Decisive leadership won the day in Perak
Eleven months ago, the Sultan of Perak gave Pakatan Rakyat a chance to rule the state even though Umno held the largest number of seats, 27 in total , by far nine seats more than the nearest rival, the DAP with 18.
Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed, The Malaysian Insider
Pakatan Rakyat's lustre as credible government leaders is fading. They have found it difficult to be statesmen, a role far apart from their usual comfortable and easier position of condemning the Barisan Nasional government for anything and everything under the sun.
Maybe it’s hard for them to throw away their personal interests and life-long habits for the good of their coalition. An unholy union of sorts for the common interest of grabbing power.
Truth is, they did not expect the hard reality of governing the newly-won states last year to catch up with them so soon. But that doesn't mean that they can't change in the longer term.
More importantly, they should also remember that in our parliamentary system, loyalty to the party is paramount to ensuring a strong government.
The party leadership must have the undivided loyalty of its representatives to the party and not only to the leader to concentrate on governing the country. But the PKR have difficulty evolving beyond the shadow of its de facto leader, Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
The representatives chosen by the party must have high integrity to the party and put the party above their self interest. This is the guiding principle used by the head of state in most parliamentary democracies to decide the government.
Eleven months ago, the Sultan of Perak gave Pakatan Rakyat a chance to rule the state even though Umno held the largest number of seats, 27 in total , by far nine seats more than the nearest rival, the DAP with 18.
He could have asked Barisan Nasional to form a minority government but he probably knew that it was against the wishes of the public at that time.
He listened to the rakyat then and gave the extremely fragile and inexperienced Pakatan Rakyat coalition the benefit of doubt and a chance to prove themselves.
However, he may have been disappointed that the Pakatan Rakyat government was too preoccupied with politics and forgot to govern the state.
The government under former Menteri Besar Dato Seri Mohd Nizar Jamaluddin was too busy holding ceramahs and giving away freehold land rights. They forgot to focus on the languishing economy of Perak while businesses continue to fail.
It is no surprise that the Sultan has shown distinguished leadership by making a tremendously unpopular decision to invite Barisan Nasional to form the Perak government.
I salute the bravery of the sultan who has risked his entire hard earned reputation as a principled man to make a decision that looks at the bigger picture which is the state and the economy.
He has shown leadership by deciding on the direction of the state and not to follow voices in the wild.
A true leader will make decisions that go against the majority if he thinks he is right even if it is to his detriment. If he doesn't trust his instincts and gets confused by the multi-directional chatter on the ground, he will just be one of the followers.
Former Umno member Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was also decisive when he was Prime Minister and president of Umno.
Unfortunately many young Malaysians grew up under his long reign and find difficulty to see the world beyond him. And Dr Mahathir's mixed track record of service has encouraged many Malaysians to be fixated with the past and not the future.
Perhaps many Malaysians really do believe that he was a towering personality that resulted in the famous quote "Mahathir was Malaysia and Malaysia was Mahathir" when he was prime minister.
I can see why it is difficult for many Malaysians and even Dr Mahathir himself to shake the image off and move on with life.
Back to the present and moving forward, Pakatan Rakyat's Perak government failed because of the lack of loyalty by three of their 31 assemblymen.
They did not believe in their coalition struggle and were probably chosen to stand on the assumption that they would certainly lose in the March 2008 general elections. Except for DAP Jelapang state legislator Hee Yit Foong who was gunning for a second term.
As luck turned out, most of them won to form the government and had to actually serve the people. It is a difficult life and they were probably unprepared for the task.
We shouldn't blame them if they decide to abandon their party and throw their support to the Barisan Nasional. They were not supposed to be there anyway if they didn't believe in their party's struggle. It wasn't the Barisan Nasional who chose them.
The defection of the Pakatan Rakyat's representatives just proves that politicians are the same no matter what their stripes are.
The dilemma the public faces in choosing government is to actually choose the party that is decisive and provides good leadership.
In contrast, Dato Seri Najib Tun Razak is a true and loyal party man. He did not leave the party when Dr Mahathir passed him over and chose Dato Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as his deputy and eventually to succeed him in the party and government.
He believed in Umno's struggle and accepted his fate and stayed on to assist Dato Seri Abdullah as a loyal deputy. Today, Dato Seri Najib's star is shining. He has shown smart political acumen by taking advantage of the opportunity that arose from the trouble in Pakatan Rakyat's ranks.
Dato Seri Najib was quick and decisive to assume the Perak Umno chief's post to unite and energise the members in the aftermath of Bota assemblyman Dato Nasaruddin Hashim jumping to Pakatan Rakyat.
He rallied them and punted on taking over power in Perak without making any public announcement.
He has put a young Menteri Besar in Dato Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir who carries the survival of the Bariisan Nasional on his shoulders to lead the state in an apparently hostile atmosphere.
Dr Zambry needs to prove that he can reverse the regression in Perak's economic development for the past 25 years under former menteris besar Tan Sri Ramli Ngah Talib and Dato Seri Tajol Rosli Mohd Ghazali.
Dr Zambry must make a clean break from the past and change Perak for the better, and he must be selfless and avoid playing politics. In time I believe, this colleague of mine from the Umno Youth executive council will provide inspired leadership to redeem the Barisan Nasional in Perak.
But Dr Zambry needs to go beyond saying he is the Menteri Besar for all races and just be public servant number one in Perak. He needs to regain the confidence of the Perak people for Barisan Nasional by working hard to create wealth and prosperity and ensuring a secure environment.
There are times when I wonder whether the Barisan Nasional would have lost Perak in Election 2008 if Dr Zambry was given the chance to lead the ruling coalition then. If that was so, the process of change in Umno would have started earlier in Perak.
Yet, the question the public should ask now is the repercussions of the events in Perak. Could it be a prelude of things to expect next after Dato Seri Najib takes over end of March?
With the Barisan Nasional sealing the takeover of the Perak government, Pakatan Rakyat is now scrambling to avoid the state governments in Kedah and Selangor from falling too.
Dato Seri Najib has proven that he is a decisive, inspiring and a results-orientated leader. He has shown that he likes to do more than he likes to talk.
This will hold him in good stead as the problems that will greet his ascendancy to be Malaysia's sxth prime minister is massive.
He needs to change Umno for the better and may become unpopular in the party. But he knows if he doesn't change Umno, Umno will be changed by the people.
He also has to be unpopular and persuade Sarawak's aging Chief Minister, Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud to make the right changes in Sarawak to prevent the dominant ruling party, the Pesaka Bangsa Bersatu (PBB) from making the same mistake Umno, MCA, Gerakan and MIC made in peninsular Malaysia from losing power.
For more on that, read my analysis on the upcoming Sarawak state elections in The Malaysian Insider.
And finally , Dato Seri Najib has to find the panacea to restore business and consumer confidence to stimulate demand and reverse the expected decline in economic growth over the next three years.
I urge all Malaysians to take a step back and consider the magnitude of the task facing Dato Seri Najib as the incoming Prime Minister.
It takes a brave man to take on the arduous task.
Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed is a two-term MP for Pulai. Apart from being in the new politics, he also writes for The Malaysian Insider while debating other matters at www.jazlan.net
