Good leadership to steer the nation out of gloom
Lim Sue Goan, Sin Chew Daily
In the face of disasters and crises, it is utterly essential for our leaders to display a high level of astute leadership in a bid to stabilize the nation and lead it out of the current doldrums.
On the downing of MH17, prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has exhibited his exceptional leadership and diplomatic clout, winning him great acclaims from international media and remarkably reversing their erstwhile criticisms on the country in the wake of MH370.
This time, the government has acted promptly and decisively, instantly dispatching an investigation team to Kiev while transport minister Liow Tiong Lai and foreign minister Anifah Aman traveled to the Ukrainian capital to coordinate investigation works. Meanwhile, PM Najib exercised his diplomatic clout to arrive at three landmark agreements with the pro-Russian separatist leader Alexander Borodai, namely to return the remains of the crash victims, return of the black boxes, and to allow access to crash site for investigation.
The national airline has also displayed a responsible attitude this time, announcing full refunds of passengers intending to cancel their flights.
MH17 proves to be a turning point in Najib’s leadership. BN did not perform up to expectations during last year’s general elections while the prime minister constantly came under the pressure from the rightist faction in his party. His ability to secure a diplomatic breakthrough this time has somewhat relieved the tremendous political pressure on him.
As a matter of fact, Najib’s strength lies in his “silent diplomacy” minus all the harsh criticisms. During the Umno general assembly in March 2009, Najib succeeded in getting Mahathir, who had never ceased hitting out at this successor Abdullah, to come back to Umno, and this showed his exceptional diplomacy.
Even though he has come under tremendous pressure after GE13, Najib has chosen to bear in silence, and this has helped keep him in office, unlike his predecessor.
And now, he has done another right thing to his credit.
Actually, such leadership should by right also be applied to other issues including religious and racial controversies, political chaos and staggering national and domestic debts.
MH17 has yet to come to an end, and there are many follow-up matters to handle, including taking the perpetrators to the International Court in seeking justice for the victims and their families.
On top of this, MAS also needs a major restructuring in a bid to lower operational cost while trying to restore its reputation. The TransAsia and Air Algerie disasters will only serve to batter MAS further. As such, it is imperative that Najib once again shows his leadership skills to bring the flag carrier out of the gloom.
Najib’s successful “silent diplomacy” contrasts the failure of Pakatan Rakyat leaders. When the nation is still grieving over MH17, Pakatan leaders continue to lock in disputes over the change of Selangor MB. Due to the absence of a unified stand on MH17 initially, some of the leaders have made foolish remarks, highlighting the incompetency of the Pakatan leadership.
The imminent change of Selangor MB has taken its root from the internal conflicts within PKR, Since Anwar was not able to check the advances of Azmin Ali, he came up with a grand design of Kajang by-election early this year.
This stalemate has been going on for more than half a year, showing that Anwar indeed lacks good leadership.
In the latest development, PAS president Hadi Awang has pledged his support for Khalid to remain as Selangor MB. If the three parties remain divided and Khalid seeks the Sultan’s consent to dissolve the state legislative assembly, than BN might have the chance of recapturing the state administration.
According to a recent survey by the Universiti Malaya Center for Democracy and Elections (Umcedel), the approval rate of the state government has plunged from 50% to 35%,and this is the price Pakatan has to pay for over-indulgence in politicking instead of good governance.
