You can’t kill the news bearer and look good

Malaysians have the right to know what their leaders are up to.

Sixty years ago, when Marilyn Monroe sang Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friends, little did she know some women would take the song as gospel truth.

The Prime Minister’s wife, who goes by the title First Lady of Malaysia, has made a name for herself not by her philanthropic efforts, unfortunately, but by the public’s association of her with all things expensive.

But the public had better beware. It has become dangerous to get on Rosmah Mansor’s wrong side, as The Heat recently found out.

The weekly’s publisher has received a show-cause letter from the Home Ministry, believed to be over the front-page article of its Nov 23-29 issue, “All eyes on big spending Najib”.

It is also believed that editor-in-chief David Lee Boon Siew was summoned to the ministry a week ago and told to tone down the magazine’s reports.

HCK Media, the publisher, has 14 days to reply to the show-cause letter, which was issued late last week.

In this country, speaking the truth comes at a price, particularly when it is Rosmah who is being spoken about.

Still, there should be no excuse for hiding the truth. Malaysians have every right to know what their leaders and their immediate family members are up to. This is especially applicable to Rosmah because she seems to be doing what the rakyat has paid others to do.

At least that’s what her defenders, including her husband, tell us.

According to her blog, Rosmah actively champion’s women’s issues. That’s well and good. All of her predecessors were also, in one way or another, involved with women’s issues and welfare programmes, but none of them attracted controversy.

One reaps what one sows. None of the previous prime minister’s wives tried to portray herself as a public figure that was the equal of any elected official. And certainly none had a department dedicated to FLOM affairs, and none meddled in politics, as did Rosmah when she defended the National Service Programme, the Najib brainchild that kept making news for all the wrong reasons.

She has also felt the need to defend the huge budget for her Permata programme for gifted children.

And now the subject is her extravagance in using a government executive jet to dash off to Qatar to supposedly represent Malaysia at some event at a time when the rest of us are desperately trying to grapple with the high cost of living while worrying about coming hikes in fuel prices and how we’re going to cope with the Goods and Services Tax.

Why the royal treatment when she could have flown MAS, and thereby show her support for the struggling national airline and save taxpayer money to help the government service the national debt?

Rosmah said she would not give two hoots to what her detractors were saying. However, her hubby apparently felt differently and thought it was high time to launch a Save Rosmah campaign.

Najib said the nation owed his wife a debt of gratitude for coming to his aid in the nick of time on a few occasions.

Apparently, she contacted the Egyptian president’s wife to secure the release of a Malaysian student arrested on suspicion of being a spy and used her good relations with the Saudi royals to enable students to enter their country without visas.

It’s good to know that Rosmah can be relied upon in times of crisis, but isn’t Najib ashamed that he could not count on Wisma Putra or our diplomats overseas?
Still, the issue is not just about allowing Rosmah the use of the government jet as Najib’s quid pro quo for her timely assistance. The bigger question is why does Rosmah meddle in government business? Why aren’t the boundaries clear for her?

Punishing writers and news organisations for reporting the news is not going to reduce the bad press they are getting, especially on the Internet.

You can’t shoot messengers and expect your image to improve thereby. A more effective strategy is to do something truly good, like genuinely fighting for a worthy cause.

Not too long ago, a worthy cause did come Rosmah’s way, but she has apparently wasted the opportunity.

During a visit that she made to Kuching, three women handed her a letter in which her help was sought in addressing women’s rights in Sarawak. This followed a government report about Penan women and schoolgirls being the targets of rape by the employees of logging companies.

The three women complained that state authorities were indifferent to the issue.

According to NGO reports, the raping spree continues. We would like to know what Rosmah is doing about it.