These days we have to be glad for even minuscule ameliorations to government form.
At least, the Najib Razak administration did not send its information minister to lecture the editorial department of prestigious Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail.
An award-winning correspondent of the paper had tagged Prime Minister Najib a "false democrat" in a column in its June 6 edition in which writer Mark McKinnon graded the types in a checklist of the 21st century's new autocrats.
The list, in descending order of depravity, begins with a description of bogus democrats in which he placed Najib, and extends to excoriating mad egotists, under which he included Hosni Mubarak who was forced out by the Arab Spring last year.
Displaying a prickliness that puts one in mind of a neighbouring country's government when faced with censure by foreign editorialists, an officer at Wisma Putra dashed off toThe Globe and Mail a disputation which the newspaper ran in its letters column earlier this week.
Good thing undersecretary Ahmad Rozian Abdul Ghani stopped short of taking a leaf off the book of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's information minister Zainuddin Maidin (above).
In 2007, Zainuddin visited the British Broadcasting Service's offices in London where he lectured them on how to get things right on Malaysian politics.
The occasion for Zainuddin's tut-tutting was the BBC's featuring of remarks from Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim in some news programmes on Malaysia. These were uncomplimentary to the Malaysian government.
Zainuddin advised the BBC editorial staff that the best informants on the Malaysian situation were people like him at the Information Ministry and not malcontents like Anwar.
The BBC journalists were incredulous. They inquired of Anwar when he came later to visit if people like Zainuddin really did emerge from a newspaper background (Zainuddin was an Utusan Malaysia biggie) because they found his knowledge of journalistic methods abysmal.
A more measured response
In glad contrast, Ahmad Rozian confined his umbrage at McKinnon's strictures on Najib to the written - rather than the hortatory - mode.
No, he did not demand a retraction from The Globe, nor did he threaten the publication with suspension of sales (if any) that the paper may have in Malaysia; neither did he warn of defamatory proceedings - all of which were hallowed practices of the Lee Kuan Yew administration in Singapore whenever it met with critical appraisals in such prestigious publications as The Economist, the now defunct Far Eastern Economic Review and International Herald Tribune.
Providence must be thanked for little mercies.
For in this imitation of prickliness in the face of criticism from the foreign press that is renowned from across the causeway, the Foreign Ministry did not go the full distance in emulation.
This is unlike Kuala Lumpur City Hall who have saddled the organisers of the Bersih protest on April 28 for free and fair elections with a bill for damages allegedly caused by the demonstrators which runs to something like RM350,000.
Needless to say, this bill and the hit-adversaries-where-it-hurts response of KL City Hall typify a certain mind-set that we well know.
It's one of the ironies of the present moment that just when sections of the Najib administration seem to be aping a certain module of reaction and response to adversity, others from among its claque of supporters are clamouring for punishment to be meted out to supposedly errant diplomats from that module's proprietors.
Perhaps this is a signal of the confusions that mark the onset of a crisis of identity. Certainly, the PM sports the symptoms of this malady.
He likes to project that he's liberal - at least, US Senator John McCain thinks so (he tweeted that Najib was an "impressive liberal" after a recent visit to the PM).
No intention to give up power
But Najib's actions and reactions, especially of those nominally under his control in government, gainsay the evidence for his liberalism.
In his case, the gap between ‘liberal' projection and reality has not been more starkly evident than in his stated responses to the issue of whether if Umno-BN loses the election it will willingly give up power.
Ahmad Rozian, in his letter toThe Globe and Mail, chose to deal with the issue elliptically - which fuels the misgivings about his patron's liberal credentials - rather than directly.
To the paper's claim that Najib holds elections but has no intention of giving up power, Ahmad Rozian's demurral was: "This view does not tally with the fact that the opposition won an unprecedented number of seats in the last election."
Ahmad Rozian is blasé about the distinction between acceptance of an increased presence for the opposition not amounting to federal government-wresting proportions and an acceptance of overall defeat should the ballot yield in a plurality for the opposition.
He elaborates only to skirt the issue: "Next time round, Malaysians will again be free to choose who they want to lead their country - and while the prime minister takes nothing for granted, he hopes he will be given a mandate to continue Malaysia's transformation."
What if Najib is not given the mandate to rule?
He has not said openly that he will accept defeat and that sticks in the craw of those wanting to attest his liberal credentials.
At least, the Najib Razak administration did not send its information minister to lecture the editorial department of prestigious Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail.
An award-winning correspondent of the paper had tagged Prime Minister Najib a "false democrat" in a column in its June 6 edition in which writer Mark McKinnon graded the types in a checklist of the 21st century's new autocrats.
The list, in descending order of depravity, begins with a description of bogus democrats in which he placed Najib, and extends to excoriating mad egotists, under which he included Hosni Mubarak who was forced out by the Arab Spring last year.
Displaying a prickliness that puts one in mind of a neighbouring country's government when faced with censure by foreign editorialists, an officer at Wisma Putra dashed off toThe Globe and Mail a disputation which the newspaper ran in its letters column earlier this week.Good thing undersecretary Ahmad Rozian Abdul Ghani stopped short of taking a leaf off the book of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's information minister Zainuddin Maidin (above).
In 2007, Zainuddin visited the British Broadcasting Service's offices in London where he lectured them on how to get things right on Malaysian politics.
The occasion for Zainuddin's tut-tutting was the BBC's featuring of remarks from Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim in some news programmes on Malaysia. These were uncomplimentary to the Malaysian government.
Zainuddin advised the BBC editorial staff that the best informants on the Malaysian situation were people like him at the Information Ministry and not malcontents like Anwar.
The BBC journalists were incredulous. They inquired of Anwar when he came later to visit if people like Zainuddin really did emerge from a newspaper background (Zainuddin was an Utusan Malaysia biggie) because they found his knowledge of journalistic methods abysmal.A more measured response
In glad contrast, Ahmad Rozian confined his umbrage at McKinnon's strictures on Najib to the written - rather than the hortatory - mode.
No, he did not demand a retraction from The Globe, nor did he threaten the publication with suspension of sales (if any) that the paper may have in Malaysia; neither did he warn of defamatory proceedings - all of which were hallowed practices of the Lee Kuan Yew administration in Singapore whenever it met with critical appraisals in such prestigious publications as The Economist, the now defunct Far Eastern Economic Review and International Herald Tribune.
Providence must be thanked for little mercies.For in this imitation of prickliness in the face of criticism from the foreign press that is renowned from across the causeway, the Foreign Ministry did not go the full distance in emulation.
This is unlike Kuala Lumpur City Hall who have saddled the organisers of the Bersih protest on April 28 for free and fair elections with a bill for damages allegedly caused by the demonstrators which runs to something like RM350,000.
Needless to say, this bill and the hit-adversaries-where-it-hurts response of KL City Hall typify a certain mind-set that we well know.
It's one of the ironies of the present moment that just when sections of the Najib administration seem to be aping a certain module of reaction and response to adversity, others from among its claque of supporters are clamouring for punishment to be meted out to supposedly errant diplomats from that module's proprietors.
Perhaps this is a signal of the confusions that mark the onset of a crisis of identity. Certainly, the PM sports the symptoms of this malady.
He likes to project that he's liberal - at least, US Senator John McCain thinks so (he tweeted that Najib was an "impressive liberal" after a recent visit to the PM).
No intention to give up power
But Najib's actions and reactions, especially of those nominally under his control in government, gainsay the evidence for his liberalism.
In his case, the gap between ‘liberal' projection and reality has not been more starkly evident than in his stated responses to the issue of whether if Umno-BN loses the election it will willingly give up power.
Ahmad Rozian, in his letter toThe Globe and Mail, chose to deal with the issue elliptically - which fuels the misgivings about his patron's liberal credentials - rather than directly.To the paper's claim that Najib holds elections but has no intention of giving up power, Ahmad Rozian's demurral was: "This view does not tally with the fact that the opposition won an unprecedented number of seats in the last election."
Ahmad Rozian is blasé about the distinction between acceptance of an increased presence for the opposition not amounting to federal government-wresting proportions and an acceptance of overall defeat should the ballot yield in a plurality for the opposition.
He elaborates only to skirt the issue: "Next time round, Malaysians will again be free to choose who they want to lead their country - and while the prime minister takes nothing for granted, he hopes he will be given a mandate to continue Malaysia's transformation."
What if Najib is not given the mandate to rule?
He has not said openly that he will accept defeat and that sticks in the craw of those wanting to attest his liberal credentials.
TERENCE NETTO has been a journalist for close on four decades. He likes the occupation because it puts him in contact with the eminent without being under the necessity to admire them. It is the ideal occupation for a temperament that finds power fascinating and its exercise abhorrent.
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