Brazil's catastrophic 7-1 defeat to Germany in the World Cup semi-final shows the importance of leadership, said Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

Referring to the host nation's defence during the match being in tatters, Najib said a nation would suffer a similar fate in the absence of leadership.

"If that can happen to a football team, imagine what can happen to a country without leadership, vision and a commitment to strive for the rakyat's fate.

"The answer is that the outcome would be like the Brazil team," he is quoted as saying by news reports today.

The prime minister was speaking at a ceremony to present Perdana fellowships to cabinet ministers in Putrajaya.

Ironically, Najib's critics have said the same thing about his leadership, claiming that the nation is on auto-pilot weathering a series of storms.

On various occasions, he had been chastised for his silence on controversial issues, with Sarawak PKR chief Baru Bian noting that the prime minister preferred to take photos with pandas and US President Barack Obama.

Bayan Baru MP Sim Tze Tzin, upon studying Najib’s tweets for first 100 days since the last general election, had concluded that Najib has lost focus while Umno conservatives hijacked issues.

Even former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad (above) had weighed in and acknowledged that the government is “weak” .

Isn't it ironic?

Meanwhile, DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang (below) deemed Najib’s analogy “ironic” and “tragic”, implying that the prime minister himself is also risking Malaysia on the fate of absence of leadership.

“Where is Najib’s leadership in his Global Movement of Moderates for ‘the voices of moderation to drown the voices of extremism’?

“In the past year, there has been an incessant stoking and incitement of racial and religious hatred, tension and conflict in the country,” said the Gelang Patah MP in a separate statement.

He also questioned Najib’s leadership in the war against corruption, with Malaysia recording its worst ranking in the Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index during his term.

For Brazil, a debacle even worse than in 1950

Germany shatters Brazil's World Cup dream