COMMENT | My name is Malaysia. Let me have the say of my time under the rule of Najib Abdul Razak, who became the prime minister in 2009. He made quite an impressive start with his clarion call for “1dream, 1people and 1nation” when he made his debut on the national stage.

At that time, people were quite willing to let this man run the show because they thought that there was no other effective leader to helm me. They gave him the benefit of the doubt, considering that there was some disquiet about his role in the Mongolian affair.

Anyway, Najib was chosen to lead me. I thought that, maybe, he would out-shine and out-perform all his other predecessors. He was young, vibrant and full of energy. He had many glowing ideas on how to bring me to greater heights of success. When the 2013 general election loomed, I was willing to put my bet on Najib scoring a resounding victory over the opposition. But something went wrong along the way.

When the results came in, the Barisan Nasional won with only a simple majority, which was described as “its worst-ever election performance”. Clearly, the voters were not happy with the way Najib has been ruling me. These were early signs of a bigger disaster that would befall the party.

I noted that the then opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim was most vociferous in his criticism of the conduct of the Election Commission. He accused the EC of failing to stem the widespread fraud perpetrated by the ruling coalition. Years later, this election body was to come under more intense fire over its errant conduct.

However, Najib blithely went ahead governing me under the banner of national reconciliation as he sought to bind the nation and heal the wounds. Very charming indeed, except that he didn’t do anything of that sort.

Good governance discarded

Instead, this son of a famous father proved to be a big disappointment. In the years that followed, he ruled me like he and his family owned all of me. He discarded all those noble qualities associated with good governance.

I groaned. This is not what I wanted. I wanted Najib to be hardworking and disciplined, but he took a different path that had all the makings of a rotten leader. His politics was divisive – he played up race and religion to the hilt in his bid to stay put. This was most deplorable.

This man is showing his true colours. I watched him as he tightened his grip on power. Oh, power had got into his head to the extent that he did what he pleased. Or rather, he had all his ministerial sycophants to dance to his tune.

The games he played disgusted me. For instance, he made sure Anwar went back to prison on what many of us believed were politically-motivated charges. He sure was scared-stiff of this reformasi man.

With this formidable opponent put away, Najib believed nobody would challenge him when the time came for another general election.

Then there was his intolerance of dissent. He treated all these protesters like so many pesky rats nibbling at his side. He made me like his kingdom where his all subjects must kow-tow to him. If you didn’t bend your knees, he would throw tear gas at you. I didn’t like it one bit the way he crushed legitimate dissent.

Wealth and power blinded Najib

Really, wealth and power had blinded Najib. I cringed when his spouse made headlines, at least in the alternative media, going on spending sprees and buying up gems and expensive handbags. She didn’t bet an eyelid showcasing her new-found prosperity.

I would think that the wife of a prime minister should never hog the limelight – all for the wrong reasons.

What got me all riled up was when Najib burdened the people with that no-good goods and services tax (GST). He didn’t seem to realise that many ordinary citizens had to struggle to make ends meet. He thought that throwing some crumbs to them would work wonders.

He certainly collected millions in GST and was very proud to trumpet his success. He seemed to think my economic performance was robust.

But where did all the money go? I heard that most of it went to cover the mounting national debts, a fact that Najib refused to acknowledge.

The deed that shook me to the core was the theft of state funds. Najib vigorously denied he did this, although there was strong evidence to the contrary.

My worth, he had the audacity to form a special panel to investigate this 1MDB pest, but in the end, he himself dismantled it when all signs of guilt were pointing at him.

I believed he overstepped the boundary when he got even the former attorney-general to resign for so-called “health reasons” when the latter was said to be preparing to charge him for this crime.

To make matters worse, he got a new attorney-general to clear his name. Najib got what he wanted but no one believed a word of it. It was a bad move.

I groaned. Now, I became the laughingstock of the world when everyone poked fun at my leader for shutting his eyes to this big elephant, while others were cracking the whips all around us. I am the birthplace of the 1MDB scandal and yet Najib chose to ignore it at great cost to my dignity as a nation.

I wanted to open up and swallow Najib and all his people in the government for allowing me to fall into such a state of disgrace. But I could not do anything. I was gagged and suppressed. But not for long.

I waited for a chance to break away from the shackles. It came in 2018. Najib had no choice but to call for the 14th general election. By then, I already knew that the groundswell of revolt against him was about to erupt. I joined the millions of voters to embrace change.

On May 9, Najib fell from grace. He was not knocked down by Anwar but by a very old man who came back from a long retirement to hit the campaign trail.

Najib never imagined that Dr Mahathir Mohamad would be the one to step up to the challenge and win the race to Putrajaya. His biggest mistake was to belittle his mentor. He didn’t know he was in for a bashing.

During the campaign, I watched both sides on the stump, but I distinctly got the feeling that the people were all shifting to the doctor. The message of change had gone down well.

Now that the dust has settled, I, Malaysia feel refreshed, rejuvenated and reborn. And I want to tell Najib loud and clear: you didn’t rise to be a statesman but stooped so low to become just a tinpot leader.

PHLIP RODRIGUES is a retired journalist.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.