COMMENT It is extremely difficult to find any real winners in the results which dripped out from the Electoral Commission (EC) late Sunday night and early Monday morning last week.

However, somewhat surprisingly, one could be Prime Minister Najib Razak. Najib ran ahead of his party and managed to hold the state of Perak, preserve a majority in Negri Sembilan, Terengganu and Pahang against an opposition onslaught. He also managed to win back Kedah through the clever tactic of sending Mukhriz Mahathir, the son of the long-serving prime minister, into the fray.

Umno, the biggest party in the BN, needs reform and there is no one in sight who can drive it. Failing to reform will lead Umno to inevitable extinction within two general elections. The biggest problem is that the party may not want to reform itself.

It is evident that Najib over the last few years hasn't been able to firmly steer Umno into the directions he wanted to go, and his agenda has been hijacked by the likes of the Malay nationalist NGO Perkasa, doing great damage. For these reasons perhaps he should not take total blame....