The Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has degraded political discourse with his vicious attacks on Pakatan Rakyat as “anti-national”, “evil”, “despicable”, “very dangerous” etc which can only boomerang on him and Barisan Nasional leaders.
In fact, in his speech to the Barisan Nasional convention yesterday, Najib was guilty of three of the four “political diseases” he had warned would crush the Barisan Nasional, viz delusion, amnesia and arrogance.
Najib was guilty of delusion when he spoke of Barisan Nasional’s “manifest destiny” to “bring this great nation, Malaysia, to its fullest potential” when Malaysia had been losing out to one country after another in economic development and progress in the past five decades, with an unchecked brain drain and domestic capital outflow to the extent that the country was warned recently by a Cabinet Minister that the country was heading towards bankruptcy in 2019.
Najib was guilty of amnesia when he so easily forgot the reasons why Barisan Nasional suffered its worst electoral defeat in the 2008 general elections, losing five state governments and parliamentary two-thirds majority.
Najib was guilty of arrogance when he presented the next general elections battle as one between “good vs evil”, “loyalty vs treachery” and “patriotism vs anti-national’, as if corruption, rent-seeking, abuses of power and human right violations are the by-words for good, loyalty and patriotism while commitment to uphold and restore constitutional and political integrity, justice, rule of law and human rights represent evil, treachery and being “anti-national”.
As Prime Minister and leader for all Malaysians if his 1Malaysia concept is to be taken seriously, Najib should be mindful of Dr. Samuel Johnson’s dictum “Patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels” and should not set the bad example of doubting the sincerity, bona fide or worse the patriotism of political adversaries.
If Najib is serious in his charges that Pakatan Rakyat leaders are “anti-national”, “evil”, “despicable”, “very dangerous”, and a string of other epithets, is he prepared to agree to a whole series of live television debates between BN and PR leaders on who is really “anti-national”, “evil”, “despicable”, “very dangerous” – whether Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Rakyat?