COMMENT No one can beat Dr Mahathir Mohamad when it comes to answering the press.

Even international journalists respect the former prime minister for the way he handled some of the most difficult questions in the past.

Even though most of us did not necessarily agree with him, his answers made sense - and he could easily turn the tables around, before you could ask a second question.

For that reason, although Dr Mahathir’s whereabouts is known to all, red-shirt leader Jamal Md Yunos is unlikely to carry out his threat to spit on the hand of the man he once adored, without facing the consequences.

What mesmerised me yesterday was the way the nonagenarian responded to a question posed by a journalist about Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s participation in the Rohingya solidarity demonstration. The video clip posted by KiniTV is worth watching again and again.

Even at 92, Dr Mahathir’s mind is still very sharp. I can imagine Najib reeling under the force of the punch after Dr Mahathir poked at him: “When you are in the government, what is there to demonstrate about?”

No one in the right mind would even think of Najib participating in the Rohingya solidarity demonstration, especially when he is the head of a government. The head of government can cut off diplomatic ties to show displeasure with Myanmar, or haul up the ambassador, but Najib did nothing about this.

For this reason, even the deputy director-general of the Myanmar President’s Office, U Zaw Htay knew that Najib’s move was “a ploy for Putrajaya to garner political support among Malaysians”. I tend to agree with Htay.

By turning up in solidarity with the Rohingya, Najib has not only turned Malaysia into a laughing stock to the rest of the world, but poured contempt on the Myanmar government, which is not befitting someone of his stature. Can you imagine US president-elect Donald Trump turning up at a Global Bersih demonstration in Washington DC?

Najib should have abstained from appearing with the Rohingya demonstrators. Instead, he should have taken the advice of PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail in hauling up the ambassador from Myanmar as a head of government.

Or, as someone else suggested, provide refugee status to the Rohingya and other refugees in the country and allow their children to have the opportunity to be educated here in Malaysia - something which only the non-governmental organisations are trying to fill the vacuum.

Now that Najib has put the cart before the horse, we have to wait and see if Myanmar would withdraw its own ambassador to Malaysia for its interference into their country’s political situation.

Or whether the Myanmarese would also reciprocate with a similar demonstration urging Najib to reveal all about the 1MDB scandal. In politics, anything is possible!