After Pak Lah's disastrous first (and only) term as PM, Najib ousted him and took over as president of UMNO and PM of the country in 2009. Expectations of Najib were extremely low. He didn't have the clean reputation that Pak Lah had. He was also seen as an indecisive person, having sat on the fence during much of the UMNO civil war in 1987 that pit Dr M against Tengku Razaleigh -- only to place his bet on Dr M in the last moment.
With public expectations so low it was a golden opportunity for him to defy expectations and become a bold and decisive PM, one who would clean up and reform the old system he had inherited. By that time, he was already a wealthy man (he has subsequently claimed it was through inheritance... ahem). So, he didn't have to worry about money. He could have focused all his energies on improving the country and in the process, achieve what Pak Lah couldn't.
He was Western educated, spoke perfect English, and he knew exactly what a modern democracy should be. He could have put in place all the reforms that Pak Lah failed to do and therefore earn the trust, admiration and respect of the general public, which had so little expectations of him.
Even if he had achieved just half, or even a quarter, of the things that should have been done, it would have already exceeded everyone's expectations of him and he would have been a popular leader. But he did the exact opposite of what people wanted him to do.
Instead of clamping down on corruption, he gave us 1MDB. Instead of introducing more freedoms, people were being arrested for things they wrote on Facebook by an IGP who issued arrest orders via Twitter. People were being charged for dropping balloons and drawing cartoons. If that was not enough, he gave himself new emergency powers and gave us the Fake News Act. He and his wife went on international shopping sprees and presented us with the GST. It was all a big joke but it wasn't funny at all.
Yet despite all that, Najib thought until the very end that he was going to win GE14, and win big. Maybe even get back the 2/3rds majority for BN. Then he could proceed to decimate the opposition and finally silence all the pesky queries about 1MDB.
But this was not to be. He underestimated the intelligence of the people. He thought Malaysians were still stuck in the 1980s mindset. He thought Malaysians would tolerate and accept all kinds of government shenanigans as long as we weren't Somalia. As long as people weren't dying in the streets or rotting in the gutter, they won't rock the boat. They will be apathetic, play it safe and vote in BN -- just like they have been doing for the past six decades before. He thought wrong.
With public expectations so low it was a golden opportunity for him to defy expectations and become a bold and decisive PM, one who would clean up and reform the old system he had inherited. By that time, he was already a wealthy man (he has subsequently claimed it was through inheritance... ahem). So, he didn't have to worry about money. He could have focused all his energies on improving the country and in the process, achieve what Pak Lah couldn't.
He was Western educated, spoke perfect English, and he knew exactly what a modern democracy should be. He could have put in place all the reforms that Pak Lah failed to do and therefore earn the trust, admiration and respect of the general public, which had so little expectations of him.
Even if he had achieved just half, or even a quarter, of the things that should have been done, it would have already exceeded everyone's expectations of him and he would have been a popular leader. But he did the exact opposite of what people wanted him to do.
Instead of clamping down on corruption, he gave us 1MDB. Instead of introducing more freedoms, people were being arrested for things they wrote on Facebook by an IGP who issued arrest orders via Twitter. People were being charged for dropping balloons and drawing cartoons. If that was not enough, he gave himself new emergency powers and gave us the Fake News Act. He and his wife went on international shopping sprees and presented us with the GST. It was all a big joke but it wasn't funny at all.
Yet despite all that, Najib thought until the very end that he was going to win GE14, and win big. Maybe even get back the 2/3rds majority for BN. Then he could proceed to decimate the opposition and finally silence all the pesky queries about 1MDB.
But this was not to be. He underestimated the intelligence of the people. He thought Malaysians were still stuck in the 1980s mindset. He thought Malaysians would tolerate and accept all kinds of government shenanigans as long as we weren't Somalia. As long as people weren't dying in the streets or rotting in the gutter, they won't rock the boat. They will be apathetic, play it safe and vote in BN -- just like they have been doing for the past six decades before. He thought wrong.
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