The nation had just witnessed of how a mere wedding issue of the outgoing Menteri Besar's (MB) daughter almost brought down a state government he leads.
Being a Malaysian myself, I'm not too sure whether to get angry, laugh or even cry. Have a glance the following :-
1) Prime Minister Najib's firmness and/or insistence on Ahmad Said's date
of resignation despite the latter's personal request may be seen right to some as Ahmad daughter's wedding has no bearing whatsoever to state interest.
(How nice if PM Najib apply such stance in dealing with corrupted leaders of the country. Not compromising even if there is a personal request for an exemption).
2) A former MB who had been with Umno for many years and heads the state for number of years took real offense by quitting his party over his daughter's wedding.
3) A couple of state assemblymen elected by the people in a legitimate general election disregard completely the trust of the people by joining the fray to leave the party.
4) One party (coalition) with all it's supporters excited and becoming hopeful of gaining control of an oil-rich state and the other party (coalition) panicked like a man has lost his testicles.
5) A soon to be bride who is upset as wedding invitation cards of her reception to be held at the MB's official residence have been sent out to guests.
6) Prime Minister Najib who was willing and prepared to apologize for his action/decision after being hold ransom to ensure he's not loosing BN state governed Terengganu and possible negative impact and/or consequences to his already deteriorating leadership.
The Terengganu saga could well be avoided should there was a more reasonable and/or appropriate approach including the use of diplomacy and exercising certain amount of discretion. It (the saga) demonstrates a leader that heads the nation disgracefully failed in his decision making.
I would not want to comment on the part of the Prime Minister getting the wrong wedding date. If a lorry driver who has no PA and secretary, I would conveniently accept such reasoning as a benefit of the doubt.
One may ask, if trivial matter such as that could have almost cost a state, how would he deals with matters that could be far more complicated and challenging?. Matter like the management/handling on the disappearance of MH370?.
Surely Malaysia deserves to have a leader whose competency is not questioned at any material time.
Certainly, the act of all assemblymen in Terengganu including former MB Ahmad Said who tendered and then retracted their resignations could not be considered as future candidates for election.
To BN, the Terengganu saga is a good wake-up call and ignoring or failing to take it as a lesson would only burden BN's own political survival, but most importantly it must not be at the expense of the people.
We are not sure at this stage what was the cost (if there is any) for the return of the three assemblymen to Umno's fold.
There are people who suspected PM Najib has possibly handled negotiations with regard to Ahmad's retirement poorly resulting in the latter feeling unhappy with his "retirement package".
Taking into account BN's "at all cost" need to keep Terengganu, speculations were rife that it might involved giving away of perks and benefits.
My only fear is, if people continue to lose confidence in Prime Minister Najib's governance, this will result instability in the future and that will be bad to the nation.
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