PM to sack all his political aides?

In a report from The Malaysian Insider today, all of them will be sacked from their respective positions for purportedly putting their interests above the Prime Minister.

Citing a statement from few ‘sources’, the local news portal said the move was to axe the ‘deadwood’ weighing down the PM’s office ahead of Umno elections this year.

Before this, those individuals have received critical remarks from pro-Umno bloggers for their bad and humiliating defeat in the 13th General Election held last month, even in states where Barisan Nasional (BN) had already regain.

Among those were said to be removed were Datuk Latt Shariman Abdullah, Datuk Shahlan Ismail, Datuk Mohd Shafei Abdullah, Datuk Mohamad Fatmi Che Salleh dan Datuk Mohamed Suffian Awang.

According to the portal, all five of them were seen by strategists in Najib’s election war room as having the best chances to give BN its opportunity to regain its two-thirds majority in Parliament.

Recently, former finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin in an interview with Chinese newspaper, China Press, had criticised the PM’s advisors for contributing to BN’s loss in GE13.

Daim had urged the Najib to sack his advisors, blaming the wrong strategies used by them during the election.

He also blamed the infighting in BN that caused the party to suffer great loss in some constituencies.

Meanwhile, political analyst Ibrahim Suffian described the move, if true, reflects the PM’s firmness in ensuring the best advice for his new administration.

However, he is still unsure whether the move is confirmed as he has not heard anything from the PM’s department yet.

“We are still waiting. Those people have been serving quite long... they give advice not just in terms of politics but in terms of administration as well,” he told Astro Awani.

Ibrahim who is also the Medeka Centre director said the move also indicates that Najib wants to start a new team in facing the party’s general assembly and the new administration.