Deciphering Najib


byj Jacob Sinnathamby
The Malaysian Insider
Jun 28, 2011

JUNE 28 — Malaysia is in the mess it is because we don’t have leaders of spine, integrity and consistency in our midst.

I am astounded on a daily basis by statements made by Datuk Seri Najib Razak. I don’t care about Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin or Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein or even Datuk Ibrahim Ali — you expect the racism and rubbish spewing from these characters because this is what they are about.

But Najib didn’t sound like that in the beginning of his term as the prime minister. He promised changes, said he would be inclusive and heal the wounds that have been tearing this country apart. He promised 1 Malaysia and other stuff.

But throughout, there was a nagging feeling that he did not quite believe all the stuff he was speaking about. The first hint was the constitutional crisis in Perak where Najib sanctioned and encouraged the overthrow of a democratically-elected government.

The second hint was the manner in which he always seemed missing when the rogue Ibrahim Ali, and Perkasa, savaged our country with his brand of racism and thuggish behaviour. Najib never wanted to get involved, maybe afraid that standing up for Malaysia would involve losing some support in Umno.

Then came the incident at the Sibu by-election where he attempted to bribe the voters but was rebuffed. And after that, his reluctance to chide Utusan Malaysia or the Umno bloggers for their fairytale story of a Christian plot to take over the country.

I would like to think that these were just aberrations but I believe his disappointing behaviour in the last few weeks suggests that Najib is no different from Muhyiddin or Hishammuddin. More refined and intelligent but just the same.

His speech at the PPP assembly was astounding because it was part delusional and part dishonest.

Firstly, he told the opposition to man up and contest elections rather than go to the streets for the Bersih rally on July 9. My point is that no Malaysian opposition party has gone outside the electoral system, despite elections being a stacked deck.

So going to the streets is not about running scared or having no guts, it is about contesting fair elections. In fact, it is Najib who is running scared judging by the manner in which his government and the Election Commission have been changing postal vote rules. The opposition believes that there will be widescale cheating to keep BN in power.

The government’s reaction to Bersih rally suggests that this suspicion is not off the mark.

Najib’s other statement at the PPP function which got my attention was his point that power in Malaysia lies with the people, and not street demos.

You have got to be joking. If he really meant that, then Pakatan Rakyat will still be ruling Perak and there would be respect for sanctity of the vote, for the concept of one man, one vote. In fact, Najib should be all for election transparency if he truly believes that power lies with the people.

Instead, we are witnessing arrests and language more suited to a dictatorship. Worse yet, we are being insulted with some amateurish police work on the supposed communist threat.

I suppose this is Najib’s Malaysia.

  1. #1 by bruno on Wednesday, 29 June 2011 - 5:17 am

    LKS,it’s not only you who doesn’t understand what Najib is doing.I think that many political strategists are stratchjng their heads too.After the Hulu Selangor by election the momemtum was on BN’s side.Instead of using the momentum and taking the fight to your PR’s doorsteps they went merry making.

    They came back from their merry making high and drunk.After that they have been stumbling,stuttering and fumbling and in the process shooting themselves in the foot.With a fully loaded warchest looted from the people’s bank and scores of advisers and strategists imported from I don’t know where or from which country they came from.Maybe from the planet Mars.

    With a war room full of these so called experts they could only come up with the stratergy of the gimmicks of Abrahim Ali,the Datuk T jokers and the paid mecenaries running loose on the streets like horny dogs on heat.What more crazy ideas can these so called strategy experts come up with.

    Well you never know until they show you the cards.They used the full force of the PDRM to arrest some 30 activists who were in a bus going around doing some support work.And half of these thirty activist were of the fairer sex.And the charges.For practicing Communism and wageing war against the Agung.I thought Communism was extinct in Malaysia.Fifteen men and fifteen ladies waging war against the Agung.How crazy and nutcase can one get.Only in Malaysia I guess.Well I guess we better ask LKS to call Najib and ask him what he is up to.

  2. #2 by Jeffrey on Wednesday, 29 June 2011 - 5:58 am

    ///we don’t have leaders of spine, integrity and consistency in our midst///- Jacob Sinnathamby. That’s because from day one of the nation’s birth, its peoples are obsessed with race and political framework (Alliance) was structured on communal lines (UMNO/MCA/MIC). A leader of multi-racial outlook like the Tunku was soon removed from power because of alleged partiality to Chinese. In contrast another who played the race & religious card became successful politically to overstay in power for as long as 22 years. He later said in his blog that politicians who played the race card were somewhat more successful! The problem with preoccupation with race/religion is that these stab at primordial sentiments/emotions. In their grip, one overlooks other issues relating to one’s leaders’ shortcomings. Person in leadership position then are not held to account and they go into a spree in pursuit of material self-interest, like a predatory capitalist, waving the banner of race and religion legitimacy. Politicians who join the communal party for political career become party apparatchiks who rise within the hierarchy based on same modus operandi championing sectional communal interest than the common good of the nation in a scenario where, if one hears the rhetoric of these party apparatchiks, one wonders whether there is in reality really a nation (other in name) since there are so many immigrants and pendatangs amid the so-called original peoples.

  3. #3 by Jeffrey on Wednesday, 29 June 2011 - 6:17 am

    How does one define what’s good leader? Necessarily someone who leads the nation, a multiracial one, for the good of all. But this cannot be, there is a contradiction here : he belongs to a communal party of which if he were to lead and rise to the top he must, as a norm, promote and appeal to the sectional interest of his community at the expense of the others & nation building. Because of this race barrier to nation building, a politician soon perceives his participation in politics not in service of nation’s building and good for all but in service of his personal aggrandizement as he lives off politics as a permanent source of income. He builds up support within the party from party apparatchiks of like mind by patronage contracts money and protection from having to account. Soon all are in politics to pursue power under the banner of race/religion and the party that stands for it, not for glory of serving all citizens of all races and religion or no religion but for the sake ultimately of paying off his own mortgage on a Mansion or a Ferrari and children’s profligate spending. Corruption then becomes entrenched by vested interests the preservation of which requires repression of those who threaten these comfortable state of affairs.

  4. #4 by k1980 on Wednesday, 29 June 2011 - 7:09 am

    Deciphering Najib— I see an ‘A’,
    I see a ‘L’,
    I see a ‘T’,
    I see an ‘A’,
    I see an ‘N’,……….
    I see a ‘C’,
    I see a ‘4’

  5. #5 by Mike Tee on Wednesday, 29 June 2011 - 7:45 am

    If one can get away with the submarine, Mongolia, fighter jet engine scandals, one can robs anything and cheat anybody. Not included the vast expenses on one’s trips and official claims
    If one has the high court judges, MCAA officers, police hounds, perkasa fat hog and lots of MCA & MIC shameless clowns/dogs dancing to one looney tunes, one can do anything.
    If one had a father who stired up racial hatred and created May 13, one can said anything and made fabrigations on any body on one’s oppositions.
    These bunch of BN thieves and robbers of Malaysia have nowhere to hide and they are fighting DIRTY; using home made video to shame opposition party LEADER; using Utusan & perkasa fat hog to stir up racial and religion hatred among different race groups in the country; using police hounds to arrest anyone who they thing will be a threat to their dominance even if you wear a yellow T-shirt or carry a little flag; using their MP to shout abuse the opposition in the parliement and mobilised their party members to threaten the oppsitions, coincidentally police hounds always slow to act, but quick to arrest anyone who might be a threat to them. BN is in the hysterical state!!!!
    If one is desperate to win the votes of the deserting poeple, one would make false promises like promote Rahman and Southern college to University status ( why in the near future if one keep to one’s promises and not 30 years ago??).
    I can only see fat pigs fly in the Malaysia Putrajaya.
    Wake people this is the GOOD OPPOURTUNITY to show YOUR ANGER, TRUE COLOUR for the SUFFERING of last 30 OVER YEARS, stand up and be counted.
    WE NEED A REVOLUTION !!!!!

  6. #6 by Jeffrey on Wednesday, 29 June 2011 - 8:04 am

    I doubt a political system structured on race can attract much less nurture great national leaders of integrity. At best it produces some mediocre and opportunistic leader of a particular community. One of the many reasons may well be the incontrovertible fact that self interest is ingrained in human nature. And for national leadership of integrity to emerge, the political system that nurtures it must channel this self-interest, whether in material wealth or public esteem, to coincide with the promotion of the wider social economic and political interest of the society and country – as a whole.

    Instead we have a communal political system that marginalizes, if not oust, politicians who stand their ground on truth and universal and inclusive principles and which makes a successful politician out of anyone who flashes the race/religious card to his communal constituency and at the same time could buy support and votes from party apparatchiks and warlords through largesse patronage benefits he could dispense.

    General Douglas MacArthur, a great world war II general, once quipped : “A general is just as good or just as bad as the troops under his command make him”. Can MacArthur ever become a great general to win battles against the Japs if the troops that he led are divided over race and religion all the time? Will there be a MacArthur in the first place if his appointment had otherwise depended on election by troops based on considerations of race and not merits and record on the field?

  7. #7 by k1980 on Wednesday, 29 June 2011 - 8:09 am

    http://www.thesundaily.my/news/62499

    Look at the high cost of maintainenance on the residences of the prime minister and his deputy. A total of RM48,789,115.03 was needed for the rental of the two official residences, cost of repairs, water and electricity bills from 2006 until 2010.

    The rental cost for the two residences amounted to RM32,972,115.55 while the repairs cost RM3,581,744.78.

    The electricity bill cost RM10,267,868.15 and the water bill totalled RM1,967,386.55.

    If the 27 million Malaysians were to live like those 2 above, the Antarctic ice caps would had totally melted in 2006. The no-plastic-bags campaign is a failure because it will never work as long as there are people like the 2 examples given.

  8. #8 by Jeffrey on Wednesday, 29 June 2011 - 8:23 am

    ///But Najib didn’t sound like that (ie the racism and rubbish spewing” as compared to others) in the beginning of his term as the prime minister. He promised changes, said he would be inclusive and heal the wounds…///- Jacob Sinnathamby.

    Have you asked how he ascended the party’s heirarchy in the first place to vie for top post? Haven’t you’d heard of that infamous gathering at the TPCA padang in Kampong Baru was held and when as Youth chief, he raised and threatened with the keris?

    To be fair for all his other faults Khairy Jamaluddin has not done that as the Youth Chief. But where is he within the party heirarchy? He wasn’t even being made a minister that his position normally commensurates. The moment UMNO Youth under him played down the race rhetoric, Perkasa moves in to fill its slot in this department, and the likes of Ibrahim Ali rise in public prominence. See what works here, as TDM frankly said?

  9. #9 by Thor on Wednesday, 29 June 2011 - 8:28 am

    This man has no return.
    Just like the old mamak, he better pray hard that god did’nt exist!
    Nothing nor anyone in this world could ever redeem his soul anymore.
    Just count on his guilts and all those sins that he had commit.

  10. #10 by ENDANGERED HORNBILL on Wednesday, 29 June 2011 - 8:30 am

    MAlaysia is damned if BN continues in power next GE.

    Every sane analyst says that July 9 is needed to energise the population to vote BN out.

    Malaysians probably need more than 70% vote for PR to neutralise all those phantoms, postal chicanery and shitty-bang-bang.

    Najib is just about as credible as the fiddler on the roof whose mis-steps as malaysia burns.

  11. #11 by k1980 on Wednesday, 29 June 2011 - 8:35 am

    Kindergarten teacher telling story to 4 year olds—-

    Once upon a malaysian time, two families are residing in two houses that incur an annual rental bill of RM40million as well as Bil Air for RM2million per year.

    Just imagine, RM2million of water usage per annum in total for both families. Hey, that is RM167,000 per month’s billing or RM5,555 of water usage per day!

    Renting a house for RM20 million a year or RM1.67 million a month …. Mama mia, this is RM55,555 a day. 10-star hotels won’t charge so much …. Mutusamy and Ah Chong are slaving 20 hours a day can’t get RM30 a day!

  12. #12 by ENDANGERED HORNBILL on Wednesday, 29 June 2011 - 8:40 am

    Ibrahim Ali just called the Bar Council a bastard council.

    Ha, ha….someone just “meludah keatas langit” (turned his face skywards and spat at the heavens.)

  13. #13 by DAP man on Wednesday, 29 June 2011 - 8:43 am

    What can this nation expect from a man who held the keris and threatened to soak it in Chinese blood.
    Can such man be trusted?
    This man will sell a piece of stone to the kampong Malays and tell them it is a precious stone which they should keep under their pillows to be properous.
    He will sell these kampong men coconut oil and tell them that it Viagra for ‘tahan lama’.
    PERKASA AND THE MALAYS WILL BELIEVE HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    If they believe Utusan why not Najib.

  14. #14 by best4rakyat on Wednesday, 29 June 2011 - 9:02 am

    Juz see the end of the last episode in TV8 the story in ancient China ‘All Men Are Brothers’ about that 108 brave brothers-in-hood at their times.

    Finally,drank the poisonous wine offered to amongst those served dedicately with their emperor.
    Choose this destiny of boldness to die so that you owe the ‘silent’ emperor nothing but he will be haunted for his ‘silent’ self for life in the eyes of his common people!
    Are you ready for it?

    Even for the movie in the making and yesterday event of that ‘Aung San Suu Kyi’ ‘s deportation will not make you be alike because you are doing it as in movie in Mynmar whereby you cannot do so to be with your own people asking for justice along with them.

    You can tell so loud as malaysian for other to hear so so and climb to the top of the world yet in the eyes of malaysian you will never be one to respect as many can see with their eyes for your wrong course of action!

    So long!

  15. #15 by best4rakyat on Wednesday, 29 June 2011 - 9:08 am

    It is written wrongly instead of the ‘silent’ emperor in the story just change to the ‘useless’ king !!!

  16. #16 by Thor on Wednesday, 29 June 2011 - 9:16 am

    It’s all over Jib, it’s all over!!!
    What ever force or tactics you use for now can never save you nor Umno.
    It’s not only the majorities who’re against you but also the divine as well.
    Just dissolve the parliament quick and all will goes well for everyone.
    A short headache is better than a long one.
    “RAHMAN” is over!!!

  17. #17 by dagen on Wednesday, 29 June 2011 - 9:28 am

    Decipher jibby jib? Oh no one can do a better job than johnny english when stung with a dose of super strength muscle relaxant.

  18. #18 by wanderer on Wednesday, 29 June 2011 - 9:45 am

    A SNAKE CAN SHED ITS SKIN MANY TIMES, BUT, IT WILL STILL REMAINED A SNAKE!…perhaps, deadlier than before.
    Never trust a compulsive liar, 53 years of this evil regime should have taught us all a bitter lesson. If we have learned nothing from it, we deserved to be screwed!!

  19. #19 by wanderer on Wednesday, 29 June 2011 - 9:49 am

    Our eunuch Malaysian “Macbeth” is clinging on closely to his Botox First Lady…his only hope?
    Altantuya, you are great!

  20. #20 by tak tahan on Wednesday, 29 June 2011 - 10:23 am

    No other than the ugly fat aspirant singer,Lohseemah could ever decipher canland’ Penipu Malaysia,jibi the jib.Ask Lohseemah what she heard from Najis’ continuous nightmares haunted by Altantuya,TBH,Sarbani,Aminulrashid,may 13 spirits and all the chilling whispers from his skeletons hidden in the closet as well as Bersih rally leading to his predicament.

  21. #21 by boh-liao on Wednesday, 29 June 2011 - 10:41 am

    Obviously there r two sets of rules in this nation: 1 4 ppl who support UmnoB/BN n d other 4 ppl considered 2 b against UmnoB/BN
    Polis treat d 2 grps of ppl differently
    D former grp can act violent n gather together without polis interference
    They can decide what can or cannot b done in d name of 护主; they can even 踢馆
    Let’s C what happens in d coming days leading 2 9.7.11

  22. #22 by Godfather on Wednesday, 29 June 2011 - 11:04 am

    A good leader inspires. A good leader leads in spite of the difficulties facing him. A good leader motivates his subordinates to produce 110 pct, makes them believe that they can be more than what they really are.

    In Najib’s case, he never leads. He stands 5 rows from the front, and waits to see what happens. He always hedges his bets, which means decisions never get made. That has been the story of his life, and at his age, there is no chance for change.

  23. #23 by dagen on Wednesday, 29 June 2011 - 11:47 am

    And he sends trial balloons, godfather. Those damned trial balloons!

  24. #24 by Antitheist on Wednesday, 29 June 2011 - 5:02 pm

    One definition of the word ‘minister’ is ‘servant’. Or one who acts upon the authority of another. In the case of a government minister – or servant, he/she acts upon the authority of the people they represent.

    THEY’RE SUPPOSED TO WORK FOR US..!

    FOR THE GOOD OF THE COUNTRY!

    The prime minister in most democracies is NOT a leader. He is a SERVANT OF THE PEOPLE – the number-one servant. But in Malaysia, it’s the other way round. In Malaysia it’s us who serve them. and we reinforce this every time we refer to them as “leaders” because it makes us “followers”.

    It’s about time for a change of mindset. Not just a change of government.

    STOP CALLING THIS **#@%*^$* A LEADER.

  25. #25 by raven77 on Thursday, 30 June 2011 - 2:35 am

    Its end of days for BN /UMNO….

    The rats would be booking their flights now….

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