Either we are really blind or Najib really sucks

PM DS Najib Razak had reiterated his stand that he will not step down from his post while speaking at the Tunku Abdul Rahman Lecture yesterday.

Najib insisted that he has been doing the right things for Malaysia.

Among others, he listed down the achievements of his administration in his speech

Leadership In Challenging Times 

21. From 2009 to 2014, Malaysia’s Gross National Income grew by 47.7 percent.

22. 1.8 million jobs have been created since we established the Economic Transformation Programme in 2010.

23. We have reduced the deficit for six years running, and in each of the last five years, total investments have reached new records.

24. It has always been our priority to make sure that our growth is sustainable and equitable. Since 2009, the income of the bottom 40 percent households has increased by a compound annual growth rate of
12 percent, even higher than the national average of 8 percent.

25. Through the implementation of minimum wage legislation, the government has lifted 2.9 million people immediately out of absolute poverty.

26. Unemployment has declined to under 3 percent – from 3.7 percent in 2009.

27. We have increased women’s participation in the workforce, with a higher percentage of management positions in Malaysia being held by women than in Hong Kong and Singapore.

28. And we have maintained the reforms necessary for Malaysia to reach the goal of becoming a high income status nation by 2020. Some of these reforms have not been popular, like the introduction of GST and the removal of subsidies. But I am here not to make popular decisions; I am here to make the right decisions. Saying we could achieve strong growth without hard choices would be to make empty promises.

29. We had to broaden our tax base and reduce our dependency on oil and gas revenues. Every serious economist around the world agrees that these reforms were necessary and will benefit Malaysia in the long run.

30. The IMF recognised our progress in a report this March, titled: “Favourable Prospects for Malaysia’s Diversified Economy”. Its key conclusions were:
 Growth likely to remain healthy in 2015, despite lower energy prices – and it has. Growth for the second quarter was a strong 4.9 percent.
 End of fuel subsidies and start of Goods and Services tax is timely, and good for efficiency, equity, and the environment.
 Exchange rate flexibility will help non-energy exports.

31. The IMF does not hand out compliments lightly. Nor do the ratings agencies. Yet in January, Moody’s maintained Malaysia’s A3 rating with a positive outlook. In February Standard and Poor’s maintained Malaysia’s A- rating with a stable outlook. More recently, Fitch maintained Malaysia’s A- rating – and actually upgraded its outlook from negative to stable.

32. Despite the volatility of the world economy, other organisations, including the World Bank and the World Economic Forum have placed us high in their rankings for ease of doing business and competitiveness. Bloomberg rated Malaysia as the world’s 5th most promising emerging market in 2015.

33. And an independent study, which has nothing to do with us, recently declared Malaysia to be the top country for the Global Islamic Economy Indicator 2014-2015. Malaysia led by a large margin. Does that sound like a failed state to you?
Ladies and gentlemen,

34. Economic reforms have been matched by those in other areas. As well as the ISA and the Emergency Ordinances, we repealed the Banishment Act and the Restricted Residences Act. We passed the Peaceful Assembly Act, changed the law to allow students to participate in politics, and amended the Printing Presses and Publications Act.

Fine, those were indeed achievements. It's not a lie or spin. 

But why then does Najib faces a rebellion from even within Umno, which prompted him to sack his own deputy and conduct the recent (or is it still ongoing) purge?

With all those achievements, Najib shouldn't need to go through the current crisis.

He should have the full support of the rakyat instead of the trust deficit which is choking the breath out of people who used and still want to support him.

There must be something wrong that many can't seem to see those achievements.

Yes, there are those issues such as 1MDB, RM2.6 billion donation and such, but if the rakyat have truely benefitted from all those achievements, then by right they should give Najib the benefit of doubt instead of judging him guilty even before the allegations managed to be proven.

Some may argue that Najib had purged those investigating the mess and even chucked out anyone in his administration who dared to raise questions about it. Nonetheless, it should be remembered that many have believed in the allegations even before that happened.

In short, many Malaysians actually want to believe in the allegations against Najib more than they wanted to appreciate what he did for the country.

Why?

There must be something wrong that it has come to this.

I don't know, maybe we Malaysians are so blind that we can't see what a good leader Najib is based on his achievements, or perhaps that there are too many wrongs in Najib himself that they eclipsed the goodness of him.