By Tunku Aziz
Opinion | The Malaysian Insider | 13 March 2009
No one in living memory has ever had to drag so much unnecessary baggage along with him as Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak is doing on assuming the highest political office in Malaysia.
My heart naturally goes out to the unfortunate man who has had to fend off, without a break, a relentless barrage of poison-tipped arrows all aimed at his personal and public integrity.
I will not claim to know how he must feel because I would have absolutely no idea unless I were in his well-heeled shoes. And this would be most unlikely even in a million years.
Under different and happier circumstances, he should be celebrating his moment of destiny, the attainment, albeit Umno-style, of the greatest political prize of all.
However, I doubt, in spite of his calm and controlled demeanour and composure that he is looking forward to the great day with even the same degree of enthusiasm that I manage to work up each morning for my breakfast.
Frankly I marvel at his ability to remain almost as unflappable (as the legendary Harold Macmillan, the British Tory prime minister of the “winds of change” fame) in such a difficult and dangerous situation. He would, in my book, rate an A+ for sang froid and panache.
For Najib, the saying “uneasy lies the head that wears the crown” seems entirely superfluous and irrelevant. Lucky you to be oblivious to the hostile world around.
Najib in the eyes of his detractors, and their numbers are legion, apparently has no redeeming feature at all which cannot be true because no human being is all bad.
However, the rumours about him that appear with such regular monotony on many blogs are unlikely to go away any time soon. The allegations are serious in the extreme, touching as they do upon his personal honour and integrity.
They will continue to dog and haunt him for as long as he holds public office. What a way to begin his stewardship of a troubled nation, a nation that seems to lack moral direction under the present government.
On present showing, his moral and ethical legitimacy to lead the nation is in serious doubt, and he must, for the sake of putting these malicious allegations to rest, once and for all, begin the process of suing those who have blackened his name and threatened his elevation to the office of prime minister of Malaysia.
This is the only way of clearing his name before the world. Nothing less than a full and open recourse to the justice system will suffice. The people of this country must not be shortchanged by having someone who has yet to clear his name in a court of law foisted on them.
They deserve better and Najib the new prime minister will then deservedly enjoy inestimable legitimacy and prestige in the eyes of the people of this country and the wider world.
Najib has all the positive qualities of leadership. He is literally and figuratively head and shoulders above the rest of the Umno stalwarts and it would be a pity if he chose to ignore the increasingly persistently strident collective voice for high moral and ethical standards in our political leaders.
It seems only fair that if Najib should feel unable for any reason to defend his honour and integrity in a court of law, then he will have to put up with more imputations of improper motives.
If he is not prepared, again for any reason, to put all of his actions under the closest public scrutiny, then he should reconsider his position. This is the ethical way forward, the only way, for anyone aspiring to the highest public office who harbours even the slightest doubt about his moral and ethical fitness for office. Yes, the standards expected are high, and the rewards are even higher. If you believe that you meet these expectations, then I wish you a long and successful stewardship of this nation, always I hope in the public interest.
Tunku Aziz may be a bit too demanding when he asks Najib to try “to defend his honour and integrity in a court of law.”
As a Prime Minister-to-be, Najib must be very busy in the Umno party election and in the coming by-election in Kedah, Perak and Sarawak. How can he find time to attend court in order to allow himself to be testified by the panel of a group of senior and experienced counsels from Pakatan Rakyat in the expected long-lingering legal court proceedings? Furthermore, how can he be sure that he will be perfect in giving the testification without leaving any loophole which will facilitate his opposing counsels to dig a much bigger hole later?
Legal court proceedings are the monopolised tool for use by Barisan Nasional in order to harrass the political advancement of the political opponents. Such a powerful tool shall not be put in the hand of the Opposition. This is the basic rule of Machiavellianism.
He may destiny to lead but he also destiny to end the RAHMAN. He also destiny to bring the ruling party down and he is the last “emperor” before the beginning of new era.
People are waiting and it is coming soon and very soon.
Considering that his back is against the wall on all fronts, he may resort to ruling with an iron fist.
No matter, he is a lame duck and doomed from the outset. Justice will prevail.
With the global problems affecting our country…he should be given fair chance to prove his worth until the next election.
In this difficult time, you will see real leader/s.
Wasn’t his baggage discarded by c4 explosives in 2007? The explosion was heard all over the world, as far away as in Mongolia, waking Ghenghiz Khan from his grave
UMNO is not lack of better leader. The best person who should lead the country if he is to be from BN, Tengku Razaleigh should be a better choice. But may be he is not destiny to lead? and may be we Malaysian are not destiny to have a good leader to lead us out of this mess? so to say.
With the huge baggage carry on his back he just could not lead. If he do so he will lead us to a messier situation. There will be no end.
He may have the leadership quality and the mental and education and knowledge to lead but most important was he has the part who has been exercise negative influence on him and this was most unfortunate. What has he come to this stage may not his own doing but as saying destiny to have a negative half and this negative half was too influence until he s crumble under this negative force. We shall see how this happen and it is coming very soon in deed.
should history is to be mirror let look at how the china’s Last Emperor disappear from the history of China. How the last emperor was not in fact the emperor but the “emperess” , the negative force who was lead from behind the veil. This is what is happening to this guy. The negative force is leading him from behind, behind the curtail? This was the famous what the Chinese history term of ” Rule by Pulling Down the Curtail” It is what happening in Malaysia Now???
Hey, the rakyat must appreciate and applaud how calm and magnanimous RN and RM are in the face of all sorts of lies thrown at them.
These two noble towering creatures don’t simply take advantage of our BN-friendly courts and judiciary to sue everyone who insulted them.
Obviously they were not involved in the murder of AS and they will win handsomely in our courts against those lowly sensational rumour mongers, both within and outside Malaysia.
Yet they maintain their dignity and the dignity of the nation by not getting into the muddled black hole of suing and counter suing. What gracious examples they set for us all!
As RM pronouned: It’s God’s will that it is NR’s turn to be the next PM. It’s also her turn to be the PM’s wife. What God gives, no one can deny.
Did someone say Ghenghis Khan is awaken? We have archaeologists now working somewhere up north. Despatch them immediately to deal with the risen dead. Remind them to bring along the hammer that was used to smash the democarcy plaque. The same hammer could be applied to Ghenghis’ head.
But seriously, my prediction is that najib will not last a year in office. He will be the shortest term pm in the history of malaysia. And oddly the captcha anti spam software generated these words “of moneys”. Yes I agree. There are loads of rumours about (which he denied) that his interest is made of money.
“Baggage too heavy for our new PM”
Well, we should all know by now that no baggage is too heavy for him because he has his porters and bellboys to help with carry those baggage anywhere he goes. Besides, he doesn’t have to pay any excess charges – it’s all fully paid by the people.
NOT LINKED WHASOEVER.
Tunku,
you deserve to be the General Secretary of Dap or CM of Penang
but of couse some people will not let u achieve your ambition..
He is not like Lee Kuan Yew…of S’pore…suing everyone and won…making him the most respected Asian leader in the world.
Najib is showing clearly he is guilty and can hid under UMNO.
Go to court…may win one…or two..but so many…..?
Najib smart?? So are some gangster leaders.
Malaysians have always hope he will take those guys …especially RPK to court……but UMNO keep applying ISA to protect themselves.
What low class bullies. What bunkun democratic logic is that?
Najib and so many UMNO ministers have show their characters.
Right thinking Malaysians….even from UMNO will not let these weird corrupted people to lead them.
Bush lied to Americans. Polls conducted showed 65% against him…and so was the result of the election.
As I write….I keep thinking of the Smart Tunnel….RM200++ to built and does not work with in few months!!!
This is a classic example….UMNO never tell the truths and can be so irresponsible.
Good-luck to the RM60 billion…”Save Malaysia” package deal.
Malaysians can only wild away their time…waiting for the 13th election.
I think most will keep ignoring all these sickening episodes.
Not one is for Malaysians. Always to benefit UMNO only.
Yes..UMNO politicians…police and judges are getting to be.. worst than Cambodians!!
chengho not only carry balls of MCA but trying to instigate and be sarcastic to Aziz and DAP.
He is trying so hard to be chosen as a MCA candidate in 13th election..but of course…some people will not let him achieve his ambition….hahahahahahaha
monsterball bro,
that why we need LKY style in Malaysia
Society in orderly manner and economic will be good every body make money and everybody will be happy
LKY will never tolerate the democracy tree ,plaque and relic
anyway LKY not a fan of bollywood and koorailawood movies….
“that why we need LKY style in Malaysia” (chengho)
Chengho,
Since you like LKY so much, why don’t you just migrate to Singapore? Another alternative is to get a LKY-like leader from Pakatan Rakyat.
In Malaysia, we used to have good Chinese political leader from MCA like Tun Tan Cheng Lock. However, it looks like good leader who has the similar trait as Tun Tan Cheng Lock will not join MCA nowadays. Therefore good leader already goes extinction in MCA since all good leaders choose to join Pakatan Rakyat component parties in the Modern Day Malaysia.
It is predestined that Pakatan Rakyat will be given the mandate to form the Federal Government in Malaysia after the 13th General Election because the Malaysian people want good leader to provide good governance to all the Malaysian governed.
Didn’t I tell you guys out there some time ago that NR wanna be PM what it takes.In a forthnite,he’s PM.The clock is ticking and he’s holding pretty good.What can PR or AAB can do now to stop or reverse him ?
I thought there was news report by a certain frenchman on the mongolian woman with description on her execution and bodily disintegration. How come najib is keeping quiet about it. He has been denying all the way; i.e., that he does not know the woman, that he has never met her, that he never ordered her execution etc etc. Alright. Alright. I shant push the point further OK. But I just want to know something now. Shouldnt he once again come out and swear on the koran that the report by the frenchman could not be wronger or something like that? You see keeping quiet will do him no good at all.
NR and RM are not LKY, who must sue everyone to show the world that no one can tarnish his clean image.
NR and RM are above LKY and supremely calm, even if people throw shoes and kitchen sinks at them. They know they are the Chosen Ones.
“If we had not gone through this, we would not have known what resilience is all about,” Rosmah said.
She stressed that her conscience was clear, saying that her own test of character is “whether you wake up in the morning and look in the mirror, whether you like yourself or not, whether you have told the truth or not.”
Baggage too heavy for our PM?? Why? Didn’t he weigh his baggage first before he checked-in?
I recall Haris posting a fundamantal universal truth in one of his blog threads which was that “Man proposes and God disposes”.
Didn’t that allegedly happen to the second PM after he had allegedly, masterminded the 1969 coup d’etat and helped dispose of the first legitimate PM?
“Imagine Power To The People” John Lennon.
It looks like NR does not learn from history, like what happened to his dad. NR and RM do not believe in karma but in God’s will.
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what joke…comparing a nobody with the yesteryear’s Emperors of China…he just a village chief by any standards….and in the pre feudal era of any nation life cycle.
imagine can’t even hide his wet pants properly after wetting them and blames his dummies …after paying them
Baggage too heavy for Najib to carry?? He needs to go pump iron.