By Reme Ahmad
Assistant Foreign Editor
reme@sph.com.sg

 

TODAY is a new day in Umno, with the rise of a new president who is slated to be the sixth Prime Minister next week.

And today too, a semi-mystical term often whispered within Malaysia's biggest political party is completed.

It has been called the RAHMAN Theory for a very long time. But today, we can perhaps elevate it to the RAHMAN Fact.

Well, almost.

Datuk Seri Najib Razak will still need to be officially appointed Prime Minister to complete this Nostradamus-like "prophecy". The appointment is expected to happen next week, on April 3.

For a  long time, many in Umno believed that to become the party president - and thus by tradition the prime minister - your name must start with a letter from the name of the first prime minister.

See this list of Malaysian PMs in the last 52 years:
R = TA Rahman
A = Abdul Razak Hussein
H = Hussein Onn
M = Mahathir Mohamad
A = many thought it would be Anwar Ibrahim, then the fast-rising deputy premier. But Abdullah Badawi emerged instead.
And now, to complete it, there is:
N = Najib Razak.

Of course, we can quibble that Datuk Seri Najib's full name is Mohd Najib Abdul Razak, just like we can say that the whole thing is hocus-pocus because the full name of the first PM is actually Tunku Abdul Rahman, not just Rahman.

No matter. This is because the formula has become  a "must-follow" magical prophecy in Umno circles.

That was why, when Anwar was pushing to change the govt by Sept 16 last year, many in Umno had said quietly that this would not happen, simply because after the "A" comes the "N".

Some supporters of Anwar  argued jokingly then that RAHMAN could perhaps be stretched a little to become RAHMAAN - the extra "A" to slot in Anwar. And who knows, they argued jokingly, the N could then be filled up by Anwar's daughter Nurul Izzah!

Today, some naughty voices are whispering that the whole RAHMAN thing remains a Theory still until April 3, when Mr Najib is expected to be sworn in as Prime Minister by the Malaysian King.

I say "expected" because both PM Abdullah and Mr Najib have not declared openly when exactly the handover will happen.

There are some in the party, including former premier Mahathir Mohamad, who have claimed that unless he is pushed out, Mr Abdullah wants to stay on as Prime Minister although he is no longer Umno president.

So now that the Theory is as good as Fact (well, almost), where do we go?

Must we now find another magical term and say that all future PM's must come from this lineage of letters?

Do we start a NAJIB Theory? Or do we stick with a New RAHMAN?

To the opposition, who thinks they will form the government after the next general elections - to be held by 2013 - this is irrelevant.

Speaking about the rise of Mr Najib, veteran opposition leader Lim Kit Siang said in a speech this month (march): "This also raises the question whether the 'N' in the most famous political prophecy in the country, RAHMAN about the first six Prime Ministers in the country, has a double meaning. That it signifies Najib as Prime Minister after Tunku Abdul Rahman, Razak, Hussein Onn, Mahathir and Abdullah, but it also marks the 'end' of the line of Umno Prime Ministers, UMNO hegemony and Umno government in the next 13th general election."

Mr Najib knows that he has a hard slog ahead to ensure that Mr Lim’s prophecy does not come true.