms to UMNO following humiliating elections last year, when the opposition claimed five of the 13 states and a third of seats in parliament.

For a start, Mahathir said he would help campaign in two by-elections -- in Perak and Kedah -- to be held on Tuesday and which the opposition has expressed confidence in winning.

A third by-election will be held on the same day in the eastern Sarawak state of Batang Ai.

Mahathir defended his attack on the party leadership under Abdullah.

"I criticise UMNO because my criticism is to build UMNO ... not to destroy UMNO," he said.

Najib said Mahathir's return would help rejuvenate the party.

"Mahathir's return will revive the party and strengthen the Barisan Nasional," he said.

Najib takes office at a time when the economy is in dire straits and with minorities deserting the ruling coalition as demonstrated in the 2008 elections.

- AFP/yt

Dr M to rejoin Umno when Pak Lah steps down

Dr M to rejoin Umno when Pak Lah steps down
By Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani
KUALA LUMPUR, March 28 — Despite saying that he would not come to the Umno General Assembly because of rampant money politics in the party elections, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today surprised Umno delegates by making an appearance and announcing that he would be rejoining the party.

“I came because Muhyiddin convinced me that there will be changes,” he said. Dr Mahathir also said he came to congratulate new party president Datuk Seri Najib Razak on his excellent speech.

When asked when he would be rejoining the party, he responded: “Later, have to fill in the forms. Lambat lagi. I will rejoin Umno. I will tell you later.”

Dr Mahathir also denied that he would be given an advisory role in Najib’ s new administration and told reporters that he was unhappy with party's new line-up.

"It is not very satisfying because too much money has been spent," he said.

Yesterday Dr. Mahathir wrote in his blog accusing Umno Youth of being corrupted in choosing Khairy as their leader.

When his son Datuk Mukriz was later asked about the father’s return to Umno, he replied: “Once Najib takes over, he will fill in the application form.”

Meanwhile, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi will seek an audience with the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to submit his resignation as Prime Minister on April 2.

Najib ‘did not shine’ — Dr M

KUALA LUMPUR, March 17 — Malaysia’s incoming prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak needs to take swift action to reverse declining support for the government that has ruled for 51 years, influential ex-prime minister Tun Mahathir Mohamad told Reuters.

Mahathir was prime minister of this Southeast Asian country for 22 years until 2003, and his attacks on his successor Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi helped catalyse opposition to Abdullah in the main ruling party which led to him quitting office early.

Najib will take power at the end of March and will have to deal with the worst economic downturn since the Asian financial crisis of 1998 as well as rebuilding a party tainted with corruption and still bruised by last year’s big election losses.

“A lot of people are uncertain. Having watched Najib’s performance as deputy (prime minister), he did not shine,” Mahathir said a week before the United Malays National Organisation (Umno), the main party in the ruling coalition, holds internal polls.

“Najib can do well, but we will have to see, because when I asked Abdullah to appoint him as deputy I had a lot of hope for him, but he did not perform the way I expected,” Mahathir said today.

Najib is standing unopposed to be Umno president, a post that traditionally carries with it the premiership, but there are tough battles for the deputy presidency and other top posts.

Mahathir did praise Najib’s action as finance minister in putting together a 60 billion ringgit package of spending to try to offset the looming recession, contrasting it with Abdullah’s performance as the previous finance minister.

However, Najib does arrive with the kind of baggage that no other Malaysian leader had on entering office.

He has been linked on the internet blogs to a brutal murder of a Mongolian model, Altantuya Shariibuu. Although he has firmly denied involvement and there is no evidence to tie him to the death, he was challenged again in parliament last week over the issue by an opposition lawmaker.

His popularity rating stands at just 41 per cent, according to a recent poll by independent pollster the Merdeka Centre, and that is less than the 46 per cent enjoyed by Abdullah.

“Legally he has cleared his name (over Altantuya). But whether people will perceive that he has cleared his name or not is something he cannot decide,” Mahathir said.

One of the ways that Najib can fight back against negative perceptions is to stamp out corruption in Umno and the 13-party National Front coalition, Mahathir said.

“Today the problem with Umno is that people see it as a corrupt party and it has no credibility and they really look down on Umno as being irrelevant.”

If Umno fails to tackle corruption, Mahathir warned that it would lose power to the opposition and its leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

Anwar was Mahathir’s chosen successor until he was sacked as deputy prime minister and convicted on what he says were trumped up sodomy and corruption charges at the end of the 1990s.

Anwar faces new sodomy charges in court that could see him jailed for 20 years, ending his political career.

“He (Anwar) is not to be trusted. He will do anything to become prime minister,” Mahathir said.

“During the time when he was my deputy, he was involved in cronyism. He supported a lot of his own people, they became very rich, because he gave contracts to them,” the former prime minister said. — Reuters

Bombing of Singapore - Mahathir suggested

Institute of Economic and Political Studies (Ikape)
Current Issues in Malaysian Politics
December 2005

I want to tell you, we had wanted to buy Russian MiGs (fighter planes). You know Russians, they are very inferior. Somehow or other, it was wangled without my knowledge, that part of the money (only to be used to purchase MiGs was also used) to buy (the American made) F-18 (planes). The very good American aircraft costs twice as much as the MiGs. And then, we acquired eight F-18s and 18 MiGs. MiGs are sold to us without any condition. If we feel like bombing Singapore, for example, the Russians are not going to object. Any Singaporeans here? Or ex-Singaporeans?

But this great aircraft called F-18 which we bought from America, after buying it, after several months, I got to know that these aircraft cannot be used for any attacks against any country even if it is not Singapore, because the Americans sold the aircraft, but the source code is kept by them. So you cannot plan anything, you cannot fly them to carry out any bombing attacks against anybody but you have this wonderful aircraft which you can see at Lima (the Langkawi International Maritime and Aviation Exhibition). So, we spent this huge sum of money and they actually negotiated and agreed to these terms.

So that's why I say we are not very good at negotiating.

* New Straits Times editor-in-chief Abdullah Ahmad aka Dollah Kok Lanas Lee Kuan Yew Goh Chok Tong Lee Hsien Loong Abdullah Badawi Najib Tun Razak Johor Johore USA Boeing

Mahathir continues his attack on Pak Lah

Former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad continues his attack on Pak Lah and the government.

At the MYKMU.net organised forum, Mahathir claimed that Umno members live in fear and this contributed to the party's poor performance at the recently concluded 12th general election.

Mahathir Quits UMNO

Mahathir criticised by PM Pak Lah