After thousands of Najib U-turns, it’s called spin

comments     Yoursay     Published     Updated

YOURSAY ‘The standing ovation was in fact cry of victory for hardliners.’

 

PKR: Najib's U-turn fails to quell Umno right wing

 

Kim Quek : Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak made the Sedition Act U-turn during the recent Umno general assembly out of panic that he might be hounded out of his office there and then, unless he relented. And he might have felt mighty elated by the standing ovation that greeted his announcement and thought that the party was solidly behind him now that they were all on the same page.

 

But he was wrong; the standing ovation was in fact a war cry of victory for the hardliners, rather than an expression of rousing support for their party chief. There is no way former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad could be appeased until the PM acts as his puppet to toe the Mahathirist line.

 

The swords are already drawn; Najib has to go all the way to floor his opponents to the ground, if he wants to continue to lead as PM.

There is no halfway business; and trying to outdo Mahathir in conservative policies would be suicidal as that would have serious adverse impact on the economy while moderates within his party would be alienated without commensurate gain of conservative support.

 

Looking ahead, Najib’s best bet is in pursuing the twin policy of maiming Mahathir’s faction on the one hand while concurrently veering the party and the government towards the middle ground that would gain him a foothold within his party as well as winning a wider spectrum of national support.

 

Anonymous_4056 : Umno is desperate and cannot be trusted to keep promises. Remember even an international treaty with the Communist Party of Malaysia (CPM) could not be fulfilled.

 

Hplooi: Exactly as Kim Quek asserts. Najib’s best strategy is to use the support of the middle ground (a large but silent reservoir). The strategy of using the extreme right wing to garner political power is akin to riding the tiger without getting devoured by the very same tiger.

 

Half a century ago, Singapore premier Harry Lee (Lee Kuan Yew) used the same strategy (at that time the pro-communist-left-wing-faction were in ascendancy). After winning the election of 1959, Harry astutely engineered a coup against the very 'tiger' (the pro-communist-unions) after gaining power on the back of the 'tiger' and the rest they say is history.

 

Can Najib do the same? I don't think so, as he is NOT politically astute... besides his political advisor is (in my opinion) seriously incompetent. This can be inferred simply from the quality and approach of the cybertroopers currently infesting the comments section of Malaysiakini.

 

Kang Kong King : U-turn is no longer an appropriate word to describe Najib. He made U-turn after U-turn after U-turn a thousand times, after thousands of U-turns it’s called spin!

 

 

Tycoon’s four dailies poised to undergo revamp

 

Anonymous_40f4 : The people want to read real and unedited news, not Umno Baru and MCA propaganda. We pay to buy newspapers for news and investigative journalism, not propaganda and lies.

 

Since the Operation Lallang in 1997 all newspapers were forced to become propaganda organs for BN. People have stopped buying newspapers. The newspapers’ main source of income is the government to supply to all ministries and departments. In the open market people hardly buy newspapers because of sick propaganda on every page.

 

Ranjita Kaur A/P Whitemoon : If only you guys would stop printing rubbish, maybe it won't be too bad. Did you know even the uncles in coffee shops nowadays won't even read the rubbish paper you all publish?

 

Anonymous_3f4b : It is normal. With the advent of social and digital media, most people will browse through their smartphones, laptops or tablets on the go. They will even do it in their offices. The desktops are usually for office work only.

 

The print media only finds favour with the older generation. It is a natural progression in the order of things. The Chinese press is no exception. The same applies to the English and Malay press, tabloids and magazines included.

 

In any event the Chinese press have been quite neutral in their reporting and analysis and have featured the opposition in many of their articles. The opposition, too, have turned to the Chinese print media for coverage and propaganda during the elections.

 

To accuse the Chinese press of selective and one-sided reporting is an unkind cut as the Chinese educated voters have relied on the Chinese print media for alternative news when they supported the opposition wholesale in the last general election.

 

Straight-talk : Better to subscribe to Malaysiakini for unbiased news and views that matter. Malaysiakini caters to English, Malay and Chinese, so everyone gets to read them. Cheers.

 

Britain’s missing spacecraft Beagle 2 found on Mars

 

Malaysia ku : The next spacecraft Beagle 3 should contain as the crew the whole bunch of Umno’s ministers, on a one-way trip to Mars, and should they have a hard landing on the planet, they can radio back to command the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to investigate any corruption in the award of the tender to build the spacecraft.

 

Kang Kong King : Great! But Bolehland is also great as a jet engine found its way to South America!

 

BernieBaby : They can find a Beagle 2 on Mars. But MH370?

 


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These comments are compiled to reflect the views of Malaysiakini subscribers on matters of public interest. Malaysiakini does not intend to represent these views as fact.



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