Special Officer defends Rosmah as ‘ideal’ wife

He takes issue with former de facto Law Minister Zaid Ibrahim’s piece on the ideal wife for a PM.

KUALA LUMPUR: Former de facto Law Minister Zaid Ibrahim’s recent posting, The People’s PM, in his blog has inadvertently incurred the wrath of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s Special Officer, Rizal Mansor according to a Kuala Lumpur Post report which appeared on his Facebook.

In a siapa makan cili, dia rasa pedas (if the cap fits, wear it) reaction piece, he expressed disappointment with Zaid albeit indirectly for appearing to take a dig at Rosmah Mansor, Najib’s wife, in his posting. He appears to imply in his piece that Rosmah’s many “admirable qualities” were not included in Zaid’s profiling of the ideal wife of a Prime Minister.

“Zaid Ibrahim’s comment on how the wife of the future PM should be only goes on to describe his shallow mentality,” fumed Rizal without elaborating. “His rants indirectly reflect that he is indeed a chauvinist and one who seeks cheap publicity by criticizing someone who always has a heart for fellow Malaysians.”

Expressing the hope, in hitting below the belt, that Zaid was in a sober state of mine when he penned his posting, Rizal dismissed him as a failed and dejected politician filling up his free time by penning imaginary tales. “We Malaysians have our very own tradition and culture. Since young we have been brought up to be polite and be respectful of the elders.”

If Rosmah has been vocal and forged close ties with international VIPs, he added, he sees nothing wrong with that. He called on Zaid to come out of his cocoon where he was hiding and accept the fact that Najib’s wife was a bold and intelligent Muslim woman.

“Are you generally suggesting that a woman should just be passive and sit in the kitchen? Come on Zaid, this is 2015 and women are as equally capable as men.”

Rizal, continuing, called for a wife for the Prime Minister who was bold and intelligent, who can complement and assist her husband in executing his duties, indirectly. “We should be proud of Rosmah and applaud her for the person that she is.”

“Dear Zaid, stop criticizing a woman in the name of political bickering and do something worthy that Malaysians will be proud of in the future.”

He reminded Zaid that in the process of “leveling personal vendettas”, he should not forget that he’s talking about a woman who holds the well-being of Malaysians close to her heart.

He gave some details on Rosmah’s accomplishments in case Zaid had forgotten.

“Hope he has not forgotten about the incident where one of our students was arrested in Egypt after being accused of being a spy,” said Rizal. “Rosmah made a call to the president’s wife and within two hours the student was released.”

Of course, he conceded, Zaid being a lawyer and a former de facto Law Minister “will jump by saying that there’s the Foreign Ministry and all to take care of such matters”.

“But this was done solely due to a mother’s instincts. Being a PM’s wife and a mother, she acted on her motherly instincts. More so, this was done without publicity at all.”

Elsewhere, Rizal recalled that during Ops Pyramid when Malaysian students were stranded in Egypt during the Arab uprising, “Rosmah used her good relations  to allow the students to return home without visas.”

“In a normal situation, this is impossible but with the relationship she has with the royal family, we managed to bring the students home,” he said. “Through her networking, the Saudi Government prepared two Jumbo jets and brought our students to Riyadh, although they did not have a visa to enter Saudi Arabia.”

The PM’s wife, he continued, also initiated the PERMATA programme. “I am sure that Zaid has no idea about this as otherwise, he would not have come up with such a horrendous statement.”

“It has become a trend these days, to turn a blind eye to the positive side of things.”

PERMATA is a programme designed for children below the age of 4 to offer them early care and guidance, explained Rizal. “This system stimulates the children’s thinking capacity and inculcates experimentation, exploration and experiential abilities at a very early age.”

“This is one of Rosmah’s initiatives. Being a mother, she understood well the need for early education and this will engineer a better breed of Malaysians to be relevant and competitive in the future.”

He demands to know why all this good news was shoved under the shelf in Zaid’s blog.

“How come this was shoved under the shelf, Zaid?” he asked. “Have you not read about this somewhere or you just don’t want to read good news?”

This is “selective intelligence” in my opinion, he said in a parting shot.