KUALA LUMPUR - MALAYSIA'S incoming prime minister Najib Razak needs to take swift action to reverse declining support for the government that has ruled for 51 years, influential ex-prime minister Mahathir Mohamad told Reuters.

Mr Najib will take power at the end of March and will have to deal with the worst economic downturn since the Asian financial crisis of 1998 as well as rebuilding a party tainted with corruption and still bruised by last year's big election losses.

How Najib can fight back One of the ways that Mr Najib can fight back against negative perceptions is to stamp out corruption in Umno and the 13-party National Front coalition, Dr Mahathir said. 'Today the problem with Umno is that people see it as a corrupt party and it has no credibility and they really look down on Umno as being irrelevant.' If Umno fails to tackle corruption, Dr Mahathir warned that it would lose power to the opposition and its leader Anwar Ibrahim. ... more

'A lot of people are uncertain. Having watched Najib's performance as deputy (prime minister), he did not shine,' Dr Mahathir said a week before the United Malays National Organisation (Umno), the main party in the ruling coalition, holds internal polls.

Mr Najib is standing unopposed to be Umno president, a post that traditionally carries with it the premiership, but there are tough battles for the deputy presidency and other top posts.

'Najib can do well, but we will have to see, because when I asked Abdullah to appoint him as deputy I had a lot of hope for him, but he did not perform the way I expected,' Dr Mahathir said on Tuesday.

Dr Mahathir did praise Mr Najib's action as finance minister in putting together an RM60 billion package of spending to try to offset the looming recession, contrasting it with Mr Abdullah's performance as the previous finance minister.

However, Mr Najib does arrive with the kind of baggage that no other Malaysian leader had on entering office.

He has been linked on the internet blogs to a brutal murder of a Mongolian model, Altantuya Shariibuu. Although he has firmly denied involvement and there is no evidence to tie him to the death, he was challenged again in parliament last week over the issue by an opposition lawmaker.

His popularity rating stands at just 41 per cent, according to a recent poll by independent pollster the Merdeka Centre, and that is less than the 46 per cent enjoyed by Mr Abdullah.

'Legally he has cleared his name (over Ms Altantuya). But whether people will perceive that he has cleared his name or not is something he cannot decide,' Dr Mahathir said. -- REUTERS