Najib to dissolve Parliament only after bulk of JUICY PROCUREMENT DEALS SIGNED AT LIMA?

In the wake of the rare and intense denial by Prime Minister Najib Razak's office that Parliament had been dissolved, speculation is swirling that he had again been throwing red herrings to appease his rivals in Umno and the general public who are keen to have the country's 13th general election over and done with.

The talk now is that the 58-year-old Najib would dissolve Parliament only after Matrch 26th, which is the start date for the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace exhibition.

"It won't be this week, not until all the deals that the Umno cronies want are signed at the LIMA exhibition next week. If Parliament is dissolved earlier, the deals signed at LIMA may be questioned in court on the argument that there is already no longer a sitting government," an Umno watcher told Malaysia Chronicle.

Military procures the richest harvesting grounds for the Umno elite and their cronies

Indeed, military procurements have formed the backbone of Umno corruption, with Najib himself still embroiled in the RM7.3billion acquisition of 2 Scorpene submarines, where he has been accused of swiping a 114mil euro's illegal kickback for sanctioning the purchase.

The LIMA exhibition for 2013 ends on March 30. It is not clear when the bulk of the deals will be inked between the Malaysian government and the various suppliers but Najib does not have to wait until March 30. He may dissolve once the chunky deals are safely in the bag.

Nonetheless Najib supporters had earlier leaked to the government-controlled media that he would dissolve Parliament on March 25. All eyes are now on whether he will stick to the dateline or delay and what would be the new excuse he would offer this time around.

Ingenuous guessing game

Najib has certainly displayed great ingenuity in keeping the country engrossed in a guessing game over the GE13 date.

Knowing that his rivals including Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin were impatient for elections to be held as early as possible lest the situation worsened for the ruling Umno-BN coalition due to the never-ending slew of scandals against its leaders, Najib has made full use of the press to camouflage his real intentions.

Each time that the 'leaked' purported GE13 date came and went by with nothing done, a new round of rumors would be spread by the Umno-linked media friendly to his camp.

A good example is Wednesday's fiasco when rumors of Najib going to the Palace to seek approval for Parliament's dissolution went viral on the social media. An SMS in Malay language had created the stir with the message:

“Following is the full transcript of the Prime Minister’s statement at a special press conference at the Prime Minister’s Office, Putrajaya at 12.35 this afternoon.

“I wish to announce about the dissolution of Parliament, after having an audience with the Yang di-Pertuan Agong today. The Yang di-Pertuan Agong has consented to the dissolution of Parliament effective today to pave way for the 13th general election.

“The Yang di-Pertuan Agong has signed the Parliament dissolution consent declaration. With that, state governments are also advised to dissolve their state assemblies effective today. The Election Commission has been informed of this development.”

Police action and "self-dissolve"

Not only have the authorities denied the speculation but warned that the police would probe and take action against those caught spreading the rumor.

Malaysia's Parliament will be automatically dissolved on April 28 and the Election Commission would have to hold a general election within 2 months following that.

Malaysians are basically split into 2 main camps. Some believe Najib would wait until Parliament dissolved automatically while others think he will dissolve close to but before April 28.

If he waited, Najib would go down in Malaysian history as being the first ever prime minister who was so unsure of his coalition's chances that he waited for Parliament to "self-dissolve".

There is also a third group who believe Najib will not dissolve Parliament or hold elections at all so as not to give up power. However, this group is dwindling as it becomes clear a general election will be carried out although there might massive and widespread electoral fraud so as to help the Umno-BN cling to power at all costs.

Malaysia Chronicle