Mahathir and Najib go head to head

Mahathir's criticism of Najib's lack of leadership has serious implications.

COMMENT

By J. D. Lovrenciear

The country is still reeling from the Tun’s public announcement that he is withdrawing his support for the number one leader of our nation.

What’s more, Mahathir Mohamad’s public criticism over Najib’s leadership is attracting differing reactions that only go to show that this match-of-our-times is not over – even if the mainstream media chooses to blank it out.

Prime Minister Najib’s first public response to the Tun’s assault has fallen flat with him claiming it an internal party matter.

How can our politicians be so naïve as to think that the citizens are not wary of the intentions of both?

The key issue here is the implications of Mahathir’s decision to withdraw support for the number one nation-driver.

Najib is more than an UMNO leader. He is the Prime Minister of Malaysia’s 28 million people, something leaders from across the globe recognise him for.

Suppose the leader of the opposition coalition said the same. What would the national stand be? What would the ruling Barisan National government do? One can only imagine the magnitude of the reverberations.

For Najib to meekly dismiss Mahathir’s criticisms of him as merely an internal party matter only raises more questions.

The public perception is that all is not well within UMNO, the pack leader of BN.

How do we now deal with this national shame? Najib’s reputation has been shot to pieces and serious collateral damage has been done, folks!

Suppose Najib is written off as a failure. Will the people now take to the streets to rally behind Mahathir to save the nation from further doom?

Suppose Najib is still endorsed as a capable leader, do the citizens then scream for the Tun’s head to rescue the nation from shame and disgrace?

Or should we ape the proverbial three-monkeys: see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil as we pray this too will die down to the point of being forgotten?

No. Something is seriously not right and Malaysians must take personal and collective accountability for all such failures.

If not, we will end up like the sorry frog in a pot of water that is slowly getting hotter by the second.

We must acknowledge we are in serious trouble now, before it is too late to save the nation.

In short, the spate between Mahathir and Najib is not an internal party problem. It is not even one man against another.

It is more the case of Mahathir never being happy with anyone unless the country gets a Mahathir clone to be PM.

It is far from being a simplistic case of personal opinion – there is more than meets the eye.

J. D. Lovrenciear is a FMT reader.