October 26, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi held a press conference at his press Hari Raya open house in Kepala Batas.
"The sultan’s comment reflects the people’s opinion," he said.
Q: What are your views on the Sultan of Johor’s statement that Dr Mahathir should behave like a pensioner and stop making noise?
A: The Sultan’s comment reflects the people’s opinion. Many people have said so. When people greet me, they urge me to carry on. They say I still have time. They say I should not feel disappointed. We support you, Pak Lah. We know you are new.
The brutal reality is, someone needs to inform, or rather remind Pak Lah that, Sultan’s comment doesn’t mean it’s reflecting the people’s opinion, or rather, it’s HIS majesty personal point of view.
It’s time to work out on some serious measures, 3 years down the road, I’m not sure who told Pak Lah that he still have that much of time and he is still new, but at least, 23 millions Malaysian are watching very closely since then.
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Sultan Johor is die-hate anti Tun Mahathir since Tun Mahathir become PM.
Why the Sultan Johor so hate Tun Mahathir is because during Tun Mahathir era, Tun Mahathir have impose a law against the royal family where they will face the law if involve in any crime.
this is not a very clever PM we have here if he continues talking like this. where he has gained ground against Tun, he loses it almost immediately when he starts talking to the press. it’s just like the awkward way he tried to defend scomi by bringing in Tun’s son.
also, the PM doesn’t have good spin masters at the nst. they lose the trust of many people by being vicious and greedy.
Bayi is right, the PM have to make changes in his administration now. Instead he looks like he is digging in for a fight. I think its a mistake. TDM is too good a debater for him and NST spin machine. They cannot shut him up and if they don’t there will be a backlash. The problem is that his spin machines are actually old Mahathirist in style and method of spinmeister. They don’t know how to deal with the internet and guerilla methods of debate which is what Dr. M is doing. Ironic that the old man is better than the younger ones at this game despite the seismic shift in technology.
If I were the PM, I would hire a US-campaign consultant to advise him. He need people who can think out of the box with new technologies and ideas that his current crop of pretend-to-be-smart princelings don’t get it.
The truth is the only way for the PM to deal with Dr. M is more transparency and accountability i.e., he needs to step it up. He should just bury Dr. M in his own past deeds and let the public and bureacracy decide. If need be, he should let the likes of Rafidah and KJ hang. UMNO may suffer for a while but in a couple of years before the next GE, he will come out looking like a rose.
However, the PM has no leadership skill to pull this off. He has no appetite for political risk. So frankly, I think Dr. M has the upper hand going into the next round.
Do you think the PM should have more say during decision making or does he need to discuss it with his aides first? According to him, this is his way, and that he cannot make decisions by himself. Truly diplomatic, but proble is, in doing so, decision-making (and hence, power) is passed on to his side-kicks who more often than not, succeed in influencing the soft PM.