Are we letting ourselves get distracted?

We may be too focused on secondary issues and forgetting the crux of the matter – Najib's leadership.

COMMENT

Distractions, distractions. We’re letting ourselves be sidetracked, whether it is the mini-feud between Johor’s Crown Prince and Tourism and Culture Minister Nazri Aziz or the ridiculous controversy surrounding our gold medal-winning gymnast Farah Ann. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Najib sits huddled up in his Putrajaya fortress, hoping that the distractions will keep the rakyat and former PM Mahathir off his back for a few moments.

This is not to say that these other issues don’t deserve attention. Indeed, they are endemic to the socio-political situation we currently find ourselves in. Even as I write this, a minister has proclaimed that the government will look into developing a sports uniform that conforms to Islamic good taste despite all the very good arguments made by those appalled by the criticism levelled against Farah.

As for the royals reclaiming some vestige of their old power, a kind of pattern has emerged over the past couple of years, with the Sultan of Selangor directly intervening in the Menteri Besar crisis to reject the Pakatan Rakyat choice of Wan Azizah, and the Sultan of Johor asserting a role in the business of the state. It’s probably reasonable to expect the nobility to continue along this track, Najib or no Najib.

But this is all extraneous to the real crux of the matter, the prime mover of many of the current controversies – Najib’s colossal failures.

There is no doubt that Najib has failed. His projects regularly crumble around his ears. His party is divided between those who want to get rid of him and those who want to use him for their own agendas. The rakyat laugh at him and rage at him in equal measure. A former prime minister looms over his head like a reaper wielding a scythe.

Najib is at his weakest, and despite the alliances he has brokered within his party, the sentiment on the ground will only be held back for so long. So it seems rather convenient that the major news providers have picked up on the secondary controversies after weeks of covering the simmering feud between Mahathir and Najib, as if to give the Prime Minister a bit of breathing room to recollect his thoughts. Add that to Najib’s ministers tossing themselves into the fray and you get plenty of media coverage and debate on the issues of royalty and the idea of bringing religion into sports.

I’m not saying that we shouldn’t address the other controversies that have popped up. They need to be reolved, yes, but we cannot forget that the source of the rot has not been addressed. Najib must be called upon to answer for his failures, and that pressure cannot be let up.