Good Leadership

I must say that I am not a big fan of Anwar Ibrahim. I'm sure the fellow has got brains, but I somehow have the impression that he is not a trustworthy person. If ever he becomes the Prime Minister of Malaysia, I can't imagine how he'd run the country. But since his younger days he has the habit of playing with the sentiments of the people. To achieve his goals, he'd organise demonstrations. But people being what they are, even "peaceful" demonstrations can turn ugly. It takes only one idiot to lose control and all hell breaks lose.

And now we see Datuk Nizar playing the same game [The Star]. I'm sure he has a perfect explanation why he had to deliberately act against the "dress code" in Parliament—an act which I'm sure he knew very well would get him kicked out of the session. I seriously doubt that he could have achieved his goal of dissolving the Perak State Assembly via such a comedy in Parliament, and perhaps it's not too hard to believe that Datuk Nizar knew that too. Yet he went ahead with the dress code violation anyway, perhaps to strengthen the support of his supporters.

Earlier, in Perak, he and some of his friends did the hunger strike stunt. That, too, was a dubious means of achieving his goal. The media, of course, is the biggest beneficiary of all this nonsense, but one has to wonder if the former Mentri Besar should instead get down to work and hopefully help to improve the lives of his supporters. He can't achieve very much, other than constantly being in the media, if he continues organising hunger strike and getting thrown out of Parliament.

The trouble about all this comical behaviour is that the good Datuk has quite a huge number of diehard supporters. And if he, as the Captain, navigates the ship into the wrong direction, he may well find himself shipwrecked and all his crews will have to pay for his mistake. Yes, the people are behind him, but he should navigate through his mind, not his heart. I have written before that the decision of the leader can and will have a great impact on the livelihood of his people.

Maybe Nizar should stop trying too hard to win back control of Perak. I think it is more beneficial for him to try his best to help the people who voted for him instead. Fight another day—during the next general election. If he is meant to become the Mentri Besar once again, it will happen somehow. Stop using the people; stop trying to gain their sympathy; and stop trying to instill hatred against the present government. Enough is enough. He should make the best of whatever he has right now and build on that. If he continues with all these mediocre comedy shows, he might even lose some of his existing supporters!