COMMENT Federal Territories minister Tengku Adnan Yaakob deserves the brickbats and the severest condemnation from the people from all walks of life for his uncouth manner of speech when he spoke about Bersih 4 rally participants going “nude” in the Melawati Stadium.

It appears that these days, it is not only the other Umno lawmaker, the one from Kinabatangan, the infamous Bung Moktar Radin who had no better illustrations to use than to talk about the “leakage” in women.

Within less than one week, two of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s cabinet ministers are using words like “nude” and “pornography” to illustrate their points, which in fact, had nothing to do with being nude or appearing in a blue film.

Minister in charge of integrity Paul Low ( photo ) described transparency as akin to watching pornography . I have written an entire article about it asking why Low had used such illustrations that made him look more like a jerk than a dignified statesman. And now, it is Tengku Adnan adding to the nudity scene.

Is this a reflection of how low our cabinet leaders have sunk that makes me wonder what is really happening to this nation. Sad, but it appears that we have leaders who are morally corrupt and do not deserve to lead this nation, but they are still hoarding the scene.

When I look at history, that was exactly what happened to most civilisations in history that finally collapsed in their last days.

The emperor’s new clothes

This also reminds me of the short tale by Hans Christian Andersen about the emperor’s new clothes.

Two apple-polishers who were trying to please the emperor knew their emperor and his men’s weaknesses. They had promised him a new suit of clothes that was invisible to those who were considered unfit for their positions, incompetent or having a low intelligent quotient (IQ). During Andersen’s time, of course, the acronym ‘IQ’ never existed; hence, Andersen used the word ‘stupid’.

The biggest mistake that the emperor did is being repeated again and again today. Because none of his apple-polishers dared to say that the emperor was not wearing any suit of clothes, the emperor went on parading himself before his subjects in his new clothes.

It finally took only the innocence of a child to put the emperor to great shame. “But he isn't wearing anything at all!” the child cried.

The reason why this fable has become popular that it had been translated into at least a hundred other languages is because it reflects the basic human nature, especially of leaders, who want to be surrounded only by their ‘yes’ men.

For the same reason, Najib should also learn from the same fable that we all grew up enjoy reading. He should not be listening to his two ministers who are apparently his ‘yes’ men, but to his critics to understand what had gone wrong with his six years of premiership.

Having seen the emperor in his new clothes, they still could not laugh at him in the open, and all they could do was to have a good laugh outside the castle. What occupied their minds was nothing else but the emperor’s nudity which became a free-for-all pornography.

It is time for Najib to get the true reports from the ground and understand the sentiments of the people and go back to the drawing board again, why people were angry after he dropped Muhyiddin Yassin and replaced him with a less credible character who is occupied with nothing but another ‘old man’s plot’.

There are definitely more than one person who want Najib to step down, so why just one man? In the first place, the use of statutory declarations is a legitimate means to urge the speaker, and if he failed to allow the motion of no-confidence to be tabled in the Parliament, for the Agong himself to step in.

Putting the record straight

What Tengku Adnan fails to understand is that the people are not only concerned but angry with the current regime.

To use the word ‘nudity’ on respectable citizens of this country is to rub salt into the wound. Personally, I am not impressed with the mannerism of this minister who is also the secretary-general of Umno and Barisan Nasional. He brings shame not only to himself, but to his party and the coalition that he represents.

It is also uncivilised of a Malay minister to speak like that. By using such a word, he is telling even the senior citizens of this country to go nude during Bersih 4 rally.

As for Low’s illustration using pornography on the need for transparency, may I say that the current 1MDB debacle escalating to such a great scale is due to a lack of information in the early stages.

And when the press started asking for information, very little was provided to the press until one PetroSaudi International executive, Xavier Andre Justo ( photo ), agreed to release the information to both Sarawak Report and the Edge .

The mechanisms were not there for a good check-and-balance with the 1MDB right from the beginning and for this reason, the Selangor state assemblypersons have thrown a spanner into a similar initiative by the Selangor Menteri Besar Incorporated (MBI) with the Darul Ehsan Investment Group (DEIG) Sdn Bhd.

The beauty of what we see in the state of Selangor is that speaker Hannah Yeoh allowed both sides of the political divide to debate on the issue. Without taking it as personal attacks, I trust that the Menteri Besar of Selangor Azmin Ali will accept all the criticisms raised by his own colleagues. They can become friends outside, but in the state assembly, we expect debates and public accountability.

This is how a true democracy should operate. For the sake of check-and-balance, no one, including the menteri besar, is above the law. Speakers who toe the line of the ruling party are detrimental to the parliamentary democracy of this nation. And, to deny people information is akin to saying that the ruling party can continue to hide behind the Official Secrets Acts (OSA) and carry on with their corruption.

The OSA should only be applicable to military secrets but today, almost any government document can be stamped OSA. Whistleblowers are prosecuted instead of the people who continue to plunder the wealth of this nation, as in the case of Rafizi Ramli and the National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) scandal.

I quote Low in his speech: “The issue is, how much openness? How much can society accept as openness in a responsible manner?”

My response to Low is simple: Do not underestimate Malaysians who are corporate accountants and professional auditors. With proper information, the Malaysian citizens can make good judgments for themselves, but lack of information is the cause of loss in credibility in the Najib administration.

This fable of the naked emperor best illustrates this.

STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008.