LETTER | Dear Sir, the clock is ticking loud and fast. With less than 48 hours before millions of Malaysians throng the ballot boxes nationwide, there are several crucial and unanswered questions that many may be battling with.
Whether we will be welcoming you as our next prime minister or whether you will throw in the towel, will be known by the end of the May 9.
But what is most bothering is why are people not saying anything nice about you or even your beloved and very supportive spouse.
Get into a Grab car, and the drivers - total strangers mind you, openly complain or even condemn you.
Go to the wet market and just complain to the fishmonger, "Wah, banyak mahal lah ikan sekarang" (the fish is so expensive now) and be prepared for a barrage of blame being heaped on you.
Some even do not even hesitate to drag Rosmah Mansor into the exchanges.
Mind you Sir, Malaysians never in the past decades dabbled in politics or talked about politicians openly like how they do today.
Why? Is it because your opponents are so crafty that across the socioeconomic and racial strata, people have become blindly culpable to fake news peddling?
Even when one visits the nation's administrative federal capital, Putrajaya, civil servants taking a break in the cafeterias do not shy away from expressing concern and disapproval over you.
This was never the case in past decades. Politics was avoided at all costs, try as much as one may, to prise open for some whispers.
Malays, Chinese, Indians and even friends in Sabah and Sarawak do not have anything favourable to share these days.
Just scan the mediascape Sir!
The social media space is being chocked with all kinds of jokes that unfairly take swipes at you.
Your spouse who has sacrificed her best part of her life standing by you and relentlessly engaging in the development of Permata is a favourite subject of allegations and ridicule too.
Why?
Ten or fifteen years ago, people refrained from commenting on our political leaders, especially the prime minister and even his spouse in public.
Even families did not open share reservations at home. And if they did, arguments for and against would rain for hours.
We deemed politics and political inclinations as strictly personal, private and even taboo to talk about.
But why is it that today you and your spouse are attacked or talked about unceremoniously across all ethnic and socioeconomic divides?
If some person or persons dropped yellow balloons at a rally, it can be understood as acts by anti-Najib camps.
If some cartoonist drew some messages that appear like ridicule, it can be deemed as slanderous perhaps.
But when even foreign nationals working here as cheap, migrant labour do not hesitate to say something negative about your leadership, the question 'why?' grows larger.
You have proclaimed the many developments for the country. But why are these not becoming a much talked about and praiseworthy conversational content?
Indeed, there is much soul searching needed by you, your spouse and all your lieutenants as much as us ordinary Malaysians who wield no power nor money as powerful as is made available through the office and seat of a nation's prime minister.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.
