Zam: The end of Najib and his roadshows

The PM no longer commands confidence of the people, the integrity of the Cabinet was questioned.

KUALA LUMPUR: The reasons being trotted out for aborting the Nothing2Hide Forum, security considerations and upon the advice of the police among others, are seen as making fools out of the people. This is evident from the explosion of views in the social media. “The result of insincerity in arranging the Forum, and the focus more on bravado, ‘openness’ and ‘being clean’, has been the further loss of the people’s confidence in the government.”

Ironically, noted a former Information Minister, the objective of the psy war Forum was to convince the people that there was nothing for Najib to hide amidst all the suspicions directed at him in the wake of 1MDB’s financial woes. “No Prime Minister in the history of the nation has ever shamed himself in such a manner.”

“Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak has not only shamed himself but has also placed the credibility of the Cabinet and government at stake,” said Zainuddin Maidin in a headshaker in his latest blog posting. “What’s even worse, all this happened just a day after Najib had thumped on his chest as a Bugis warrior who was brave, never shirked from battle, but he was in fact the first to disappear from the battle ground even before the war began.”

Najib failing to turn up as promised, he reiterated, has reduced public confidence in him to the lowest level possible. “He’s being found wanting, by the entire nation, on transparency, honesty and sincerity.”

Zainuddin expects the Forum being aborted, for no rhyme or reason, to have a huge impact on the roadshows that he has embarked on to explain himself to the nation. “They no longer believe him,” he said. “He was lying when he said that he was a Bugis hero and a brave Bugis warrior.”

Zainuddin, continuing, expects the demoralizing effects of the Forum being aborted to place even greater pressure on not only Najib but his entire Cabinet. “The Cabinet members will feel that their integrity would be challenged because, in the eyes of the people, they are reporting to someone who no longer commands their confidence.”

It’s unthinkable that the Prime Minister, surrounded by security advisers, he added, couldn’t anticipate the situation when he in gung-ho style promoted the Forum as an “I am ready to tell all”.

Zainuddin surmises that Najib may perhaps have been too confident in his new media adviser, Lim Kok Wing, in allowing preparations for the Forum to go ahead and did not take the police into consideration and keep in mind that other factors would come into play to compromise the occasion.

“From the beginning, I suspected that this was a stage-managed Forum, psy war from the organisation stage, including the attendance, the panel, the moderator until those who would have the role of applauding and the supporting debaters,” said Zainuddin. “The possibility of Mahathir turning up was not taken into consideration or anticipated when the Forum was touted as an open occasion.”

“I asked myself: ‘What if Mahathir turns up?”

Zainuddin disclosed that Mahathir turning up at the Forum was the topic, until this morning, among several professionals at a café he frequents in Precinct 8 Putrajaya. “I responded that knowing Mahathir, he would attend the Forum,” he said. “He would be willing to go down to the level of the street fighter, the lowest level possible.”

Mahathir, he ventured, turned up not to debate but just to listen. “Things took a dramatic turn on the stage after he turned up, the journalists were not allowed in, and the former Prime Minister himself replaced Najib to render an impromptu information briefing.”

“It was at this point that the Forum was aborted.”