Najib has been telling his inner UMNO circle that a snap March election is the way to solve the party’s woes, brought on by him.

The message going out is ‘trust me, we can win’, Sarawak Report has learnt.

Furthermore, ‘If we do fall short, we can get them over’ has been Najib’s message. Meaning that if the daunting forces now ranged against him do win more seats, despite his tactics, then he still has enough money to simply buy over opposition MPs.

His frozen accounts aren’t his only accounts, he leads his key followers to understand. There is more money on the table to win again.

Jumpers are the fallback?

So called ‘frogs’ are a well-known Malaysian political phenomenon.

These candidates, like the creature, change their look and shape, metamorphosing from one party animal into another, when sufficiently paid after the election.

They then leap over to the other side, betraying their electors.

‘Frogs’ have enabled BN to hold power in Sabah after losing in the past and have been used elsewhere. Resources to pay frogs, if need be, was the main purpose of Najib’s 1MDB inflated war chest in 2013.  He still has access to this level of resources insiders are led to understand.

Don’t worry I will soon leave after the election

Once the election is out of the way, the Prime Minister is further telling his increasingly jaded circle of UMNO loyalists, he will soon go.

They ought not believe it, because Najib has nowhere else left to go where he feels safe. Instead, it is evident the Prime Minister needs to drive through a win to guarantee himself another full term of office and to claim legitimacy, despite all he has done.

For him personally there is little other option.  If he retires he needs to trust his successor to both provide him immunity and stay in power.  Would Zahid be trusted to honour an immunity and could cousin Hishamuddin cling on to power?

Better to throw a lifetime of election-rigging expertise (and half Malaysia’s remaining resources) to get BN back in office and stay put, the reckoning surely goes.  After an ‘election endorsement from the people” and another five years of ‘iron rule’ Najib hopes to frame himself as a new father of the people, his sins forgotten.

Any in UMNO who fail to tow the line can then expect more Mafia-like elimination.  The latest senior figure to fall foul of the growing Rosmah-run dictatorship being the soon-to-be-ex Menteri Besar of Pahang, Adnan Yaakob.

To the ‘first lady’ this is all just the normal cut and thrust of politics.  After all she is the woman who used her own ample form to create a photo-opportunity this week, stopping an embarrassed US President in his tracks as he passed their dinner table, thereby allowing her husband to scramble to his feet, still clutching his napkin in his hand to ‘have a pleasant chat’.

What’s left of UMNO can believe she will walk away from power if they want to.