Najib’s magnanimous and gentleman nature
Salleh Said Keruak
Back in 1987, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad quarrelled with Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and Tun Musa Hitam, at that time known as ‘Team B’. Najib Tun Razak, however, refused to join the quarrel because he felt it was not good for Umno and can only result in ruining the party.
However, in the spirit of loyalty to the party president and in the interest of the party, Najib expressed support for Dr Mahathir and political observers wrote it was because of that Dr Mahathir’s ‘Team A’ won, but by a narrow margin.
The problem is people sometimes make the mistake of thinking that when a person is diplomatic and prefers the peaceful alternative to solving differences that would mean that person lacks guts. They fail to see the positive side of things, which is that person may be a gentleman.
Although Najib has shown that he can fight if need be, he has also shown that he would prefer to not fight if that is going to hurt the party. In spite of the harsh words against him and the hurt he suffered, Najib extended a hand of friendship to his adversaries when he could have easily embarrassed them by turning his back on them.
