Nasir Safar's quick apology and resignation over repugnant remarks he made at a 'Rapat 1Malaysia' session in Malacca yesterday was band aid for the wound he inflicted on Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's 1Malaysia agenda.  

NONE But how long more before the public discovers that this pattern of lofty idealism and choppy implementation, begun when Najib became PM last April, is certain to suffer this recurrent fate – of execution flying in the face of intention?  

Najib's '1Malaysia – People First, Performance Now' was bound to excite because this pithy slogan encapsulated what the ordinary Malaysian would like to see in their government - the acknowledgment all citizens mattered and that service to them was priority.

But catchphrases are easier to compose and bandy about than they are to execute.  

Spirit willing, flesh is weak

Since he took over as PM, Najib's transformation agenda has been undermined by the custodial death of DAP aide Teoh Beng Hock; the announcement that no prosecutions were sustainable as a result of the Royal Commission’s findings on the Lingam videotape; private investigator P Balasubramaniam’s new round of revelations in regard to the Altantuya murder case; the disclosure that Petronas had suffered a steep fall in profits; and the theft of two fighter aircraft engines which occurred in 2007 and for which two lowly personages have been charged.

pedestrian past najib 1 malaysia poster More revelations of skullduggery in high places are in the works, but the abovementioned would suffice to suggest that while the spirit of the PM may be willing, the flesh of his implementers is weak.

No policy of government can be effective if it is carried on the lips of the few who lead it and not in the hearts of the many responsible for its execution.

Nasir's remarks at the 'Rapat 1Malaysia' session will not be the last time that the entrenched mind-set of the politico-civil service complex (to borrow from the military-industrial complex of the United States) gets in the way of a reform-minded national chief executive.

His prompt apology and resignation are the only redeeming features of this episode. Barely.