Rosmah, where is your book?

Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak travelled around Malaysia championing his Merdeka slogan “Janji Ditepati”, but his most ardent supporter, the self-styled First Lady Rosmah Mansor, has let him down.

Last December, amid great fanfare, press coverage and the presence of royalty, Rosmah organised a pre-launch for her biography. A Bernama report said that the 164-page book, written by Siti Rohayah Attan and Noraini Abdul Razak, would cost RM150 and be published and distributed in January.

So, where is the book? It is now February, and the rakyat is eager to know the progress of the much publicised book.

While Rosmah was saving from her teens to buy expensive jewellery, a number of us have been saving for a life-changing book which will motivate and guide us towards success and riches. Few of us have managed to save up for priceless gems and we are delighted that Rosmah has promised to share her secrets with us.

What has happened to the book? Perhaps, Rosmah’s publicist got the year wrong.

Did her publishing adviser Ahmad Maslan not realise that with Chinese New Year falling in February, the printers would be busy and business would slow down during the two-week period of festivities.

With GE13 approaching, the printers have their hands full churning out election propaganda material.

Is the biography going to be just another of BN’s empty promises?

Ahmad claimed that the biography would also include a “frank question and answer chapter” to answer “all the issues and allegations”. Rosmah is naïve to think that writing a biography, to a book-shy Malaysian public, is going to “clear her name”.

With the book unavailable in the bookshops, Ahmad could enlighten us and say which allegation Rosmah is referring to.

If writing a book is all that is needed to clear oneself of a wrongdoing, criminals would put pen to paper and be spared the bother of giving evidence in court. Lawyers, judges and the entire court process would be made defunct. Ghost writers, publishers and bookshops would thrive.

The meaning of shame

Rosmah, Najib, former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and former Inspector-General of Police Musa Hassan once rejected subpoenaes to appear in court.

Perhaps, their reason for avoiding court was a mistrust of the Malaysian judiciary. Isn’t it the business of the prime minister to make good the system and restore the public’s trust in its judiciary?

During 56 years of BN rule, very few of our politicians know the meaning of shame. They allegedly lie, rape, steal, murder and take what does not belong to them, then turn up in Parliament as if nothing unusual has happened.

The rot set in during Mahathir’s tenure but in a few weeks’ time, we have the power to change all this and install a government which will do the rakyat’s bidding. Rather than plunder the rakyat’s money.

Those Malays who refuse to accept that Umno is detrimental to their well-being, only need to see how the senior Umno politicians promote their children. These politicians did not breed successful and enterprising children who end up in plum jobs.

Their children are denied the hard work, hunger to succeed and self-discipline needed to mould their character. There is no equality in educational and work or job opportunities. Their children have all the advantages which are denied to the rakyat.

Whose daughters get multi-million-ringgit projects to do with alternative energy or transport systems? Whose son lands lucrative contracts involving air-traffic control?

Whose son is free to pose as a member of royalty and beat strangers who dare challenge him in public? Whose children are able to purchase apartments and give themselves inflated salaries, with the millions of ringgits allocated for the National Feedlot Corporation?

Whose sons can make a share price soar just by buying stocks in the company? Whose daughter can march into an office and force the senior editors to listen to her tirade until the early hours of the morning because an article slighted her father?

Whose sons flout religious rules which are rigorously applied to other Muslims? Whose son had a failing company which Petronas had to rescue?

Children should be off-limits in any political campaign, but a desperate Najib has decided to rope in family members to gain political mileage.

His daughter, his son-in-law and his son accompanied him and Rosmah on a walkabout to hawker stalls in Penang. Najib and his son, Norashman, have been featured in a Chinese New Year radio advertisement and they appeared on stage just before the Korean deejay, Psy, performed.

Does Najib think the children will be his secret weapon to improve his image? If his children are to be treated like celebrities and feed off the public, then the public should be free to scrutinise them, as we scrutinise him and his wife.

How many young men will identify with Norashman? How many Malaysians get the chance to go to Beijing to study Mandarin for a few months? Is Najib giving him a fast-track into a political career? Does the whole family live by normal family values?

Najib’s silent enemies

Is Najib aware of the difficulties faced by the average 20-something young graduate? Has Norashman tried to be a normal Malaysian and taken the bus to work?

Has he tried to get things done without using his father’s name to open doors? Has he queued at a hospital clinic to see a doctor? Has he used a tandas awam (public toilet)?

If Rosmah’s biography is yet to be printed, she should include the part about BN compromising public safety.

Najib and BN suffered severe humiliation because Psy refused to be BN’s political stooge, when he refused to stir the yee sang on stage with Najib and his men.

If the allegations of an assassination attempt are to be believed, then why did the BN machinery risk the lives of the rakyat, Najib’s son and wife? The whole area should have been cleared.

If Psy’s life was in such danger, why was he given no protection when he dined at the Daorae Korean BBQ restaurant in Jalan Tanjong Tokong?

The allegation concocted by BN’s Teng Chang Yeow stinks to high heaven, just like some of the monsoon drains in Penang.

It is clear that the rakyat voting in GE13 is not the only threat to Najib. He also has many silent enemies within Umno. Rosmah should state in her biography that certain quarters in BN are out to undermine him.

Mariam Mokhtar is a FMT columnist.