Systemic failure

Its time to think

Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Mohd. Najib Tun Razak if has not, by now should have come to terms what happened when majority of Malaysians decided nine days ago. Even though Barisan Nasional managed to win 133 Parliamentary seats and ten out of twelve state governments, there was systemic failure on his part.

Firstly, all the PR work all these while to bring tens of thousands of Malaysians in events such as ‘Jelajah Janji DiTepati’, the CNY-Psy concert in Penang, the CNY do with Dong Zong and other ‘Jom Heboh’ type of gatherings didn’t actually translate to real support for his leadership and party. These PR work include advertisements placed and sms blastings. In short, all are artificial gimmicks that were unable to bring in the sales.

Next is the as the Prime Minister and Head of Government, he enjoys the luxury of having various agencies’ ‘intel’ in the form of analysis and report. Whether it is the terrain, landscape, sentiments, choice of candidates and most of all, ground swell. Needless to say, he made the election call based on inaccurate analysis of streams of processed information and prognosis.

The fact that suffered a serious let down of Chinese votes, dubbed ‘Chinese Tsunami’ without any of the necessary ‘intel’ either from party strategists (more commonly known in the 13GE as the ‘War Room’) or the advisors based on various information which include from ‘the agencies’. It should be likened to Admiral Kelley’s failure to detect Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto’s Task Force miraculous journey eastwards across the Pacific and later southwards until these Japanese bombers are above Pearl Harbour and Wake Field.

Thirdly, there are many complaints, grouses, bickering and gross displeasure by so many quarters on the choice of the candidates offered. This came as an utter surprise considering that he had a lot of time to deliberate with many levels of party leaders.

That is not withstanding the fact that the disbursement of resources to candidates, which include funds, was not smooth and stories about defects were rampant. Despite tonnes of money was spent, it is strongly believed not all trickled down election purposes.

It is obvious that Prime Minister Najib did not posses the command of the party and respect as he should be as UMNO President and BN Chairman. The amount of mutiny and sabotage by party leaders and their machinery is unprecedented. This is not withstanding the fact that all levels of party leaders and members did not adhere to their promise to go along and work for any candidates picked for 13GE.

The failure on the enforcement of the rule of law should be considered a factor of dismay support for BN. Opposition leaders broke almost every single laws with their actions, challenges, provocations and insults. It is almost like the goal posts against them were often shifted and this has been seen the Federal Government willingness to compromise.

On Selangor, Prime Minister Najib as the State BN Chairman should be accountable for the humiliating defeat and worsen results as compared to the 13GE. The amount of money invested to re-capture Selangor as compared to result obtained is really shameful.

The fact that as the BN Selangor Chairman, he made the cardinal mistake to take on the job as the Liaison Chairman when he was unable t invest enough time, energy and attention. It was made worse when he didn’t identify the future Menteri Besar had BN was able to takeover the state, unlike in Kedah where 6 hours before campaigned ended he made the announcement.

The Prime Minister attending Dong Zong Chinese New Year celebration was clearly a mistake and sending the wrong message that he was willing to stoop low for votes.

It is funny that many people got wiser after the event. However, in the case of ‘Chinese Tsunami’, the writings were already on the wall and as far back as six months ago it was all so clear. Example in Johor, where it is believed that Prime Minister Najib’s own so-called ‘Advisors’ were confident to gaining between 30-35% of the Chinese votes. On polling day, only 11.1% of the Johorean Chinese voted BN.

That is a 70% defect.

Defects in detection of the sentiments on the ground, writings on the wall, the streams of news reports, articles and editorials by all the Chinese newspapers and Chinese owned and controlled English dailies coupled with everything else aggregated and compounded is nothing but evidence of systemic failure.

Prime Minister Najib can no longer afford any systemic failure. He should start with his Cabinet and immediate actions. He must be seen to be a tough leader and not willing to compromise. He must have the will and resolve to whip everyone into shape. ‘National Reconciliation’ must be within the binds of the Federation of Malaysia Constitution. -bigdogdotcom