Muhyiddin should heed Najib’s New Year Message to be “responsible in government” and “doing what is right, not what is popular”


One wonders whether the Deputy Prime Minister, Cabinet Ministers and the Barisan Nasional/UMNO leaders read or pay any attention to the carefully-crafted speeches of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, especially those preaching responsibility, moderation, inter-racial harmony and national unity.

I wish to call on the Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to give some thought to the New Year message of the Prime Minister which is less than four-days old.

In the conclusion of his 2014 New Year Message, Najib said:

“If we are to be responsible in government, it sometimes means taking difficult decisions which are unpopular. Leadership is about looking to the long-term: about doing what is right, not what is popular..”

Muhyiddin should heed Najib’s New Year Message to be “responsible in government” and “doing what is right, not what is popular”.

If he had done so, he would not have egged on UMNO Selangor by giving it public support to its plan to hold protest demonstrations outside Catholic churches tomorrow.

But Muhyiddin chose to ignore Najib’s injunction of “doing what is right, not what is popular” and instead of directing UMNO Selangor to act as a responsible political party and not to incite racial and religious tensions and hatred, he gave UMNO Selangor his “blessings” for the confrontational and provocative plan to hold demonstrations outside Catholic churches tomorrow – an action no political party claiming to be responsible and patriotic would ever do.

I am glad good sense and reason have finally prevailed and UMNO Selangor has cancelled its planned demonstration outside a Klang church tomorrow – but this is “no thanks” to Muhyiddin but was the result of legitimate and overwhelming public pressures from all right-thinking Malaysians transcending race, religion or class who feel very strongly that what Selangor UMNO was planning to do was completely outside the pale of acceptable civilised behaviour for any political party, NGO or citizen in a plural society like Malaysia.

Muhyiddin has failed miserably the test of “doing what is right, not what is popular”, forfeiting the claim to be a Malaysian statesman as he remained only as an Umno opportunist.

It is most unfortunate however that although Selangor UMNO has backed off, other Muslim groups including those linked to Selangor UMNO leaders have vowed to continue with their planned demonstrations.

It is no use Selangor UMNO calling off its planned demonstration while outsourcing it to proxies – which was what Umno had been doing in their special relationship with Perkasa in the past four years.

Muhyiddin must redeem his major failure as Deputy Prime Minister of a multi-religious nation by conveying in the strongest and most convincing terms to all groups and individuals that there should be no protest demonstrations outside places of worship, whether mosque, church or temples in a multi-religious nation like Malaysia.

  1. #1 by Bigjoe on Saturday, 4 January 2014 - 5:15 pm

    Neither Najib nor Muhiyiddin will do what is right, the latter already proven more than willing to do what is wrong either from ignorance or irresponsibility, either disqualify BOTH from holding their current position.

    TURUN should now mean both Najib & Muhiyiddin out of their jobs..They both disqualify themselves from their jobs because tSTRUCTURALLY THE PROBLEM we face on corruption, education, rising cost, etc are EXACTLY THE SAME – a mess created by UMNO that haunts us which they have no answers and giving excuses only…

  2. #2 by boh-liao on Saturday, 4 January 2014 - 6:21 pm

    WHAT lah, mooooo does NOT hv 2 heed najis’ mesej, 2 him, najis is history, past use-by date politician, end of d word RAHMAN
    D next word is MAHATHIR, n moooooo confident 2 REPLACE najis very soon, he is d RISING star n his words count

  3. #3 by cinaindiamelayubersatu on Saturday, 4 January 2014 - 7:20 pm

    Kalau ajar lembu makan suap, 1 bulan kot, pun dah pandai

  4. #4 by Layla Sujang on Saturday, 4 January 2014 - 7:37 pm

    Being popular is just meaningless..

  5. #5 by ENDANGERED HORNBILL on Saturday, 4 January 2014 - 10:19 pm

    Has Muhyiddin made any sense at all in the last 10 years or more to political analsyts and observers….those who hasve been tracking his career, policy speeches and programmes?

    Hmmmmm….. to paraphrase Shakespeare, this is Malaysia’s Deputy Prime Minister. When comes such another?

  6. #6 by ENDANGERED HORNBILL on Saturday, 4 January 2014 - 10:26 pm

    Zahid Ibrahim, of Najib: “You may be a moderate to David Cameron and Barack Obama…”

    Politicians fudge. Politicians try to appear politically correct. Lobbyists (or “PR consultants” that Malaysia hires) are probably paid to make sure world leaders are discreet and mouth sweet nothings …. hopefully, that those sweet words may strike a chord with recalcitrant leaders like Najib. Well, all those encouraging words aren’t working.

    Najib is even worse as a sleepy head than Pak Lah. He sleeps whilst the rattlesnakes bare their fangs. Pak Lah sleeps but tells the rest not to disturb him or rock the boat whilst he snores. That’s the difference between these 2 leaders.

  7. #7 by Aristotle on Sunday, 5 January 2014 - 5:29 am

    DPM should adress our current education blunder now. Isnt our education system suppose to promote tolerance of one another? The reality hurts but 9As in SPM, so what right? Its a shocker A in English SPM but interview time it “hurts” to hear the candidate speaking. Of course everyone will say “not all candidates are like that”. But how long we want to use and hide behind this often used justification again??? Come on, our kids are so lacking in terms of general knowledge nowadays till sometimes we ourselves really doubt their level of intelligence, dont we?? Hello DPM, do you see what we we all see? Come on!

  8. #8 by boh-liao on Sunday, 5 January 2014 - 3:00 pm

    Mooooooo mooed; As long as our kids ALWAYS GRATEFUL 2 UmnoB/BN n will VOTE 4 UmnoB/BN when they reach voting age, veri OK lor
    Dis is d ONLY knowledge they need 2 know, always VOTE 4 UmnoB/BN

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