Najib's vanity begins to hurt and drag down Umno

One of the students who demonstrated against Malaysia’s draconian University and Colleges Act last Saturday, Adam Adli, brought down a flag of Najib Razak. It is not clear why Najib Razak had himself flown as a flag. Does he think he is a country?

It is the first time many of us would have heard of such a practice by the Prime Minister of Malaysia. Najib Razak has a likeness of himself hoisted as a flag in front of his party headquarters. It is more the kind of thing one would expect of the late but unmissed Kim Jong-Il.

The case of Najib’s face on a flag moves from laughable to sinister when it is combined with a song called ‘PM Kita’ (Our PM) which is being played on the BN governments usual propaganda outlets.

There is clearly method in Najib’s vainness. He is starting a personality cult! Or perhaps we should be honest, and call it a lack-of-personality cult. For if there is one trait that differentiates Najib from Anwar Ibrahim; it is Anwar’s charisma, personality and ready wit compared to Najib’s startling lack of the same.

Malaysia's own Kim Jong-Il

If we were on Oprah, we could investigate the possible events in Najib’s childhood that has led to his sad, overwhelming need for attention. Since we are not, we will instead suggest other attention getting methods for poor Najib.

He could have Najib mugs, Najib caps, Najib painted on the side of LRTs and KTM trains and Najib beaming from the sides of Air Asia’s planes. Najib buses, Najib schoolbags, Najib golf-balls and Najib written in the sky by sky-writing planes.

If this is not enough, then he could have stories published about how Najib made 12 hole-in-ones the first time he played golf (Kim Jong-Il claimed to have had 11), or how a comet appeared in the sky when he was born.

Police and Umno thugs on rampage over incident

Adam Adli, attempting to make a police report on threats to his person, suffered an attempted assault by a plainclothes policeman (yes, its on YouTube). The same policeman, claiming that his name was ‘Ruslan Mokhtar’, attempted to pass off the fiction that he was an ordinary member of the public who was outraged by Adam’s act of bringing down Najib’s ludicrous flag.

Ruslan also denied that he was an ‘Umno Gangster’ while acting exactly like one. It is hard to decide whether ‘Ruslan’ is an ‘Umno Gangster’ or a plainclothes policeman as the two are not mutually exclusive. ‘Ruslan’ also threatened to ‘track down’ and ‘teach a lesson’ to Adam.

Police present did not appear to be interested in enforcing the law by arresting ‘Ruslan’ for his threats. Possibly they are, as usual, waiting for a report so that they can not act on it.

No longer the sole representative of the Malays

What is clear is that Adam’s act has unnerved an already jittery Umno. They have reacted by calling Adam ‘kurang ajar’ (ill-bred), threatening him physically and generally running him down. It would have been unheard of in the past for a Malay to march into Umno’s headquarters and haul down a flag of its president. But times have changed, and Umno will have to accept that they are no longer the sole representative of the Malays.

They have not been so for some time. Certainly Umno cannot be the representative of the poorest Malays who make up 70% of those leaving below the poverty line in Malaysia. Instead, Umno now represents a minority made wealthy by policies and special treatment that is ruining the country for the majority of the Malays and everybody else.

How to expect Malaysian youth to respect someone vain and incompetent

Umno now tolerates in its midst Ministers whose spouses and children clumsily launder millions in government funds into swank condominiums in KL, in Singapore and in goodness knows where else. Such corruption is not an individual failing in Umno but a systemic malaise which has taken unshakable root in the once respected party.

For example the NFC was awarded to Shahrizat Jalil’s family but it was awarded by Muhyiddin who allowed the handing out of public funds, sans any restrictive covenant, before an agreement was even signed. And it appears to have been in some way brokered by Khairy Jamaluddin who fell all over himself trying (at first), to protect Shahrizat Jalil. The public, belt firmly tightened in the face of rising prices, can be forgiven for concluding that they are all in it together.

As for the irreverent Adam Adli, he will prove to be the straw that broke the camel’s back, and most certainly, a true Malay, and Malaysian, hero. Put him on a flag and he will have deserved it more than the vain, lackluster and less than competent Najib Razak.