I sense a 'Marc Anthony' being pulled on Najib by none other than the seemingly 'harmless' premier that Najib and his UMNO warlords are ousting from office and whom Najib will replace as premier come March 2009.
[What is a Marc Anthony stunt? This I derive from the clever stunt pulled by Marc Anthony in subtly rousing the rabble to avenge Caesar's death. Marc Anthony, a close friend of Julius Caesar, cleverly used his famous "Friends, Romans, Countrymen" speech to rouse the rabble to mutiny to revenge Caesar's death. Julius Caesar had just been murdered by a group of conspirators (that included Caesar's trusted friend, Brutus) and Marc Anthony is now trying to reveal the true story to the public. However, Marc Anthony is in quite an awkward situation, he cannot directly accuse Brutus and others of this heinous crime because of their high positions and power. He must stir up the crowd and rouse them to anger and mutiny, and he does this through this famous eulogy by using different types of speech strategies and communication to let them see what happened without just bluntly telling them. Marc Anthony cleverly uses everything in his repertoire, from sarcasm to gesticulations, and from repetition to antidotes. Once he started his speech it seemed like he already had the crowd under his spell. He continued to put down the assassins of Julius Caesar until the rabble reacted just as he had wished and planned. By the time he finished his speech, he had turn the word 'honourable' around to, in fact, mean dishonourable. In the end, he successfully rouse the rabble into mutiny and wreak vengeance upon the conspirators responsible for Caesar's death.]
Pak Lah gave the statement below to the media when asked to comment on the explosive report on the sms exchanges between Najib and lawyer Shafee Abdullah on the progress of the Altantuya murder case. Somehow, Pak Lah's utterances and words keep bringing that 'Marc Anthony' stunt to mind.
Extracted from Malaysia Today:
PAK LAH GIVES STRONG ENDORSEMENT TO NAJIB
Posted by St Low
Tuesday, 14 October 2008 09:09KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has come out with the strongest statement yet to back his successor Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.
“I want Datuk Seri Najib to succeed me, I want all party members to give their support to him and I believe he can be a good leader,” he said.
The Prime Minister said he was happy that Najib received nominations to contest the party president post from all the 28 divisions that met on Sunday.
“Of course I should be happy because people are supporting him. That’s very good,” he said after delivering his keynote address at the US-Islamic World Regional Forum .
To a question on an allegation by Malaysia Today that Najib had allegedly abused his power and interfered in the investigation into the murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu, Abdullah said he did not believe Najib had abused his power.
Abdullah said: “I can’t believe that Najib would want to abuse his power. If he’s the one who plans to abuse his power, how can he be my successor?”
“I believe in him, I believe he’s a good person and he would be a good prime minister and would be able to provide good leadership, so I can’t believe he would be involved in the abuse of power,” he said.
With the choice of words that Pak Lah picks, and repetitive use of ambiguous words and grammar tense, I just can't help but go off on a Marc Anthony tangent. Well, it is probably coincidence given Pak Lah's tendencies to go into 'blur'-dom when confronted with seemingly obvious issues and tight situations. But could the choice of words be deliberate? Someone, somewhere did point out that Pak Lah may not be as dumb as he seems. So, note the choice of words in the following:
“I want Datuk Seri Najib to succeed me, I want all party members to give their support to him and I believe he can be a good leader,” he said.
Why say "he can be a good leader" when it is more convincing to say "...he is a good leader"? Is Pak lah saying: Najib is not a good leader now but he can be a good leader? Then, there is the:
“Of course I should be happy because people are supporting him. That’s very good,”
"I should be happy..."? Why not just say "I am very happy that people are supporting him"? Looks like Pak Lah is not really that happy...but he should be happy for his so-called appointed successor! Using the words 'Of course' doesn't make Pak Lah sound more convincing either. Is it just me or is that a hint of sarcasm there? Oh, and it gets better...
Abdullah said: “I can’t believe that Najib would want to abuse his power. If he’s the one who plans to abuse his power, how can he be my successor?”
Pak Lah says "I can’t believe..." when he should have said "I don't believe that Najib would want to abuse his power". There 's a huge difference between "can't" and "don't" here, innit? Isn't Pak Lah saying: "OMG, I just can't believe Najib would want to abuse power. See...he is the one (not me!) who plans to abuse his power (sic), so how can you dungu people nominate him to be my successor!" This would be a more correct interpretation of what Pak Lah says above, I would say.
“I believe in him, I believe he’s a good person and he would be a good prime minister and would be able to provide good leadership, so I can’t believe he would be involved in the abuse of power,” he said.
"I believe he's a good person"? Why not just say: "He is a good person, of high morals"?!!! Further, Pak Lah says "...he would be a good prime minister". Why not say, "...he will be a good prime minister"?! And notice how Pak Lah repeated "I can’t believe he would be involved in the abuse of power”. (Sounds more like: OMG, I really just can't believe Najib is abusing his power!) I would think using "I don't believe" here instead of "I can't" would be more convincing should Pak Lah have full confidence in Najib.
Many may argue that English is not our mother tongue... so Pak Lah (and Malaysians, at large) can be excused for picking certain 'not-so-convincing' words in such impromptu media interviews. Aiyaaa, who really gives a damn about my beliefs, my don't's and can't's, my would-be's, will-be's, and should-be's? As long as I get my incoherent thoughts across. Who bloody cares! Well, maybe so. But Najib didn't help diffuse the situation much. His own admission that there had been such an exchange is truly shocking. But even more shocking is his arrogance that it is none of our bloody business to be concern about such sms exchanges between the second most powerful person in the country and a shifty defence lawyer! Najib himself puts it wonderfully when ask to comment on the sms exchanges between him and Shafee:
"Why should it be a major concern? The important thing that is of public concern is the (allegation of abuse of power). If you read it (the messages) very carefully, there is no abuse of power. Period."
Still, the budding parallels between Pak Lah's public utterances and Mark Anthony 'honourable' speech linger. Whilst there is an open endorsement of Najib as the next premier and that "he would be a good prime minister", there's seems to be an underlying sense at rousing public sentiment to question "If he’s the one who plans to abuse his power, how can he be my successor?” Do I sense some emerging doubts here? Why the necessity to say "...how can he be my successor?"!!! Seems to me like a subtle stunt to plant some doubts in the public mind as to the credibility of his successor.
And in view of recent events, could this also be moving towards a tit for tat here, much like Marc Anthony's quest for vengence? An eye for an eye...cos when you oust me, I will make you pay! Are those the unseen hands from the fourth floor at play?
In the first place, how did those sms exchanges leaked out from deep within the belly of some telephone companies' database? Don't you need some powerful hands to be able to retrieve those? And it didn't help much either when more leakages occurred ...like the complaint letters to Najib on the controversial shady Eurocopter deal and other sins of Najib that were made public for the whole world to see.
So, watch out, world ...what the fourth floor boys can do, you ain't seen nothing yet!
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