As I reflect upon the events that dominated our national life for much of 2015, I can think of nothing more appropriate as an expression and projection of our earnest hopes for the future than to recall Alfred Lord Tennyson’s immortal words — “Ring out the old, ring in the new. Ring happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go: Ring out the false, ring in the true.”
This year will be remembered, as far as I am concerned, as arguably the most dangerously destructive year in the political history of our country. Never before has such a sustained, sordid campaign been mounted against a democratically elected head of government with the sole aim of forcing his resignation, without regard to the consequent reverberations sweeping well beyond our boundaries.
There is an uncanny similarity between the conspiracy by a section of the British upper classes, (the Establishment) to remove Harold Wilson in 1968 with MI5 secretly putting it about that Wilson was a Communist agent who posed a danger to democracy. Our own smear campaign portrayed the prime minister as a thief who had stolen billions of ringgit from 1Malaysia Development Bhd. In both cases, newspaper owners were identified among the key plotters spreading the black propaganda. In both cases, the extremely damaging allegations and personal attacks turned out to be pure fabrications — pure as slush.
The British lesson detailing the involvement of the secret service in the coup attempt were not lost on Datuk Seri Najib Razak. He may be forgiven under the circumstances for showing symptoms of paranoia when his own intelligence network uncovered feverish clandestine goings-on in certain key government institutions aimed at his ouster without first verifying the truth of the allegations made by forces clearly bent on a course of action that was clearly extra-parliamentary in nature at best.
Unlike Wilson, who allowed himself to be pushed out of No. 10 in 1975 without a fight, Najib stayed the course, gave the lie to the rumours and innuendoes, and has retained his legitimacy to govern.
The fiendish handiwork of self-serving business and political adventurers determined to pursue their personal agendas ignored the possible social, economic and political implications for the country as a whole. Their plot took Malaysia to the edge of the abyss and they would have pushed the country off the cliff had Najib not halted them dead in their tracks with revelations of their criminal complicity.
The largely unregulated social media, used to good effect by the opposition as a weapon of mass manipulation and distraction, had succeeded in poisoning the minds of people into paralysis.
Opposition blogs have for years now become their points of reference. His formidable detractors succeeded brilliantly in putting a negative spin on his integrity and, by implication, his fitness to govern.
Many, including some within his own party, were persuaded that Najib had apparently lost his moral authority, and some even went so far as to ask, “How can he lose something he never had in the first place?”
His credibility they claimed had plummeted to new lows. He was no longer able, again according to them, to trade in the currency of trust. Public trust in him had all but evaporated. He was apparently on the defensive, but Najib remains secure in the knowledge that no evidence that would have stood up under scrutiny in a court of law has ever been produced.
Najib has now been given a suspended sentence by the court of public opinion, which seems to be more relevant as far as his enemies are concerned than the verdict of our established courts. Najib should now address the question that the nation has been asking, “Where did it all go so wrong?” We, who have kept faith by him, rejoice in his political survival and that of the government he leads.
He is in a manner of speaking “in remission” and not out of danger. He must put his 1Malaysia Government Transformation Programme into top gear immediately. He knows what he must do to reinvent himself and the government he leads. He cannot sustain the government on gimmicks alone. Clever presentations by his whizz kids are no substitute for sound national policy options to remove glaring national problems impacting unnecessarily on efforts to unify our people.
All his energies must be directed to finding ways to remove and replace racial strife with national unity goals. He knows he does not have the luxury of opting for policies yielding instant one day wonders — the irresponsible politician’s cowardly way out. He cannot overcome entrenched national problems by the simple expedient of producing vote-catching short-term solutions.
The health of our public finances has long been a cause for widespread concern. The concern is real and must be treated with the respect and attention it deserves. We are going through a financial crisis and it cannot be resolved by falling back on the government’s standard economic mantra — “Our fundamentals are strong”.
It is the same old refrain that we have heard once too often. Can the government be trusted with the economy? The government has to come clean and bring the people into its confidence because promoting and protecting the nation’s wealth is a collective responsibility.
Najib has his work cut out for him. If he gets his sums right, he will leave behind an important legacy of strong, confident and principled leadership: the prime minister who was prepared to make hard choices for the survival of our country.
First he must close the infernal “mistrust gap”. Let us together “Ring out the false, and ring in the true.” Season’s greetings and a happy New Year.
The writer is a director of the International Institute for Public Ethics