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The people are marching to a different drummer

The people are marching to a different drummer
8:34AM Feb 14, 2013
YOURSAY 'Mr PM, we want someone who can drum out religious extremists, racists, police torturers and stop cronies plundering the nation.'

The ‘drummer' PM is demeaning himself

your sayAnonymous #36465711: We don't really need a prime minister who can play drums but someone who really cares for the people.

When people are being bullied by religious extremists, belittled by racists, tortured by police and plundered by cronies, we judge you by your reactions to them. You have failed the people time and again.

Onyourtoes: PM Najib Razak, you have four long years, but you fouled it up completely. You could have done what was right but you chose to oscillate from one end to another, depending on who the audiences were.

The worst part was that you have kept Umno's fascist and racist policies intact. You have openly allowed people like right-wing group Perkasa and former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad to rant on whatever that is in their brains.

You never learn; Pak Lah (former premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi) tried the "let him have his cake and eat it" policy on Dr Mahathir Mohamad, but in the end it was Mahathir that finished him off.

As the premier, Pak Lah did not know how to use the inherent power and position of the prime minister's office. It's the same with you. If from Day One you had put Mahathir in his place and gone about doing what needs to be done, I am sure by now your position would be less precarious.

It is too late, Najib. The problem with this country is Mahathir and his remnants - they should all be cast out forever.

Headhunter: There's nothing worse than having a political leader groveling at your feet begging for attention and votes, when they normally expect you to go on your knees and kiss their feet.

Humility is usually inborn but when one pretends to be humble, it's very insincere and makes the person look so desperate.

Bijan: He wants our votes desperately. He is like a drowning man shouting for help. If he is sincere, he would have whacked Perkasa for being racist, he would have whacked Mahathir and he would have announced plans on how to curb corruption, reduce crime, etc.

But he has chosen to remain silent and appeal us to give him another term. Too late.

LittleGiant: Kee Thuan Chye has summed it up well. All the public relations (PR) work that Najib and his BN government have been doing the past few months shows in all clarity his and his government's extreme desperation to win votes at any cost in the coming elections.

But Najib and BN leaders are clearly making a mockery of themselves by literally begging for votes at their PR events and do not seem to understand that bringing huge crowds to the PR events do not necessarily mean that the people support them or that people have confidence in the government.

It is laughable that Najib, as the country's prime minister, is unable to stand tall and ask for support. Why he and his BN leaders have to stoop low and embarrass themselves, asking for people's support at even non-political functions and gatherings?

Is it because they do not believe in their own 'Janji Ditepati' slogan?

Apapunboleh: If BN had ruled fairly, Najib would not have to do such stupid and silly stunts. He should have fired his overpaid advisors much earlier. They keep on giving him the wrong advice.

YF: Najib should think harder rather than try harder. It goes to show that he has little grey matter that could have saved him from so much embarrassment and bad publicity. He's making too many wrong moves.

Mohamad Abdul Malik: Our Raja Lawak (comedians) on TV would have been no match for Najib if ever he chooses to compete with them. They are lucky he did not.

Going by his latest 'performance', I sincerely believed that he has chosen the wrong career after coming back to Malaysia.

He should have been an actor and not a politician. Asking Najib to administer the country is like asking a chef to build your house and asking a housing contractor to prepare dinner for you.

Well, the joke is on us Malaysians. We disregarded the tell-tale signs, which were quite obvious for too long.

Lionking: The sad part of this premier's reign is that he has not discussed the major issues the country is facing and how he is going to address it.

Issues like corruption, education, crime, racism, transportation, economy - anything to do with the country has not been brought up.

And BN wants the rakyat to give them a further mandate to rule the country. His advisors have failed to understand that the rakyat is now educated and knowledgeable and are aware of the issues are affecting them.

Not a single statement has been made to help stateless Malaysians and to top it off, we hear comments like 'strip citizenship' and ‘burn bibles'.

A_Malaysian: Najib has shown that he shies away from tough issues and is unable to control his own team from spiraling racism.

If he were able to stand up and put a stop to all those nonsense, it would be 10 times more value compared to the RM3 million spent on the Psy stint.

There are no easy wins, Mr PM; if you allow your team to continuously insult the non-Malays, no amount of money can repair the damage that they are causing to your reputation.

Thana55: When a product (Umno-BN) has rotted, no amount of marketing and public relations is going to help. The advisors should tell him to focus on the product and less on managing the rock-bottom perceptions.

Hplooi: This confirms my suspicion that his 'advisers' (probably highly paid consultants) are merely good visual communicators but bomb on strategy.

Even the visual strategy may be suspect as the advisors are probably 'parachute consultants' who lack cultural-semantic-contextual understanding.

Najib is heading for trouble post-election, when the knives will be out.

Unspin: It is sickening to see the prime minister of our country stooping so low as to do an opening act for a flash-in-the-pan, one-hit wonder who sings in a language that we cannot understand.

Considering how early he started his political career, Najib has practically a lifetime to endear himself to Chinese Malaysians. Instead, he swayed with the wind and has no courage to make tough decisions on racism.

Now, at the eleventh hour, he desperately clings to publicity stunts such as the insincere and phony radio and TV ads, and at the same time shamelessly takes advantage of his son's proficiency in Mandarin.

Does our unelected and pathetic PM really think that the majority of Chinese are that stupid as to be easily influenced by an odd concert or money? Worse, does he even think at all?

Anonymous #47129969: I was in the cinema when this advertisement was shown. There were loud boos from some in the audience.


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