Directionless leadership

I find the Prime Minister’s silence as very deafening.

He didn’t utter a single meaningful comment with regard to the Malaysian Bar Council decision to go ahead with the open forum on conversion to Islam. Najib said something, Syed Hamid said something, Zahid Hamidi said something. May be the PM has been advised by the de facto Law Minister not to say anything, as the de facto Law Minister has also been quite on the matter.

May be the PM wanted to stick to being “PM for all Malaysian”. And thus he thought that the open forum was good example of a very tolerant administration. It did not matter even though the forum touched the very nerve of the Malaysian religious majority.

The PM has also been quite and not making any follow up comments on the continuous US uncalled for remarks with regard to Anwar Ibrahim’s alleged sodomy case. Rais has been very vocal, and I kind of like his very eloquent arguments.

The PM has been quite in a lot of things. He left most of the things to be said by the DPM and other ministers.

During the previous administration, Mahathir will make sure that he was in the forefront of any important issue. And Mahathir knew which issue was important for him to tackle. Mahathir not only gave a sense of direction to fellow Malaysians, but he also became an icon and voice for the developing countries, and was admired even in the Americas.

We badly need clear direction and leadership from the PM. Otherwise, we will have to look for a faster change in leadership. 2010 will be too long of a wait.