Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak took over the  country's premiership at a critical juncture of Malaysia's political history, When he was sworn in as Malaysia’s sixth Prime Minister on April 3 2009, Malaysia was suffering from a financial crisis and he realised that party reform was critical of his and Umno-BN’s survival. The whole nation saw his predecessor Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi turned from ‘party hero’ who lead Umno and BN to a resounding victory in the 11th General Election in 2004, into a ‘failed leader’ in the 12th General Elections, where the rakyat punished him for squandering their mandate and not instituting long-needed reforms.

Najib, who headed BN’s election campaign for the 2008 general election was aware of the tough challenges ahead. BN had lost four states on the more prosperous west coast states in the Peninsula – Kedah, Penang, Perak and Selangor – and failed to retake poverty-ridden Kelantan in the east coast, which has been under opposition control since 1990. BN only obtained 49 percent of popular votes on the Peninsula and without Sabah and Sarawak BN would have lost their majority support.

Although BN won 140 of the 222 Parliamentary seats, 54 of them came from East Malaysia. Most importantly, the popular vote obtained by Umno in the Peninsula was 35.5 percent, which was matched closely by the combined votes of his rival Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) and its coalition counterpart PAS.

This trend is also evident in BN’s loss of the first four by-elections (Penanti, Manek Urai, Bukit Gantang, Bukit Selambau) in Peninsular Malaysia since Najib came to power, with a face-saving win later in Sarawak (Batang Air). The first three by-elections (Bukit Gantang, Bukit Selambau, Batang Air) were strategically held simultaneously as a way to split the opposition apart (two in the Peninsula, one in Sarawak) in hope of weakening their campaign, on 7 April 2009, four days after Najib was sworn in as Prime Minister. BN’s ‘diversion’ tactics proved to be futile as they lost two (Bukit Gantang and Bukit Selambau) out of the three simultaneous by-elections. At that time, BN and Umno campaigned on the platform of giving the Prime Minister and his policy of ‘One Malaysia, People First, Performance Now’ a chance; a platform that did not resonate with the electorate.

With all these setbacks, Najib realises that he must convince Umno and BN that the critical challenge to his and their survival is to end or at least temper patronage politics, improve government efficiency, deliver on economic growth and improve race relations which had been the hallmark of the successful BN machinery of yesteryear.

Najib’s policy slogan of ‘One Malaysia. People First, Performance Now’ may demonstrate that both he and Umno are beginning to understand that although Malaysia remains a country with deep-rooted racism, Malaysians of all races and creeds are increasingly doubtful about BN’s continuing rule. The BN-Umno’s strategy of racial division has not worked in the same way as in years gone by. Voting patterns, especially among the younger generation (below 35), reveal the willingness of voters irrespective of race and social class to vote for opposition. The 1Malaysia policy is Najib’s move to counter these problems.

However, Najib has had some success in international relations namely the increasingly close relationship with historical rivals such as Singapore, Indonesia, the US and Australia. The economy rebounded very strongly in the first quarter of 2010. Najib also announced his report card, noting how the government had achieved its targeted National Key Result Areas (NKRAs), in preparation for the New Economic Model (NEM) announcement. According to him in June 2010, all the six NKRAs, introduced to gauge government performance, have achieved the set Key Performance Index (KPI).

Najib has also been giving special attention on the social and economic development of Sabah and Sarawak. His frequent visits to Sabah and Sarawak, approving development funds, directing the Federal Ministers to do the same, improving the basic infrastructures and so on, proves that Najib wants these two states to be deliberately helped. He shows that he takes concern of the well being of the small groups in the region. He has visited and directly helped the Kadazan-Dusun, the Iban, the Bidayuh, the Orang Ulu, including the Penan.

Najib approved the RM20 million budgets to initiate the perimeter surveying of the Natives Customary Rights (NCR) land in Sarawak. I must say that this was a good initiative as Sarawak does need federal funds to do the titling of NCR land, something which the natives have been clamouring for years.

On February, 2010 he announced that the country has recovered from the financial crisis in which Malaysia has recorded 4.5 percent GDP growth in the fourth quarter of 2009. Najib then in March 2010 said Malaysia targets 6 percent economic growth in 2010 and the government machinery has been ordered to go “full steam ahead”.

On June 17, Najib announced the government would not dissolve parliament to make way for the general election based on the opinion that people favoured him, but the election date would in fact be a surprise to all. Without giving any indication that the elections would be held soon, he said a lot of factors had to be considered before fixing the general election date.

Despite the innumerable crisis bearing on his shoulders (a large part of them being left by his predecessor) Najib has somewhat manoeuvred rather commendably in the course of his one year plus stint as the sixth Prime Minister. We still have to see whether the decisions he will be making in days to come will be for the benefit of the Malaysian people rather than the next General Election, but then again, in politics there’s always a catch.