Malaysians undeterred by threats but Najib is still the man

Prime Minister Najib Razak is not missing any opportunities to show himself, sometimes alone, sometimes accompanied by his wife Rosmah Mansur on local television at opening ceremonies or press events.

While he would rarely entertain the media – perhaps to evade 1MDB related queries – he is all out to show the population that he, the Prime Minister is in control and that he is there for them.

And he is going about his ‘duties’ as if the 1MDB scandal means nothing to him since he declared it over and done with some time back, much to the displeasure of those who are haunting him on the matter.

His nonchalance attitude has also attracted criticism from the public, while the local print media and the pro-government blogs are busy defending him on the recent US Department of Justice (DOJ) claims that a certain wife of the Malaysian Official Number 1 or MO1 has received gifts paid with 1MDB stolen money.

And the surprising thing is the public – especially the netizens and those who are in various WhatsApp groups – are not letting go on the 1MDB, the DOJ diamonds and the way Najib is brushing aside the plethora of accusations.

They were not deterred by the threat of action by the First Lady of Malaysia’s lawyer if anyone in the country would basically talk about the DOJ reference to the wife of MO1.

And this is a new dimension in the whole saga.

Are the Malaysians getting used to the threats and arrest by the authorities that has so far resulted in a lack of sentencing of those blamed for fanning the 1MDB stories to the public?

It appears that the more the authorities are trying to quell the expanding coverage of the 1MDB case that was reignited by the recent DOJ reports, the more the people are attacking the first family of Malaysia with so much freedom on the internet, the only place where they can still target the suspects with their jokes, meme’s, cynicism and mimicry.

Then came the episode in which a tug-of-war at the Felda Global Venture  or FGV exploded in public, forcing the Najib administration to take actions that were ridiculed by the public in general.

And the reaction of a few ministers in Najib’s cabinet, taking his side and that of his wife in the wake of the DOJ papers, did not go down well too among the general populace.

But Najib is still in control of the situation, as he is not going to go down that soon.

He intends to reign for the next 15 years or so, says people close to him, who also said he is not worried about the 1MDB issue because according to experts, it has died out and is not going to impact on him or the party in the event he calls for an election.

Thus, one may ask the 2.6 billion question: What can unseat Najib?

Nothing, if you may ask.

That is if the people of the country continues with their criticism by venting their anger on the internet, but they fail to vote or they decide after deep thoughts to vote for the Barisan Nasional after cashing in the freebies that will flood the market for the elections.

And this might be the likely turnout in the snap polls that many expects to be imminent and might take place between July and September this year.