‘Najib is a rational leader if…’

Former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew's book Hard Truth qualifies the much publicised 'LKY says Najib is a rational leader' headlines in the mainstream media.

COMMENT

The hungry Malaysian mainstream media (MSM) which holds no good feelings about Singapore Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew (LKY) recently blared the headlines that LKY thinks Najib is a “rational leader”.

The MSM people are myopic to ignore the fact, that Najib’s rationality as a leader is a qualified statement.

Unluckily for the MSM people, there are many of us who also read the book.The gravest mistake the MSM can make is to assume the reading public is composed of dullards.

They think they can slash and burn, carry out selective misinformation.

So I come back to this widely headlined- ‘LKY says Najib is a rational leader.’

In his book, Hard Truth, LKY qualified his description of Najib, but the MSM people are myopic and ignored that important fact.

In what sense, can Najib be regarded as a rational leader?

According to LKY in order for Najib to qualify as a rational leader, Najib must reorganize the basis on which Malaysia operates.

Number 1: Malaysia has to get rid of its Malay ultra-Malaysia. If he does that , Najib is a rational leader; and

Number 2: Malaysia must follow the Singapore way- get rid of its envy and pangs of separation.

Najib is rational if he can abandon this notion of a social balance that insists that Malays be on top.

Fighting against Umno prejudices

How is Singapore organized according to Lee Kuan Yew?

LKY says Singapore is a multiracial, meritocracy with a balance between the races, social and economic classes.

Of course the Chinese dominate but this LKY justifies by imputing the Chinese are superior in so many ways.

Najib, he says, is rational because he wants to work with Singapore and wants to cooperate with Singapore.

The two countries do not have to live off one another, but work together on convergent interests.

That’s how, according to LKY, rational and pragmatic countries work.

These things, the MSM journalist never tell us. So when they blared about Najib being rational, they didn’t elaborate.

Because in order for Najib to become rational, he would have to pit himself against the prejudices that Umno people have.

And that would mean Najib will of course have to square off against the most recent Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s insistence that Malaysia is Tanah Melayu and Umno is nothing but a party of contracts.

The writer is a former Umno elected rep in Pahang and this article is an excerpt of his recent writing in his sakmongkolak47 blogsite.