This one is especially for the Christians of Sarawak and Malaysians not to be deceived - edit.

Isn't it interesting how Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak leapt at a journalist's throat when asked if Umno and his regime were to blame for the arson attacks on churches in and around Kuala Lumpur?

Did it touch a raw nerve?

It's an act of political desperation by Najib who, by any measure, is starting to look every bit as useless as his predecessor, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who has disappeared from the public eye. Najib, despite tacit support from his boss and mentor, the former dictator Dr Mahathir Mohamad, is struggling to stay relevant in politics. Not only that, he's struggling to win the hearts and minds of factions in Umno, especially within the supreme council, who are already jockeying for positions as Najib's political stock continues to dwindle, and dwindle rapidly. The Altantuya Shaariibuu murder still hangs over his head despite his vehement denial of any involvement.

Now there's the growing and violent racism by diehard Malays against non-Muslims. How Najib handles this crisis will determine his political future. His days are numbered, though, unless he's resurrected, Jesus of Nazareth-like. His other problem is that he is surrounded by other useless no-hopers, such as Hishammuddin Hussein, Khairy Jamaluddin, and Muhyiddin Yassin. Najib is hemmed between being a genuine leader for all Malaysians or for just a few. But his hands are tied. That's the price every future premier has to pay to continue the corruption, cronyism and nepotism of the New Economic Policy and maintain institutionalised racism and, through these, the polarisation of Malaysians through the deep-seated fear of ketuanan Melayu.

The cronies and nepotists from the Mahathir years are still there. Najib is expected to look after their narrow interests foremost. It's the 'national interest'. They're Malays, or bumiputera, with a good sprinkling of Chinese and Indians too, by virtue of their connections to the political elite. It's old-style corruption, the kind you'd find in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Japan, China, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Nothing in Malaysia has changed in the course of the last few months when I last wrote on Malaysia. At least not for the better, but everything for the worse.
You can't say that Najib and Co's reactions to the arson attacks were surprising, any more than you can say that the arson attacks on non-Malay religious houses were unexpected.

There's a long history of desperate and distorted politics that leads most analysts to shrug their shoulders and say: 'Well, it was always on the cards, wasn't it?' From the ridiculous dogma of Islamic fanatics who body-snatched dead Hindus without documented evidence that they were Muslim converts or even converts by choice, to the destruction or removal of Hindu temples close to the Malay-Muslim populace - every one of these gutless acts reeks of political calculation and extreme anxiety.

Weak-kneed BN

Najib says Umno and his government are not to be blamed for these attacks. Bah, humbug! Umno is the ruling party of the coalition government, and as such the party is the ruling regime despite the coalition's existence. Of course it is to be blamed. So, too, its partners in Barisan Nasional, for being outrightly pusillanimous. They're too afraid to speak out against Islamic fanatics who have taken the law into their own hands to destroy non-Muslim religious institutions. These weak-kneed parties must face the same widespread condemnation as Umno.

They've all lost their political relevance, political lustre and moral compasses. The only thing that matters to them is that they and their cronies continue to amass wealth unchecked at the expense of ordinary Malaysians. That's their sole raison d'etre for staying in politics. So now Malaysians face a new dilemma: the greater Islamisation of Malaysia, not by moderate elements but fanatical elements with Taliban-like instincts and cowardice. They want draconian Syariah laws that would also apply to non-Muslim transgressors.Now they want Najib's Umno regime to upend the Kuala Lumpur High Court's decision to allow the Catholic weekly newspaper Herald to use the word 'Allah' in general reference to God.

But when did these Muslims become the sole proprietors of the word 'Allah' when history shows that the word pre-dates the birth of Islam? This is not about the defending of Islam. It's about chauvinist elements inside Umno's inner circle stirring for a fight in the run up to the next poll, as much as it is a show of force to non-Malays of the primacy of ketuanan Melayu. Don't wager too lightly that those inside Umno's inner sanctum and who recently have loudly disclaimed or condemned the attacks on the churches (and temples previously) are not also surreptitiously the instigators of these vile, racist and cowardly actions. After all, they have more to lose, politically and wealth accumulation-wise.

Either way, even if Najib is ousted, Malaysia's future remains bleak, dark and racist because those who take over are likely to be worse than Mahathir and certainly Najib and Abdullah put together. The hypocrisy of this group is stunning. The church attacks are not about Islam and 'Allah'. They're the seedy side of racism and power politics - a diabolical mix. Malaysiakini
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MANJIT BHATIA, an academician and writer, is also research director of AsiaRisk, a political, economic and risk analysis consultancy in Australia. He specialises in international economics and politics, with a focus on the Asia-Pacific.