Najib thought he has found a way to stop public discussion of two issues: the possibility of his return as the 10th Prime Minister of Malaysia in the 15GE and his brother Nazir’s proposal of a reset of national policies and institutions

Former Prime Minister Najib Razak thought he has found a way to stop public discussion of two issues: the possibility of his return as the 10th Prime Minister of Malaysia in the 15th General Election and his brother Nazir’s proposal for a reset of national policies and institutions.

But he cannot be more wrong when he thought he could achieve these two objectives when he tried to caricature me as being too obsessed with him.

Firstly, let me declare that Najib personally is not important, but it is in the interests of all Malaysians who want a clean and honest government to ensure that he does not return as the 10th Prime Minister of Malaysia in the 15th General Election, for it would mean the return of the days when Malaysia was associated with “kleptocracy at its worst”.

Secondly, while we can agree or disagree with the question of modus operandi, Malaysians must welcome Nazir’s call for a reset of national policies and institutions as it is precisely because of the failure to reset national policies and institutions that one country after another had overtaken Malaysia, whether in international competitiveness, good governance or in having an effective and efficient government.

The 22-month Covid-19 pandemic should serve as a further warning that unless Malaysia pull itself up by its bootstraps, we will not only be losing out to Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore and Vietnam, we will be losing out to more countries, even to Indonesia, in the coming decades.

This is evident from the fact that yesterday, Malaysia recorded 4,879 Covid-19 cases and 55 Covid-19 deaths, as compared to Indonesia’s 297 Covid-19 cases and 11 Covid-19 deaths. In the last ten days, Malaysia recorded 51,335 Covid-19 cases and 448 Covid-19 deaths as compared to Indonesia’s 3,311 Covid-19 cases and 102 Covid-19 deaths.

Are we condemned to lose out to Indonesia, India and China and must give up our Malaysian Dream for Malaysia to be a world-class great nation?

I expect Najib to use all sorts of stratagems through his cybertroopers in the online and mainstream printed media to distract public attention from these two issues, but for the sake of the nation and that of our children and children’s children, we must not allow such diversions and distractions to succeed.

We must soldier on with a “Malaysian First” mindset and mentality to achieve our Malaysian Dream for Malaysia to be a world-class great nation, even if takes one, two or more decades but before Malaysia’s Centennial in 2057 to achieve our objective!