After 52 years in politics, I thought no propaganda offensive and lies, however bizarre or outlandish, would have surprised me but I was wrong.

I refer to the scurrilous attack by Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s aide, Tengku Sarifuddin Tengku Ahmad on former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, playing on Mahathir’s description of himself as “top dog” of Pakatan Harapan and claiming that in reality the “top dog’s leash in Kit Siang’s hand”.

In my 52 years in Malaysian politics, I had faced six Prime Ministers – Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak, Tun Hussein Onn, Tun Mahathir Mohamad, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Najib himself, but I had never descended to the gutter level of making personal attacks on anyone or them, always respecting the highest offices in the land and the personalities involved.

The term “top dog” may not be the most apt and correct term, but it must be regarded as an absolute “No No” in Malaysian politics to have to raid the animal kingdom to lower the bar in personal attacks on political opponents, especially a former Prime Minister who had been the longest-serving premier in the nation’s history!
Read the rest of this entry »