Prime Minister Najib: Look at the Flaws and Frailties of Your Leadership of our nation.

Today at 1:58pm
by Din Merican,

September 7, 2009

Of late, we have been witnessing desperate attempts by our 1Malaysia Prime Minister, Najib Tun Razak, to divert our attention away from his increasingly inapt and directionless administration. With the help of the mainstream media, he has launched a counteroffensive against the Pakatan Rakyat state governments and opposition leaders with great intensity. In so doing, he is diverting our attention away from issues of maladministration, corruption, general abuse of power, and mismanagement of our economy.

In his Pekan constituency yesterday, he said that “The credibility of the opposition state governments is continually being questioned by the people because they have made so many promises to the electorate before the general election and now the voters are demanding they deliver” (NST, September 7, 2009). He cited the cases of Kampong Lorong Buah Pala case in Penang and Temple Relocation in Section 23, Shah Alam as examples of the inability of the Pakatan Rakyat state administrations deal with and resolve problems. One wonder how many promises he has not fulfilled, given the resources available to him as Prime Minister-cum-Finance Minister.

We know that the Kampong Lorong Buah Pala issue is a leftover from the Barisan Nasional state government led by the now KPI minister Koh Tsu Khoon while the case of the temple in Shah Alam is a political time bomb of the previous Menteri Besar and UMNO Iago, Dr. Khir Toyo and his predecessors who allowed development around the 150 year old temple. Issues like these are part of Najib’s strategy to destabilise both state governments. in addition to denying them of budgetary allocations from the Federal government. Recall what he did in Perak early this year and now the tin state is ungovernable. Perakians are paying a heavy price for his actions. This disregard of the democratic right of people to choose a government of their own is still tolerated.

Now he hopes to take over Selangor and has been doing everything in his power including using government institutions to topple it. The Police and the MACC have been roped in to assist in Project Selangor. Both the Teoh Beng Hock Inquest, the PKFZ scandal and Police investigations into the Cowhead incident, inter alia, have take a back seat.Everyday a new issue crops up and public attention (limited as it already is) is being diverted from the failures of his administration. Najib has yet come to grips with the loss of public and investor confidence in his leadership at the national level. As a result, the state of our national economy, rising crime rate, rampant corruption and breakdown in public administration have been left unattended. We cannot afford a dysfunctional state at this juncture.

Prime Minister Najib is not listening to the people and worse still, not accepting the decision of voters who voted against UMNO-Barisan in the March 2008 general elections in the states of Kedah, Penang, Perak, Selangor and Kelantan and in subsequent by-elections starting in Permatang Pauh. Perhaps, he should listen to advice. What kind of advice can we give him? May be he should take it from the UMNO controlled New Straits Times (NST).

The NST in its editoral today, “Tested to Destruction“, commented as follows: “Listening to the people is the sine qua non of public service…Compassion and compromise are crucial in managing a nation divided among uncompromising polarities, but only insofar as they conduce to sound leadership”. I ask you if the leadership shown so far by Prime Minister Najib is “sound leadership”. To me he sounds more like a street corner politician some in the remote corners of Pekan, Pahang. He fails — maybe too he is self grossed and arrogant– to realise that what is being put to the test is the quality and integrity of his leadership of our country.