Elegant Silence Elicits Suspicions

PM AAB must be feeling the damn heat, because he has not only broken his ‘elegant’ silence but now publicly disavowed he was advised by his son-in-law on his prime ministerial duties.

He said: “My son-in-law is not an adviser. He used to work with me. As my subordinate, obviously he was involved in preparing analyses and giving his opinion on many things.”

“He quit because he was aware that many people were complaining. He is no longer involved. Why are people making accusations?”

Well, AAB has only himself to blame for maintaining his ‘elegant’ silence, when the story about Khairy Jamaluddin’s influence over him has been churning around in Malaysia since he became Prime Minister. If he chose not to come out to refute those stories, he cannot now lay claim to being shocked, hurt or angered by the rumour mill.

He is the PM, politically the most important public figure in Malaysia; therefore people are interested in his what's, where's, why's, when's and how's, even down to mundane issues such as his eating, drinking, sleeping, etc. Naturally the Malaysian public would be deeply perturbed if they believe, rightly or wrongly, the country was run on proxy by his 31-year old son-in-law.

I say again, those allegations about his son-in-law are not new, but AAB had chosen to remain silent when as the PM, he ought to be more accountable to the public. He should have clarified those issues to assure the public much much earlier on.

He had also elected to remain silent on other questions on his accountability, such as those legitimate queries posed by a former PM, to the extent those queries now assume the status of public but popular interrogation of his government. The public's suspicions have been further fuelled by both his super premium silence and his ministers' cheap unleaded gas.

AAB must realise by now that, despite his 80,000 strong arm guardians in the police force, including 20,000 to 30,000 Special Branch blokes to keep an eye on critics, and 5,000 FRU personnel to physically discourage legitimate dissent, the modern Malaysian would still demand to know what his/her government is doing.

If the ministers including the PM refused to respond, acting as if they are medieval warlords instead of elected representatives, then they have to be prepared for the rumour mills to work overtime.

But quite frankly, I attribute his current, long overdue and very grudging statements on these matters, as motivated not so much by his new-found commitment to account to the Malaysian public, but more to offset adverse political bearings on him within UMNO.

His tactic of ‘elegant’ or 'arrogant' silence is now in sheer tatters in the face of increasingly insistent questions, undoubtedly from within UMNO too, about musuh dalam selimut (Trojan horses) threatening national sovereignty.

As I have stated many times before, given the all powerful UMNO in every sense of that 'power' word, the only source that can really shake an UMNO minister up would have to come from within UMNO.