Najib has got himself a formidable team

What started out as a potentially disastrous party election for Najib Abdul Razak - the incoming Umno president and most probably the 6th prime minister of Malaysia - has ended on a positive note.

After the surprise election of Khairy Jamaluddin to the position of Umno Youth chief, apparently against Najib's ‘wishes', there was talk that the Muhyiddin Yassin, Najib's preferred choice for his deputy, may lose to the remaining candidate in the race for the No 2 post, former Selangor menteri besar and currently Rural Development Minister Muhammed Muhd Taib, or Mat Taib as he is more popularly known.

This nightmare scenario for Najib did no materialise. In fact, the results were not even close, as some, including myself, had thought was a likely possibility. Muhyiddin defeated Mat Taib by a margin of 689 votes out of the 2,491 votes cast by the delegates from the main assembly.

In addition, the three candidates who were seen as Najib's ‘men' also managed to capture the top spots in the vice-president race with Ahmad Zahid Hamidi capturing the top position (1,592 votes) followed by Hishammuddin Hussein (1,515 votes) and finally Shafie Apdal (1,445 votes).

Furthermore, the fact that Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar and Tourism Minister Azalina Othman, who is currently being investigated by the MACC on charges of corruption, failed to win a seat as one of the three VPs and a seat to the party's supreme council respectively is surely a small ‘victory' for Najib as both of them were seen to be in outgoing Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's ‘camp'.

What is more significant for Najib is that with this new line-up, he can start to build what would likely turn out to be a formidable team to face the opposition.

In Muhyiddin, Najib has a safe pair of hands that can command not only the respect of other Umno leaders and members by virtue of his seniority and experience, but he is also seen, by the general public, as the most capable candidate out of the three deputy president candidates that garnered sufficient nominations to run for this position (This was before Ali Rustam was forced to drop out of the race).

Muhyiddin brings to the table his experience as a former Johor menteri besar and he also has many years of experience under his belt as a minister, which included stints in consumer affairs, agriculture and most recently, his current role in trade and industry.

Significantly, his own image, which is that of an Umno leader who is relatively clean can be put into good use if Najib is willing to walk the reform talk in his speech to the Youth, Wanita and Puteri wings.

In addition, Muhyiddin was the preferred choice of Dr Mahathir Mohamad, which one may hope (or at least Najib may hope) will quieten down the outspoken former PM, who is probably still aching from his son Mukhriz's defeat at the hands of Khairy in the Youth election.

It is probable that Muhyiddin may be asked to take over Abdullah's current defence portfolio. It is a ministry which, to my knowledge, Muhyiddin has not been put in charge of before and this portfolio could do with a bit of a reputational ‘makeover' especially given the charges of extraordinarily large ‘commissions' associated with arms purchases conducted when Najib was the minister.

Zahid can help undermine ex-boss

The most formidable member in the VP line-up is clearly Ahmad Zahid Hamidi. Many of us still remember his role, during the 1998 Umno general assembly, in exposing many of the ‘cronies' associated with Mahathir which eventually led to him being forced to resign his position as Umno Youth chief.

He was seen then as very much of an Anwar's man and he contribute with his intimate knowledge of his former mentor's political mind, and as such, strategies to undermine the opposition leader and his Pakatan Rakyat coalition.

Zahid Hamidi, is his current position as the minister in the PM's Department in charge of Islamic affairs, has shown the ability to play hardball on certain issues including pressing for a ban on the use of the word Allah in non-Muslim publications.

The fact that one would not immediately associate him as being an authority on Islamic matters within the Abdullah cabinet shows in him an ability to be flexible. The fact that he spoke up on the use of the word Allah in non-Muslim publications, a matter that was under the jurisdiction of the Home Ministry, also shows his feisty spirit - in that he was willing to engage in public turf wars with a fellow Umno cabinet minister.

Many also saw him as one of the prime movers behind BN's attempt to win back control of the Perak state assembly and his political skills may be called upon again in the upcoming by-election in Bukit Gantang and also in the ruling coalition's attempt to try to reach some sort of resolution in the running of the state government.

What is less well-known about Zahid is that he recently obtained his PhD in communications from Universiti Putra Malaysia. His thesis, if I recall correctly, was a study on the framing of BN electoral messages through many of the coalition's manifestoes which have been produced in each general election.

While one may not want to look too much into the actual content of his dissertation, the fact that he was willing to intellectually wrestle some of the questions associated with how political messages are communicated to the larger public will surely come in useful in the next general election.

If given an important ministry, such as the Home Ministry, Zahid would be able to put his considerable political acumen and skills to the test.

Hisham can do well as trade minister

Hishammuddin Hussein, who garnered the second highest number of votes in the VP race, also brings a unique set of political skills to the table.

The opposition would be doing itself a great disservice if they assume that Hishammuddin is nothing more than a caricature of his popular nickname ‘Kerismuddin' (although this is still a useful campaign caricature, especially among the non-Malays).

Hishammuddin has come a long way since taking over the position of Umno Youth chief from Zahid Hamidi in 1998. He has built up the cohesiveness and organisational strength of Umno Youth and he has grown in his role as education minister since assuming that role in 2004.

He quickly junked the National Education Blueprint that was concocted by his predecessor, Musa Mohamad, and came up with his own blueprint which he then launched and had the foresight to have periodic reviews to ensure that key targets set out in the plan were being met.

One of the major weaknesses associated with the wonderful blueprints which each ministry produces on a periodic basis (sometimes with the help of expensive external consultants) is the failure to implement these blueprints. The fact that Hishammuddin was cognisant of this and took steps to ensure that at least some monitoring mechanism was put in place is a testament to his development as a minister as well as his capacity as a leader.

If given the International Trade and Industry Ministry, Hisham could put some of his organisational and negotiating skills to work to attract whatever foreign investors who are still out there and willing to invest in a country which has a political environment that is far from stable.

His cosmopolitan outlook together with his educational background (he graduated from the London School of Economics, my alma mater) will surely put him in good stead when meeting with potential foreign investors. In addition, he may also be given the task of kick starting the sensitive Free Trade Agreement talks with the United States.

The third VP candidate to be voted in is perhaps the least known of the three, at least to those of us in Peninsular Malaysia. He is the currently minister for national unity, culture, arts and heritage - Shafie Apdal. Shafie is also the MP for the parliamentary seat of Semporna in Sabah and was the deputy defence minister under Najib from 1999 to 2004 before he was promoted to the consumer affairs minister in 2004.

One of his primary responsibilities as the VP representative from East Malaysia is to ensure that Pakatan does not make any headway in the states of Sabah and Sarawak, which currently act as a bulwark against the opposition or looking at it from another angle, the BN's electoral ‘insurance policy'.

An appointment in rural and regional development or agriculture and agro-based industry would put Shafie Apdal in an advantageous situation to cultivate strategic ties with voters, community leaders and business interests in both Sarawak and Sabah.

The fifth member of the team

Finally, I have to discuss the fifth most important member of Najib's team - the newly-elected Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin. I wrote yesterday that Khairy would likely throw his support behind Najib until it was not politically expedient for him to do so. Najib too would want to make use of the considerable arsenal of weapons which Khairy has in his possession.

Najib may make Khairy the minister of youth and sports and task him with the responsibility to winning back the youth vote for the BN (or prevent it from sliding further to the opposition). Khairy may be the only person within the BN who can pull this off, perhaps in a similar manner as he pulled off his improbable victory in the Umno Youth election.

He can speak the language of the younger generation (though convincing enough of them that he is sincere is more challenging) and has shown that he can utilise the power of the alternative media to reach out to different voting blocks.

He is clearly a charismatic leader with the eloquence and the sophistication that has enabled him to impress even some of the more skeptical voting blocks including many overseas educated Malaysians that are supposed to be more critical of the BN government and its policies.

With this set of skills, he will be a very formidable opponent for the opposition, especially some of the younger leaders within the opposition who may not have had the same kind of exposure, experience and political savvy which Khairy seems to possess in abundance.

I would not go so far as to call this line-up Najib's ‘dream team'. Each leader has their own weaknesses which the opposition can exploit, if they play their cards right. But clearly, this line-up is a much more formidable line-up when one considers the alternative line-up, which though improbable, would not have been impossible to contemplate:

DPM - Muhammed Muhd Taib

VPs - Mohd Isa Samad, Syed Hamid Albar, Rahim Tamby Chik

Youth chief - Mohd Khir Toyo

No, Najib's team is no ‘dream team' but it is clearly a rather strong one. If the opposition take this line-up too lightly, it will be at their own peril.

ONG KIAN MING is a PhD candidate in Political Science at Duke University. You can reach him at im.ok.man@gmail.com.