By Kasthuri Patto, Batu Kawan MP

Pic from The Malaysian Insider

Two days ago, UMNO veteran leader Rais Yatim, who is also the governments adviser on social and cultural issues, pleaded that PM Najib Tun Razak should be given a chance to complete his mandate as PM before he is evaluated.

It appears that this man has come to the aid of who should have been the country’s ‘most powerful’ man, next in line after the man himself had defended his poor wife, Rosmah Mansor.

That despite the gory inexplicable death of a Mongolian translator using C4, to an open bribery offer of “I help you, you help me”, to the conniving “nambikei”, to the deafening silence on the “Kalimah Allah” issue, to the loathsome “apa lagi Cina mahu” to the lamentable “kangkung tragedy” to the vile “UMNO must emulate the bravery of ISIL” to the most recent belting to a different tune when he, undisguising his forked tongue, back pedalled on his pledge to abolish the sedition act, Malaysians are expected to tolerate and put up with this premier for another 3 years.

In a side-splitting comment, Rais also mentioned that in spite of the comments, as long as Najib stays patient and accepts it bravely, it is alright.

Odious to say the least, it is Malaysians alike who need to be brave and patient to put up with a ‘Bapa U-Turn’ as such for another 3 dreadful years.

What the PM and his UMNO henchmen have perhaps grossly overlooked is it does not quite matter whether Najib finishes his 3 years but that it is going to be his last 3 years to steer this vessel before being forced to retire.

After 57 years under the same praxis of UMNO and their catchy tenet of ‘dulu, kini dan selamanya’, Malaysians must swallow this bitter pill for the next 3 years to appease and pacify our wounded premier.

What has Mr Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib done or said in the past 5 years that has earned the trust and mandate of the people for another 3 years?

Since 2009 to April of 2014, Najib has only attended about 26 days in Parliament. This pales in comparison to the ex premier of Britain who made it a point to attend Parliament every Wednesday for 30 minutes to answer 6 questions.

This year on the 25th of March when addressing the August house on the missing MH370 MAS airline and crew, Najib spent over 14 minutes before making his exit when DAP Opposition Leader and Gelang Patah MP Lim Kit Siang started to debate, a mere few minutes after he started. On July 23 the Prime Minister once again proposed a motion in a special sitting in the Dewan Rakyat on the unforeseen tragedy of another MAS airline, MH17 for over 35 minutes, leaving as soon as Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim took stage to debate. After tabling the 2015 national budget on 10th October for over 2 hours, the premier rightfully left the hall and did not step into the Dewan Rakyat to observe the parliament proceedings and particularly the budget debate which went on till the 27th of November in which he made an appearance. Finally, after tabling the white paper on ISIS on 26 November, he snuck out once again Gelang Patah MP Lim Kit Siang started to speak.

Najib has put in no effort to make his presence felt in Parliament by actually participating in a debate, whether it is with Anwar Ibrahim or not, or to listen to what Members of Parliament have to say in the August House on current issues that are plaguing this nation. If his justification is that there are cabinet ministers and deputy ministers who are experts in their respective disciplines who can “take note(s)” of proposals, comments, criticisms and amendments from both sides of the divide, then perhaps, in future, the ministers can take turns to read out prepared texts of budget debates instead of the Prime Minister doing it.

Should the prime minister be given 3 more years if he has no intention to attend Parliament sitting on a regular basis to listen to the voice of the nation through the elected representatives? Even if he decides to shirk his duties as a Prime Minister, then at least he should bring forth local issues in his Parliamentary constituency of Pekan in Pahang to the Dewan Rakyat as the right honourable Member of Parliament. Laws passed in the Dewan Rakyat will affect each and every one in the country and the PM is constantly missing in action.

Will it be seditious now to ask the PM for his KPI and NKRA from 2009 to date on his false promises and his pseudo-utopian fantasy in this torn and wounded nation?

The nation has been on auto-pilot mode for a while now with race-mongers and religious bigots ferociously fanning the flames of hatred while secretly enjoying ‘immunity’ orchestrated by invisible hands by the powers that be.

After all, how can the PM be impervious to all these grave shortcomings and still manage to plaster a smile while waving his victorious 1Malaysia index finger and boasting that Malaysia has “the best democracy in the world”?

Regrettable Mr PM, that you have subtly fallen from grace.

*The opinions expressed in the article are those of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of The Rocket