This is useful if you want to buy time, but not effective if you want to run a government.
Najib is burdened by a further paradox. He is presiding over not one but two coalitions. Mahathir himself is the second coalition, a storehouse of multiple interests that requires dexterous management even during times of serenity. Personal feuds are only a part of the alternative story; there are genuine and strongly held differences over policy. This is healthy, up to a point; when that point comes, the leader must demand obedience to a government decision. An astute veteran like Anwar would not have berated as a misguided intellectual snob whose single idea was to shoot his way through lead the Malaysproblem, without tacit support from UMNO. The Prime Minister has imprisoned himself in the rather dubious proverb, that silence is golden. Silence is too aloof an option for democracy.
A fundamental equation has been quietly reversed The casualty is credibility: it began to creep away but the pace has gradually built up to a crawl. If Najib whose own reputation remains more positive than that of his government, does not act soon, the pace will quicken to a trot and develop into an irreversible gallop.Weakness is contagious. It tends to debilitate even those limbs of the body politic that are functioning normally. Congress ministers have always known that they owe their jobs to party president Call it the Najib paradox: the strength of his power largely upon on how weak he is as Prime Minister. The glue holds because he has no power over his ministers. One minister is caught with his pants down till and shrugs off accusation with impunity; a second has no time for Cabinet meetings; a third dismisses a portfolio as people-centric Najib okay with ministers hiring kin All the Prime Minister can do is smile and carry on. The smile is wearing thin. ‘Of course, Najib will allow it. It’s leadership by example. After all, his own wife has set a precedent already.’no one expects Najib to lead UMNO in the next general elections. Najib admitted as much at his only press conference held, ironically, to project an image of control. Instead, he will passed the baton when he said, in his typically honest manner, that he would make way for Muhaiyuddin the momentMahathir was asked to do so. Power is never stagnant. It either consolidates around the leader, or ebbs. Those with longer plans for the future than the Prime Minister are establishing individual markers at the cost of collective cohesion.A helpless Prime Minister induces a hapless government. Drift, as the term indicates, is never in a hurry. A government can float a long way before someone realizes that it has lost direction. Drift does not threaten a government’s survival, but it saps the people’s patience.
The paradox may seem puzzling but is easily comprehensible. It is always much more difficult to run a weak government than a strong one. The latter has a command structure, purpose and enough discipline to induce confidence in the ever-watchful voter. A weak government is great news for a newspaper, and even better fodder for television; but that is where its limited entertainment utility ceases. During his first five years, Najib was an anchor that was powerful enough to keep the ship steady through heavy turbulence in the final 12 months of its journey. Victory in 2013 could have made him master of a cruise liner. If, however, he continues to do nothing, he could become captain of a paper boat.
Where did Tengku Adnan obtain his education? what kind of a pariah minister does Najib Tun Razak have in his present cabinet? Despite being placed at the helm of the Federal Territories and Urban Well-being Minister ,when majority of the constituencies have voted for Pakatan, Tengku Adnan has no qualms to say that the Federal Government has no obligation towards the fire victims who come from a constituency that is under the Opposition.The sin lies not in the act, but in being caught in LINGAMGATE INDSCRIBEThis is not a very well known story–that of a wife building a monument in memory of her husband. The mausoleum stands amid ruins in the historic Najibabad town in Bijnore district in Uttar Pradesh (UP), India. Unlike the story of Taj … Read more
Steps toward change
disagrees with Najib about change taking a few generations.‘Najib could be our Super Hero’, and said that the change which Najib dreams about could be almost instant.
The first 11 steps might be those listed below. I am sure you can think of many more.First. Detain Mahathir for treason. Remove him and put him in solitary
confinement before he faces trial. Najib may be surprised to see how the nation would be solidly behind him.
The Attorney-General, the Inspector-General of Police and the head honcho of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) are to be held for crimes against the state.
Not everyone in the civil service is corrupt. Many civil servants confide that they are disgusted by the orders they have to follow. Najib should promote senior staff members who are persons of principle and known to be free of corruption.
The Police, the Army, the judiciary or other institutions cannot simply be disbanded as this will lead to a state of anarchy, like after the invasion of Iraq. Good people with potential to lead will soon assume control. We have enough laws. They just need to be consistently enforced.Always watch out for ‘The Big Obsessive Scam’ the media goes after. It often covers up a great deal more than it reveals. It also draws away our immediate attention from issues where we were about to get close to a dangerous truth or two. Poirot famously described it as a red herring, a cunning device to draw people’s attention away from real issues to focus on a non sequitur MacGuffin.Like the MacGuffin, which Hitchcock made cult, The Big Obsessive Scam vanishes or becomes irrelevant once its purpose is over.A wonderful school which opened every morning with a chapel service. One of the most quoted lines there was from Corinthians. It spoke of three great virtues: faith, hope and charity, of which the greatest was charity. Years later, Mother Teresa told me it was her favourite verse.Police not the only ones corrupt, DBKL just as bad, says FT ministerThis is what scam could be: Too much outrage chasing what matters so little to most of us. The evidence in hand is flimsy, so flimsy that it’s unlikely to get past the smallest court but the noise around it is so much one would think World War III has broken out.When the tail seeks to wag the dog snaky Minister Tengku Adnan can be trusted to trade diatribes on which one has effectively addressed issues of urgent concern to voters: development, inflation, corruption and governance. Each one will also have to spell out what differentiates it from the other. Two battle-lines are in sight. One will pit … Read more
The Incumbent Insecure Minister of Home Affairs
Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who has only one move in his playbook: use the sledgehammer to pummel and bully his way to hero status in UMNO. Justice, fairness, moderation are words that have no place in Zahid’s small world, crowded out by grandstanding.
The question was also in response to a growing sense that the country is in a tailspin, buffeted from every side by worsening race relations, intolerance, a crime epidemic and in serious need of a firm but fair hand.
UMNO politicians have the slogans but few of them understand that fairness and justice are critical building blocks of nationhood.Citizens in mature democracies must also appreciate that no system can be perfect and please all its constituencies. The idea is to ensure freedom of speech as far as possible, if the spirit of democracy is to be enjoyed to its maximum, and ensure that the country works within a law and order framework, if … Read more
The end result: a lack of respect among the public for the moral standing or competence of government leaders. And a growing sense of desperation for that one leader who can halt the country from sliding further into the abyss of despair with that combination of firmness, fairness and moderation.
There is no problem with a minister or a member of the government administration recruiting a family member as his aide if it does not involve any payment of salary or allowance to the aide by the government, says Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.
The son of Nazri Aziz, Mohamad Nedim, once praised by his father as a successful businessman, is listed as a special officer at the ministry.
After the 13th general election, Nazri replaced Ng Yen Yen as Tourism minister.
Nedim was thrust to media limelight last year over an involvement in an assault case, which later brought into the open his lavish lifestyle including his friendship with Michael Chia, the shady businessman caught with some RM40 million in hard cash by Hong Kong authorities.
None other than prominent whistleblower and Pandan member of parliament Rafizi Ramli had in November last year revealed the outcome of his own investigation on Nedim, and uploaded seven video clips on YouTube to show how the minister’s son was enjoying the benefits of his friendship with Chia in the form of a luxury SUV Hummer.
When asked for his reaction following the expose, Nazri said he was not answerable to his son’s activities.
“I’m a rich man, I’m powerful, good looking. Wealthy. So what can I do?”I have a film star punya status here you know? Celebrity. Not local film star, but Hollywood,” said Nazri.When quizzed by The Malaysian Insider about his son’s latest role, however, Nazri said his son’s status was that of an office boy.
“I can call him errand boy or office boy, if that would please people. I am paying him, not the government,” he told the news site.The task is to decipher the moral basis of the Malay political community into actionable language . People in the end obey the law because they think it is fair and just, that it applies equally to all, and because they get morally habituated to it. It thus becomes a form of self-restraint . Hence, … Read more
