By Othman Wahab | July 27, 2011
The Malaysian Insider
JULY 27 — Okay, now it is official. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has run out of ideas. After looking terribly unconvincing when handling the Bersih 2.0 rally, he is clutching at anything just to seem to have things under control.
But the sad fact is that his every act and every word uttered just shows him to be desperate ala a tikam-tikam politician, not the son of Malaysia’s second PM who showed some promise in the early days.
In the past few weeks, he has obliterated the image he was carving out as a moderate leader. He has played the religious card, calling Ambiga Sreenevasan an enemy of Islam for doing her legal duty of representing a client.
He has flip-flopped like an Olympic gymnast on the offer of a stadium to the Bersih 2.0 organisers.
Najib has played the reverse religious card: first going to the Vatican as a public relations exercise to try and win Christian support and then returning home to warn the Christians to support the Islamic leadership of the country. (This, to show his Umno cohorts what a brave and unbending Muslim leader he is).
In between all that, his administration has talked about a Christian plot; Communist plot; an Arab-style uprising; and locked up six individuals on trumped up charges.
If this was not bad enough, he sought some plaudits for cancelling a family holiday.
And today, he played the old Mahathir favourite: colonisation. Malaysians, he said, should fly the flag for six weeks to show foreigners that we are united and that we will not brook any interference.
Aiseh, Mr PM. We are united, Bersih 2.0 showed us that. This us versus them tactic was used by Dr M in the old days when there was no Internet and he could shape opinion. No more lah.
It is really sad that it has come down to this. In the short span of a few weeks, Najib has become a dictator, intolerant, chauvinistic, opportunistic and now an anti-colonialist.
I suppose you only know a person’s true colours when he is tested in a trying situation.
* Othman Wahab reads The Malaysian Insider.