Electoral mandates grant their winners the right to govern but the moral legitimacy to rule has constantly to be earned.

DAP national vice-chair M Kulasegaran made the distinction between the two imperatives for governance when he remarked on the assertion of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak that he had the mandate of the people, enjoyed the backing of his party Umno, and was buoyed by the the demonstrated support of crowds at public gatherings.

Najib contrasted the tableau of public endorsement with the criticisms of “one voice”, a reference to his severest detractor on the 1MDB issue - former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

The PM has been going to places in Sabah and Sarawak where large gatherings and the enthusiasm of his greeters have led him to dig in his heels and resist urgings for his resignation over alleged mishandling of 1MDB funds.

Kulasegaran, MP for Ipoh Barat MP, observed that if Mahathir was the only critic of the PM’s alleged misdemeanours over the sovereign wealth fund, Najib would not find it necessary to go round the country ramping up support for his now beleaguered premiership.

“The number of his critics are now not small - they are legion, so he can’t say that it’s only Dr Mahathir who wants him out,” remarked the federal legislator.

“Furthermore, the PM mistakes the electoral mandate he had won in Parliament at the last election for the moral legitimacy to govern which has constantly to be earned,” argued Kulasegaran.

“The one is gained periodically when elections are held  but the other and deeper requirement which is the moral legitimacy to govern can be easily forfeited through disastrous decisions such as what appears to have happened in the case of 1MDB,” he explained.

“In that event, a mandate to govern gained earlier loses its bite as the moral legitimacy to hold the reins is steadily lost,” he said.

“No amount of public gatherings and demonstrations of popular support can substitute for the credibility that has oozed out of the administration,” he expatiated.

Kulasegaran said Najib’s non-appearance at yesterday’s public forum to explain the 1MDB issue “has stripped the thinning facade of legitimacy he had prior to the event and he now appears like an emperor without clothes.”

“It is now only a short step to him becoming a premier without credibility and a leader with the mandate but without the legitimacy,” he asserted.