Nur Jazlan needlessly stirs a hornet’s nest

 

By Terence Netto

Pyromaniacs are fond of starting fires. Some, to mitigate their miscreance, do call out the fire brigade to put out the flames.

One is not sure if Umno supreme councillor Nur Jazlan Mohamad belongs in the second category.

He ought to because his suggestion, in the wake of Umno’s thumping victory at the Makhota by-election last Saturday, that Pakatan Harapan apologise for its decades-long lambasting of Umno for assorted misdeeds is incendiary.

The best way for Nur Jazlan to douse the resultant flames is to reel in the lighted match he has hurled.

No sooner had Nur Jazlan’s Molotov cocktail of a suggestion landed then PH component, PKR, launched a counter-thrust through its deputy information chief Razeef Rakimin.

Countering with loaded phrases are the retorts in what seems like the beginnings of an intramural feud within the Madani coalition.

Razeef said Nur Jazlan’s suggestion showed that Umno has not shed its 

arrogant

 ways.

He asserted Umno instead ought to be grateful for had it not been for the criticisms of PH, it would not have changed its 

conceited and corrupt

 ways.

After these opening salvoes, any subsequent broadsides from either the Umno or PH sides would be more kindling to the fire.

Another PH component, DAP, perennial scapegoat for the troubles Umno and other Malay parties perceive as besetting the Malays, ought to see value in playing the role of peacemaker.

After all, its secretary-general Loke Siew Fook, in welcoming Umno’s emphatic win in the Makhota poll, stressed that victory gave the Madani coalition opportunity to build internal harmony.

Loke should move quickly to douse the embers that Nur Jazlan’s ill-judged suggestion and Razeef’s provocative riposte have stirred.

He should use backchannels to prevent Umno youth firebrand chief Dr Akmal Saleh from joining the fray.

Loke would enhance his growing reputation as a unifier of contending parties and deflect the largely unfair criticism of DAP as fifth columnists within the Madani coalition.

He should seek the help of Umno’s higher-ups to hold off Akmal’s penchant to add fuel to fire.

Umno’s two by-election victories at Nenggiri and Makhota should be the impetus for its top brass to advise its malcontents from behaving like the playground spoilt sport who makes off with the ball when the play does not suit him.

Escalation in the Nur Jazlan versus Razeef Rakimin imbroglio is the last thing a Madani coalition needs at the stage of its pushback against the PAS green wave. - FMT

Terence Netto is a senior journalist and an FMT reader.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.