— Gomen Man
The Malaysian Insider
Mar 23, 2012
MARCH 23 — Today was closure for Prime Minister Najib Razak. Not for Malaysia and not for Shahrizat Jalil or her family, most recently known for their involvement in the National Feedlot Centre scandal.
Closure because Najib has been forced to publicly back Shahrizat as the Wanita Umno chief or face the possibility of some form of a revolt from the Wanita ranks.
This scenario was communicated to Putrajaya by Wanita Umno in not to subtle ways. So Shahrizat got to pick her “retirement” date from Cabinet and the assurance that she can remain as Wanita chief.
So today she was feted by her wing, the same wing which was clueless and probably thought that the NFC meant the National Feeding Committee when Shahrizat made light of the scandal at the Umno general assembly.
My advice to readers of The Malaysian Insider and other Malaysians is save your indignation for some other occasion. Surely you did not expect Najib to sack Shahrizat. He needs all the support he can get from his party, not only for the general elections but more so for the Umno elections.
In the eyes of most Malaysians, Shahrizat and her family will never be able to live down the NFC tag but in Wanita Umno, she is the queen bee. And much of that has to do with the lack of credible leaders in Wanita and Umno in general.
But I would not blame Najib too much. Remember Zakaria Deros, Muhammad Muhammad Taib, Jamaluddin Jarjis, Tengku Adnan Mansor, Ali Rustam, Isa Samad.
They all may have failed miserably in the court of public opinion but they are all thriving in Umno and most of them are occupying top positions.
In some ways, even the children of Umno leaders are exempt from the normal rule of law. Malaysiakini today reported that two police reports have been lodged against the son of Nazri Aziz for assaulting a security guard at a condo in Mont Kiara.
Do you think he will be charged for anything?