In the last few weeks, a group of political strategists that includes members of the team behind Tony Blair’s “New Labour” campaign have started work to reinvent prime minister Najib Razak (picture) as a moderate reformist to appeal to voters, as he prepares to lead his Barisan Nasional (BN) for the first time into elections.
The Malaysian Insider understands that, besides the former Blair operatives, the Najib team is also seeking the counsel of Paul Stadlen, the former boss of public relations firm APCO Malaysia, who had been accused of links to Israel.
As part of the Najib team’s big push, it is understood that multi million-ringgit funding has also been worked out for a new website and to hire hundreds of people to promote “Brand Najib” and “Brand BN” on social media and other websites.
A new Najib – one who attends concerts and speaks of being “cool” – has already emerged despite the short time the “Blair team” has been working.
Last week, the prime minister announced plans for a raft of reforms, including the repeal of the Internal Security Act. This was seen by political observers as a bid to reclaim middle Malaysia after the disastrous handling of the July 9 Bersih rally in Kuala Lumpur.
On Saturday, Najib told a gathering of BN parties in Selangor that they needed to be “progressive, dynamic, cool and the party of the future”.
He also attended Astro channel’s youth concert that night, taking to the stage to greet concert-goers.
After the concert, he shared photographs with his more than 200,000 followers on Twitter and sent out this message: “Thank u guys for all your tweets. Nice to know some of u think I am cool! Glad to know it was a great concert.”
By attempting to turn Najib into a “cool” leader who is also committed to reforms, the Premier’s new advisers appear to be taking a leaf out of their successful campaign for Blair in 1997, which ushered in the “New Labour” era.
The campaign capitalised on the “Cool Britannia” period marked by a resurgence in British pop music acts, artists and fashion.