Najib sworn in as Malaysia's new prime minister

Najib Abdul Razak was sworn in as Malaysia's sixth prime minister on Friday, despite a last minute bid by the country's opposition alliance, which asked the King to postpone the swearing-in ceremony.

Najib read his declaration of taking office and oath of secrecy before King Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin at a ceremony at the royal palace, witnessed by chief justice Zaki Azmi and outgoing premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

The opposition alliance, which sent a memorandum signed by all 81 of its MPs to the king, said the new prime minister's name should be cleared by an independent commission before the swearing-in takes place.

The opposition alleged that he was linked to the killing of a Mongolian woman, who was the estranged lover of his close friend.

Najib has denied the allegations as "malicious lies".

Najib, whose father was Malaysia's second premier, took office after Abdullah owned responsibility for the poor showing of the ruling coalition in March 8 general elections last year and had declared he would step down. He resigned as premier on Thursday.

Abdullah received the nation's highest award which carries the title Tun from the the King today, local online media reports said. 

Najib has a enormous task ahead of him to rev up the economy, which has been impacted by the global financial crisis and the recession following it.

The 55-year-old British educated premier, dressed in traditional Malay attire of black tunic and trousers with a knee-length gold brocade cloth tied around his waist, is expected to announce his cabinet lineup next week.

Abdullah took office in October 2003 succeeding Mahathir Mohammad who had been at the helm for 22 years before stepping down and handpicking soft-spoken Abdullah for the job.

Though Abdullah began well with promises to reform judiciary, police and civil services and the media saw a bit of openness which was not there earlier, not many promises were fulfilled and disgruntlement spread especially among the minority Chinese and Indian races.

This gave shape to and strength to the weak opposition parties which became stronger and in last year's March 2008 elections, the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition fared miserably losing its two-thirds majority for the first time in 40 years, conceding 82 seats to the opposition in the 222-member Parliament.

It also lost an unprecedented five states. One of the state Perak is now back with the ruling coalition after two opposition members quit and extended support to the Barisan party.

The local papers today welcomed Najib as the new premier.

Najib assumes the position as the country's prime minister at a highly challenging time when the economy is heading for recession, with exports and manufacturing both badly hurt by the slowdown.

Najib has promised to use the current global economic downturn to boost the country up the economic value chain and to liberalise the services sector, reduce dependence on commodities and oil exports as well as low-end electronics.

Najib became deputy prime minister on Jan 6, 2004. Najib was formally elected as president of Umno on March 26 at the political party's general assembly to pave the way for him to become prime minister.

By convention, the head of Umno has always served as the country's premier since 1957. Umno is the largest component of the ruling coalition of Barisan Nasional party.

Meanwhile, de facto opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said it was "unfortunate" that the opposition alliance's memorandum pleading for deferment of swearing-in of the premier was not given due consideration, online newsportal Malaysiakini said.

Anwar said Najib's immediate priorities should be to release all Internal Security Act detainees, ensure media freedom, independence of the judiciary and that the economic stimulus plan trickles down to the ground.

Five ethnic Indians, members of the banned Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) have been detained under ISA since December 2007 for organising a massive rally of ethnic Indians. The rally was attended by over 20,000 ethnic Indians protesting over alleged discrimination in the country. The government has denied the allegations.

Anwar was taking time off from his hectic campaign schedule in Bukit Selambau, Kedah state and Batang Ai, Sarawak state to campaign for Islamic opposition party PAS' Mohd Nizar Jamaluddin who is contesting in Bukit Gantang, Perak state.

The three by-elections will be held on April 7 and is being seen as a test of the ruling coalition Barisan Nasional's popularity.