The Romance of the Malaysian Kingdom

THE LOSER AND THE COWARD.

Cao Cao, the self proclaimed Prime Minister of the Northen China, in the fabled Romance of the Three Kingdoms , when informed that two of his adversaries are ganging up on him said, when a loser teams up with a coward, what can they achieve?

That was Cao Cao’s most penetrative (no pun intended under these sodomised times) observation. Of course in the epic, Cao Cao’s armies were defeated at the Battle of Red Cliffs- now a movie directed by John Woo. Must get hold of this movie.

THE LOSER.

Our prime minister is a respected man. He is respected for his trusting nature and also a simple view of life. His is a shut and close view of life. Black or white. Nothing in between.

He has also lost us 5 states. Including Wilayah Persekutuan. The WP has only one BN rep. He has lost on many fronts. Perhaps he has opened up too many fronts. It’s too much for a person of his calibre to handle. We say this without malice- he is a very pale comparison to the formidable Tun Mahathir.

The late Tun Hussein Onn once remarked to Dato Rahim Bakar, a former MB of Pahang. Tun Hussein told Rahim Bakar- he (Tun Hussein) is a SOLDIER first. A solder going into battle, does not open up too many fronts. I bet you, Hishamudin Hussein hasn’t heard of this from the father.

Our dear Prime Minister unfortunately has opened up too many fronts. His grand and esoteric idea of Islam Hadhari is falling apart. He has hardly any scholars to shoulder the idea. He has no champions to push for his version of Islam.

He has antagonised Tun Mahathir. The Tun has led this country for 22 years. He has been UMNO president for the same number of years. Of course the Tun has a sizeable following. Hardly any day passes , without the common man beseeching God to grant him good health. He remains wittily sarcastic as ever. As for Pak Lah, the number of people wishing him ill, are growing at exponential proportions.

He seems to have mishandled the economy. Inflation is eating up real growth. The price of essentials are increasing. The common people are agitated. Foreign investments are bypassing Malaysia.

He has opened up a Pandora’s box that he can no longer control. He has unleashed dark forces beyond his comprehension. His attempt to reform the judiciary has not gone beyond paying compensation to some sacked and reinstated judges. He pays his way through believing that is the only solution. The nondescript ketua cawangan bent on retaining his ketua status is of the same standard as our PM in the context of buying his way through.

He has only ensnared himself with judicial misadventures. That too has led him to further imbroglio. It has not endeared him to the legal fraternity either.

He has entrapped himself with complex legal and political quagmires with Anwar Ibrahim. He has become the police, the prosecutor, judge and even a forensic expert. Meanwhile Anwar Ibrahim the man, simply refused to disappear and most likely will be the next PM before this December 2008.

Our Prime Minister has made no significant impact on the international political scene. He is admired but not respected by his Asean counterparts. He appears taciturn and diffident. Sadly our Prime Minister has turned into a Morarji Desai, a former PM of India. Having struggled and finally achieved his ambition to become the PM, Morarji Desai retreated into his own dream world of esoteric practices. Wasn’t he the one who drank his own urine? Our Own PM is heading that way too. On all counts he has reached his own personal cul-de-sac. Except, I hope he will not drink his own urine

On all counts, he is Cao Cao’s loser.

THE COWARD.

Then there is the coward.

Tun Mahathir says Najib is a coward. He knows what’s going on but chose to sit it out. Why has he assumed this position?

Najib is the coward because of his cultural upbringing. His personality is shaped by the subsidy culture. A person shaped by this culture develop personality traits insensitive to assertiveness and achievement culture. His idea of success?- as long as a person attends weddings and funerals. He is not part of the doable culture exemplified notably by Tun Mahathir.

Najib is a product of the ascriptive norm aptly described by David McClelland in The Achieving Society. In such a society, a person is evaluated and appreciated because of what he is. In Najib’s case his singular achievement or ‘track record’ as he unashamedly termed it, is that he has ‘bin Tun Razak’ in his name. Thus people believe that he is a born leader because he is the progeny of Tun Razak. In such a society too, only certain people are allowed to do a particular task. Hence in our society, only Najib is presumed to be able to lead this nation. Indeed he is accepted all around as the saviour after Pah Lah. He can’t save anything but his own skin.

In such a society Najib will treat others as his subjects fancying himself as a feudal lord. Those under him shall do his 1001 biddings as he fancies them.

Our country wants to achieve many things. This depends on the quality of our people and the quality of our leadership. We have a leader whose measure of success is the frequency by which one attends funerals and kenduris. Such a combination is hardly amenable to higher achievements.

It’s impossible to develop an achievement culture by way of such a person. In that kind of society, people are evaluated on the basis of his or her own merits. Anyone is free to compete for any functions. A person’s relationship with another is clearly defined and not diffused as under a culture espouses by Najib.

He is part of the leadership that has done UMNO in. He is interested in his own fortunes. He was interested in securing his own large majority. Even in his own state, the votes for the rest of the parliamentarians in the other parts of Pahang are greatly overwhelmed by his.

Throughout his career, all he was interested was his own position. That explains why he had greedily added election boundaries to fortify his own position.