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Saturday, July 23, 2011

Happy birthday Mr PM

Najib turns 58 today and as far as the rakyat are concerned, they can only pray that he is bestowed with wisdom in leading a nation as diverse and challenging as Malaysia.

COMMENT

Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak has a knack for ditching the rakyat when they need him the most.

In just two years, the premier has succeeded in proving that his 1Malaysia and ‘people first’ mantra are nothing but lip service and rhetorics.

Typically, ‘what goes around comes around’, the tide has turned against Najib. Najib’s latest antic of leaving the people to face the wrath of the police on July 9 was enough for many to decide he is not the leader they want as the nation’s premier.

The Facebook page demanding Najib’s resignation had as of this morning recorded 207, 935 “likes”. The page, titled ‘100,000 People Request Najib Tun Razak’s Resignation’ was created immediately after the July 9 Bersih 2.0 rally.

It was reported that the page registered 300 “likes” per minute following the July 9 rally and hit the 100,000 mark within three days of creation.

The July 9, 2011 rally was the initiative of election watchdog Bersih 2.0, the aim being to free the electoral system from corruption and manipulation. Despite the coalition’s willingness to work with the police, Najib at the last minute turned back on his word and left it to the police to deal with the ‘Walk for Democracy’ supporters.

The ‘green light’ from Najib was all that the police needed. It spared no effort in firing tear gas and water cannons at the supporters. The tear gas was even fired inside the compound of the Tung Shin Hospital in Jalan Pudu, a fact which the Health Minister Liow Tiong Lai initially refuted.

The July 9 incident which bears proof of the police brutality has also gone on to earn Najib the ire of foreign nations. His official visit to the United Kingdom was not as pleasant as he had expected.

The UK premier David Cameron reportedly had queried Najib on the Bersih rally. And w hen Najib and wife Rosmah Mansor had an audience with Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace, the queen too sent home a message to Najib, knowingly or otherwise. Her yellow attire was enough to give Najib a ‘jaundice’ attack.

Najib’s popularity is now at an all-time low and with the latest development concerning the death verdict of Selangor political aide Teoh Beng Hock, it is very difficult for Najib to regain the trust of the people.

RCI finding no surprise

On July 21, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Nazri Mohd Aziz revealed the findings of the Royal Commission of Inquiry which says Teoh was not murdered but had committed suicide as he was unable to bear the aggressive interrogation by three Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officers.

Teoh, 30, had fallen to his death at the then Selangor MACC office in Shah Alam on July 16, 2009, after an overnight interrogation.

Does this disturbing verdict free the MACC of any wrongdoing? Whatever it is, the conclusion leaves no room to doubt that the country’s justice system continues to be manipulated by the ‘powers that be’.

The public outcry that this latest development is set to result in is something Najb cannot pretend to ignore. When he refused to select even one of the seven names suggested by Teoh’s family to sit on the RCI, that itself was ground for doubting that justice would ever come Teoh’s family’s way.
Incidentally, one of the names submitted by Teoh’s family was that of lawyer Ambiga Sreenevasan, who heads Bersih 2.0 and was one of the key face behind the ‘Walk for Democracy’ rally.

Najib’s lack of respect for the judiciary is going to cost him his plush chair in his cosy Putrajaya office. The Bersih 2.0 rally and now the doubtful verdict on Teoh Beng Hock’s death will become the noose that with time will end up suffocating the prime minister.

To most people, they have not forgotten the arrogance Najib has displayed since assuming premiership in 2009.

Najib has not made an effort to assist the Penan women and girls who are continuously raped by timber loggers attain justice.

It is also Najib who has shown no courage to rebuke the Umno-owned Malay daily Utusan Malaysia for fanning racial discord through its seditious editorials and articles.

Likewise, Najib is the least bothered with Perkasa, the extremist Malay group which keeps threatening and humiliating the non-Malays.

Najib, shape up or ship out

Why does Najib so easily ditch the people in times of need? Is Perkasa his tool to achieve his very own agendas?

The premier displayed no interest in solving the issue surrounding the novel ‘Interlok’ which is used by Fifth Formers. The novel is said to degrade the Indian community.

Najib has shown no interest in tackling issues affecting the Christian community and this alone was enough to earn him the ridicule of many during his trip to Vatican City where he met Pope Benedict XVI.

Najib is silent yet again, this time concerning a report by Sarawak Report that Sarawak chief minister Taib Mahmud’s assets in Switzerland are under investigation by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA).

If Najib gets his way, he will do anything possible to ‘silence’ the rakyat. He tried on July 9 and before that on May 1 when 400 members of the public took part in this year’s May Day rally.

The May Day rally was the rakyat’s way of showing their concern, frustration and unhappiness with the rising cost of living. Instead of empathy, Najib turned to the cops and got the rally organisers arrested under the ‘illegal’ assembly charge.

Here too, incidentally, the key names behind the May Day rally comprised that of Sungai Siput MP Dr D Michael Jeyakumar and activist S Arutchelvan, both whom were arrested.

Dr Jeyakumar is now detained under the Emergency Ordinance under the allegation of playing a role in the Bersih 2.0 July 9 rally and for being a national threat.

For a leader who claims ‘people first’, Najib has failed those very people so many times and that too when it concerns their ‘bread and butter’. Nothing shocking then that the rakyat have given up on Najib, who now needs nothing short of a miracle to stay put as the prime minister.

In any case, it is Najib’s birthday today. The premier turns 58 and as far as the rakyat is concerned, they can only pray that their leader is bestowed with wisdom in leading a nation as diverse and challenging as Malaysia.

Jeswan Kaur is a freelance journalist and a FMT columnist.

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