After being in top-level politics for 34 years, Malaysia’s new Prime Minister, Najib Abdul Razak, the eldest son of the popular second Prime Minister, Abdul Razak Hussein, must have imagined better conditions for his long-awaited rise to the political summit.

Najib took over on 3 April – just about 100 days ago – after the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) finally decided that it could not afford to accommodate former premier Abdullah Badawi’s wish to stay on for half his term following the trouncing suffered by the party and its allies in the general elections of March 8, 2008.

Needless to say, there was considerable bad blood involved in Abdullah’s departure. This was most evident in Najib’s exclusion of Abdullah’s son-in-law, Khairy Jamaluddin, from his Cabinet, despite the young man being elected as chief of the influential UMNO Youth. To add salt to injury, Khairy’s deputy, Razali Ibrahim, was made a deputy minister, as was one of the two candidates that Khairy had defeated – Mukhriz Mahathir.

Major attempts have been made to give Sabah UMNO an over-representation in the corridors of power. Most would agree that East Malaysia’s two states hold the key to power in the foreseeable future, and are able to tilt the balance as they please.

What Najib also noted was that his party and his allies were not capable of winning any important by-election for the time being. Over the last three months, five by-elections have been held. Four of these were on the peninsula, and the three in which UMNO and its allies contested, were won with increased margins by the opposition, the Pakatan Rakyat (PR). Things looked so hopeless that UMNO decided, for the first time ever, not to field a candidate in the fourth case.

Public sympathy, especially among the young, remains strongly with the opposition. Najib’s messy success in toppling the PR government in the state of Perak through crossovers has not endeared him to voters.

The lesson he quickly had to learn was that a blow-for-blow war against the opposition would only leave UMNO and its allies with an increasingly bloody nose.

The areas in which he could instead make incumbency count and steer from a position of strength are in foreign relations and in the management of the country’s macro-economics.

Najib’s significant overseas trips were to Singapore and China. The first trip involved attracting Singaporean investments to Malaysia but ended up being remembered for the controversy it generated about the building of a third bridge between the two countries, which he had ill-advisedly proposed.

His trip to China was engineered to be seen on all sides as a journey in the footsteps of his illustrious father, who went to China as part of a process of mutual diplomatic recognition between the two countries, and to gain support from Beijing for Malaysia’s neutrality policy for Southeast Asia.

Najib has been able to gain significant publicity points from his visit to China, especially among Chinese Malaysians, who are almost certainly his major subject for courtship at the moment. He has promised news of major Chinese investments in the country in the near future.

Where economic policies in general are concerned, the two stimulus packages he had stringed together as Finance Minister since November 2008 of RM67 billion have been lacking in details, and have not been generating the public confidence he had hoped for. In the meantime, the forecast for the country’s GDP contraction has been getting more negative, and is presently at 5%.

Just in time to provide positive material for analysts and pundits waiting to announce their judgment on his first 100 days as premier, however, Najib announced some radical measures that are undoubtedly generating a huge amount of national and international interest.

Exactly 88 days after coming to power, he reduced significantly rules and conditions surrounding bumiputera ownership and participation, and property transactions involving bumiputeras. This move came two months after his decision to lift the 30-percent bumiputera equity rule in 27 service sectors. That had removed restrictions on foreign investment in health and social services, tourism, transport, computer and other related sectors. Another initiative raised the cap on foreign ownership of investment banks and insurers to 70%, and also relaxed rules governing the granting of banking licenses.

Despite strong suspicions among many, including his temperamental mentor, Mahathir Mohamed, that his latest initiatives at de-radicalizing investment terms were timed more for boosting his flagging popularity than as essential steps in a comprehensive reform of the national economic infrastructure, there were momentous enough to excite even local skeptics.

In contrast, his inaugural speech made 100 days ago which announced the release of 13 detainees held under the Internal Security Act, the lifting of a ban on two opposition publications and the review of the ISA itself, did not work well. That event was perceived to have been too blatantly choreographed to manipulate public sentiments in his favour.

The key question now is: Are we seeing the beginning of the end for the controversial affirmative action programme, the New Economic Policy? Answering that question, and handling other hot potatoes like the ISA, the UMNO electoral system and police reforms will keep him occupied for the next 100 days.