Bungling Najib may be forced by hudud, shaky BN to re-think GE-13

Prime Minister Najib Razak was in Penang over the weekend. He was riding a bicycle. He rode it for seven kilometres. He did not fall off the bike. However, minister in attendance and Gerakan president Koh Tsu Koon did fall off his bike and hit his head.

Tension, stress, gas, whatever it was, that's what happened to Tsu Koon. Maybe he was feeling dizzy because in Selangor, he finally said somehing with a milligram of truth in it. Wisely, he told his Gerakan collegaues not to waste time fighting for seats there because for sure, they won't win!

"Therefore, I urge those who are not chosen to contest to have an open heart and fully support the chosen candidates," words to remember from Tsu Koon!

The House of Najib shaken by clumsy maneuvers

Such a faux pas and this is why Najib is now mulling once again, should he really have the 13th General Eelection in November or next year in March/April. And no, this is not in jest.

And no, Najib did not scold Tsu Koon for his unguarded tongue, not when he himself had bungled, fumbled and dropped the ball in the 'hudud' issue.

Yes, Umno is in uproar and the supreme council is frowning at him. They much prefer his deputy Muhyiddin Yassin's smarter reply, Umno supports hudud but this not the right time. Rather than Najib's grand but silly vow,hudud will never take place in Malaysia!

So while in Penang, Najib put on a cheery smile and cycled to forget his troubles. He then told an anecdote about how he used to ride his bike from his house in Lake Gardens to the TangLing Hospital for nasi lemak when he was young.

He did not sing :

I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike

I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride it where it where I like

But he would have, if he thought it would help get your vote.

Bicycle, nasi lemak and also first ticket to ride

Najib would have you believe that he is a regular guy. He rode a bicycle like you did. He ate nasi lemak like you did, and do. Najib forgets that regular people, however, did not live in Lake Gardens when they were young; particularly not in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Nor do regular people live there now.

He shouldn’t have mentioned where he lived in his story. It spoils his act, which is, of course, precisely what it is, an act. He will need time to polish it.

Other parts of his act, of late, include making prank-calls to people; and saying, “cool”. This is to endear him to the younger voters, who, I suppose Najib’s researchers tell him, like a Prime Minister who plays pranks. While we are about it, we would advise him to add “dude” to his list of words.

In fact, Najib was never a regular person. He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and would never have to worry about making a living. Najib is also not “cool”; no matter how many silly pranks his handlers think up for him.

Consider on Saturday in Perak, he admitted that for the the first time in his life, he sat on a bus ride and it was not bad at all. Keeping him company was his wife Rosmah Mansor of the RM24 million diamond ring fame, and hangers-on Zambry Abdul Kadir and wife.

The Najib group hit the road from Tanjung Tualang town to Sekolah Kebangsaan Changkat Tin to attend a wedding. A pretty penny this bus ride would cost the people, because not many are aware of the extensive makeover of the interior, specially for him and Rosmah. And the mainstream media was of course not telling.

“I feel like crying when I saw this photo where it shows the PM took a bus to feel the hardship of the rakyat," tweeted Abang Ahmad Kerdi, a former PAS candidate for Beting Maro, reeling in sarcasm.

Not cool

So, as PKR president Wan Azizah has said, the PM's "not cool, not cool".

No, it is not cool to selectively prosecute your chief political opponent on trumped-up charges with the objective of locking him up so that you will win the election by default. It is cowardice. It is immoral. But it is not cool. Nor is it democratic.

It is not cool to try and wriggle your way out of testifying in court despite being issued with a subphoena. But this is precisely what Najib is trying to do. Because, we can only conclude, he does not want to be cross-examined in court. Cross-examinations are done for the purpose of establishing the truth. Why does Najib have a problem with this?

It is not cool to unleash Perkasa goons on a peaceful PAS ceramah and then go for a bicycle ride in Penang the next day. It was a tactic much favoured by Egypt’s Mubarak to unleash thugs on his political opponents and pretend he had nothing to do with it. And Mubarak was never “cool”.

Najib would be cool if he answered publicly, honestly and openly all questions related to the Altantuya case and the Scorpene scandal to a non-partisan interviewer. To this day, he refuses to do it. And it is too big and grey a cloud to be hanging unanswered over the Prime Minister of any self-respecting nation.

The list goes on, of course, but what is clear is that Najib and his doubtless well-paid advisers are trying to solve real issues using conjurers tricks and smoke and mirrors. Image consultants cannot hide the real Najib, who is, without question, a Malaysian Hyde.

Malaysia Chronicle