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JULY 13 — This past weekend Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak would have breathed a sigh of relief at crossing an important milestone of being in power for 100 days.

Coincidentally, that is exactly the amount of time that former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had given him before he began levelling criticisms at Najib.

And as we know, when the grand old man of Malaysian politics criticises, he can really cut you down to size, wielding his acid wit like a surgeon's scalpel that the medical doctor did not use in practise.

Dr Mahathir is keen to continue his virtual prime ministership after he stepped down in 2003.

He may want to criticise Najib for ignoring his opinions in the hope of bringing him down, like how he did in toppling his successor Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi but I hope he realises that his actions today will only benefit the pretenders to the throne and not himself or his family as demonstrated previously with Tunku Abdul Rahman and others.

I believe that Najib is the last hope Umno has to stem the rise of Pakatan Rakyat.

If he is able to return the confidence of the voters to Umno, then the party will have some time to reform and regenerate its new younger leadership.

If he fails then Umno will be doomed to follow the fate of Golkar in Indonesia today, a party that is in disarray after losing both the parliamentary and presidential polls.

While many people may feel that Najib has no cause to celebrate the milestone, I beg to differ.

In my opinion, it is indeed remarkable for a man who started as the Prime Minister with the most baggage in the history of the country to have done very well to record a 65 per cent favourable rating with 1,060 registered voters in the country according to the recent survey done by Merdeka Center.

He has had to carry the unfinished policy legacies of his predecessors Dr Mahathir and Abdullah, on top of sinister baseless allegations related to the murder of a Mongolian woman.

He cannot count on the Barisan Nasional component parties to support to him as the MCA, MIC, Gerakan and PPP continue to quarrel incessantly and internally and weaken themselves further.

As a result he cannot rely on them to capitalise on the collapsing Pakatan Rakyat coalition.

He cannot even rely on a Cabinet of ministers and deputy ministers, many of whom would not even pass the strict criteria set by him during the selection process.

He had to make painful compromises in his choice of ministers and could not pick many who he would have liked.

For one thing, he did not get his ideal line-up for the Umno supreme council in the last party elections to support his move to push his 1 Malaysia agenda.

The council is still made up of many members from the previous administrations and a collection of Malay hardliners.

It is therefore remarkable that Najib can remain calm and collected and poised like a man who has been ready to become Prime Minister all of his adult life and focus on the most important ingredient of our success as a multiracial nation — the economy.

The political stability and racial harmony in Malaysia have always been predicated on sharing an enlarged economic pie.

It has only been 100 days but Najib has done more in that time than his predecessors ever did. He has focused his attention on liberalising the economic sectors that are vital to attract foreign investors and open up opportunities for the non-Bumiputeras to participate in.

The phased liberalisation of major sectors of the economy, which involves the removal of the unpopular Bumiputera quotas, has not been met positively by many Malays especially within his own party Umno. Many in Umno, including the old warhorse Dr Mahathir, see the dilution of Bumiputera interests as damaging to the Malay community in the long run.

I am not surprised with Dr Mahathir's concern which he shares with many in his and the immediate post-National Economic Policy (NEP) generation as the Malays were really left behind in economic and educational terms then. But today, the second generation of Malays after the NEP is highly educated, economically independent and mobile.

They understand that Malaysia needs to integrate into the global economy for future generations to survive. The current generation may still feel that poverty eradication is an important objective of the NEP but they realise that the current poverty level of 3.5 per cent nationally should not be the main focus of the NEP.

The NEP should return to its main focus of narrowing the economic and social differences between the races and enlarging the economic pie to create more wealth to share between the races.

Recently, at the groundbreaking of the new Naza headquarters by Najib in the Kuala Lumpur City Centre, I met a humble young Malay man who is a chartered accountant with one of the big firms in Kuala Lumpur.

He was kind enough to listen while I explained my understanding of Najib's capital market liberalisation measures a few days before while we waited for the prime minister to join us for tea after his press conference.

The young man was realistic in his views on assisting the new Bumiputeras to be successful , noting that Naza would not have been able to build its headquarters on the most expensive real estate in Malaysia if the government had not protected its car dealership business by giving it many approved permits (AP).

But he agreed that quotas and rules for Bumiputeras need to be reviewed against the demands of globalisation.

Yet, it is not about the first 100 days that we measure Najib. It would be about the 100 and more ways to effect changes and propel the country further for the benefit of all.

Having said that, the recent reversal of the policy to teach maths and science in English could have disastrous results for the future of Bumiputeras across the nation, the Indians and, to a lesser extent, the Chinese in the country.

Most of the new jobs to be generated in the future would be in the services industry which requires a heavy reliance on communication in English unlike the manufacturing industry. If our future generation of workers has a limited command of English, I am afraid they may not be a desired resource by employers of the future.

I feel disappointed that the Cabinet could not be stronger and overcome the Malay and Chinese educationists lobby and continue the policy of teaching maths and science in English.

I believe this policy would be counter to economic progress in the country.

I had a fierce debate on the issue in my own Pulai Umno division and I managed to convince my members on the long-term value of that policy to national development.

In my opinion, Najib has set the right course for the country with his 1 Malaysia policy but I don’t agree with the views of my party colleagues that the non-Malays will not return to support Umno and BN permanently as they still need their education and business opportunities needs to be addressed.

I think Najib's move to reform the award of government scholarships will be a positive measure to attract the non-Malays back to support the government.

I believe that the non-Malays are practical in their exercise of political power. The Chinese don’t want political power if it is going to lead to economic malaise. Barisan Nasional still has the best ideological base the people can follow.

And for this, Umno Youth should play a more aggressive role and respond quickly to work towards securing the support of young Malaysians.

Umno Youth is lucky to have Najib as party president because he was a former Youth leader who can guide them. I was an Umno Youth exco member during Dr Mahathir's time as prime minister. We were not allowed to shine and even suppressed after Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was dismissed in 1998.

So they should focus on their real task which is to win the young voters’ support by concentrating on communicating with the tech-savvy young and establishing their presence on the Internet and building public opinion in support of Umno and Barisan Nasional.

Rembau MP Khairy Jamaluddin and his exco should not waste time on intellectual discourse with PAS Youth who cannot make decisions in that party anyway. And they should stop preaching to the converted but go for the "heathens and disbelievers" to join their flock.

They should prove their mettle and earn the respect of the young by working towards a genuine 1 Malaysia instead of playing politics.

It won't take 100 days to make the necessary changes but it can take 100 ways as the sixth prime minister has been showing since April 3.