Although he likes to label others as nobodies, to me, minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz is a leader with leadership roles.
After all, he was once a youth leader and now an elected MP and a full minister for many years.
Nazri must try to talk sense and logic, not just politics. He must remember it is easy to be a politician, but more difficult to be a leader.
To Nazri, loyalty is absolute. Leaders can do no wrong. Worse still, if leaders do wrong, they must still be supported, regardless.
This is the logic he holds dearly to. This is the argument he used to support Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad during his battle with other Umno leaders, when Dr Mahathir was prime minister.
The support is blind, regardless of the issues and the severity of the wrong committed.
Many have argued that Dr Mahathir is not blameless of our present predicament. So, basing on Nazri’s logic, are we trying to create another "Mahathir" today?
Was he trying to perpetuate the same blind loyalty of seeing, hearing and speaking no evil of the Mahathir era?
Loyalty to leaders is never absolute or without conditions. If, in the past, we were stupid enough to support Dr Mahathir despite his “wrong doings”, should we be stupid enough to repeat the stupidity now?
Perhaps that is the reason why Malaysia can never change – we want to do the same thing again and again and expect different results.
It is time for us to do things differently if we expect different results. Leaders must be evaluated and assessed constantly.
We elect leaders for five years, but that does not mean for five years we can do nothing to assess the performance of our leaders. That is stupidity again.
Why do we need Parliament sittings, the media, auditor-general, MACC, Public Accounts Committee and the judiciary to adjudicate governmental actions?
Just hold election once every five years and voila, we have democracy!
No one is advocating backstabbing or sabotaging our national leaders out of spite. No one is advocating violence. That would be wrong.
But when there are complaints of wrongdoings, malfeasance, gross incompetence and likelihood of massive abuse of power and corruption, surely leaders like Nazri and others must ask questions and the rakyat be allowed to talk and petition for change.
Asking and mandating our top leaders to account, to explain and to come clean of malfeasance is very much part of democracy and our way of life. Without it, there is nothing left. – March 1, 2016.
* T.K. Chua reads The Malaysian Insider.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.
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