Ramadan Reflections – Day 5

Due to a disrupted sleep pattern, I can only manage a short piece today. So I will talk about Dato' Sri Najib as Prime Minister and UMNO's President and my position about it.

Dato' Sri Najib

In line with Muslim guidelines with regards to respect for leadership, and in cognisant of the fact that I am a Malaysian and an UMNO member, it is incumbent upon me to support Najib as both the PM of Malaysia and President of UMNO, as long as that support is for any action in which he does not transgress Allah's command.

But at the same time, there is no obligation for me to express support for incompetent leadership. In recent times, such incompetency has clearly been demonstrated by Najib in the handling of 1MDB. In the larger picture, Najib still lacks a comprehensive vision to bring the Ummah (specifically in Malaysia) to greater heights, a sore deficiency in his leadership. It is for this twin reason that there must be an effort either to (a) improve Najib or (b) replace him with a better leader. For the former option, I hope to exhaust all avenues to lend efforts to such an attempt – for at least as long as he is our leader; but honestly I have very little hope for his capacity to improve, based on my observation of his ideas, performance and reactions to recent events. On the latter option, there are proper avenues to effect such a replacement. The lesser avenue would be through UMNO elections. The larger avenue would be through the general election. On this option to replace him as the leader of UMNO & Malaysia, some figures such as Tun Mahathir has opted for more open expressions to get Najib to resign his leadership. Of course, Mahathir has every right to do so; but Najib also has every right to reject such requests. Such tit-for-tat should not be made into such a big fuss. The bigger fuss should rightly be about how the leadership must be able to deliver.

It is also in this line that, as an UMNO member, I am planning to 'work the UMNO ground' to remove Najib as the leader and replaced with a more able person, IF he does not show any improvement before the next UMNO elections. Because I am only obliged to do so, 'to play better' so to speak, in this game of politics. But in the meantime, as long as he is our leader, I do sincerely hope that he can improve much, and be less incompetent.

I cannot say much about removing him through the general elections though. Although I am theoretically a registered voter, I typically only vote for someone who can openly express the sovereignty of Allah above democracy. That is mostly absent in political candidates nowadays. And that is why I am mostly absent in voting. This, of course, is nothing much to do with Najib as the Malaysian PM voted into power, as the avenue of replacing him through the general elections will only be indirectly answered by the voting masses. It remains to be seen how I intend to position myself in time for the next general elections where support for Najib is concerned.

In the end, it is not for such interim efforts (on improving or ousting Najib) to be the key criteria for evaluating our conclusions and positions on his leadership. It is about how his leadership is executed ('performed', not 'killed'), and whether it brings about good for the Ummah – especially in the long run. We have every right to work towards our very best for the sake of Allah, and only after we have put in all efforts that we can possibly do, do we put our trust in Allah. For it is Him that determines all, figures of leadership included.