Monday, June 08, 2015

Najib's Mega PR disaster: whose fault was it?

With today's lack of confidence in the credibility of public statements, we can only guess what actually happened when PM Najib failed to turn up for the Nothing to Hide forum.

The possibilities are endless as to guessing the real reasons. The fact was Tun Dr Mahathir turned up but PM Najib did not. The IGP's officers stopped Tun from continuing his speech, which included turning off the microphone and ushering him out of the hall. That it was IGP's order was without any doubt, but was he ordered to do so by someone higher up? Like the Home Minister or the PM himself? Or did he try to be too clever by taking the initiative, so as to prevent Najib from being embarrassed at the forum? There was a suggestion or accusation that it was one of PM's aides who made the fateful decision. In any case, it was reported that Najib was upset with IGP's decision to prevent him from attending. We were given the impression PM was all dressed up to go until he was notified by IGP that the event had been cancelled for security reasons. Security? People were incredulous when given the reason that IGP was afraid there might be security problems if PM were to be confronted by ex-PM, Tun Dr Mahathir... especially when the event was held in the sanctity of Umno's headquarters! If IGP could not be confident enough to ensure security there, then it is not surprising we have security problems with porous borders and seasides facing open seas.

Just days ago, it was announced that Professor Dr Tan Sri Dato Lim Kok Wing is now working for PM Najib. That he was a crony of Tun Dr Mahathir is a well known fact, and was credited   with the successful handling of Tun's previous election campaigns. He was to Tun, what Saatchi and Saatchi were to Margaret Thatcher. From an ordinary person without much formal qualifications, Lim managed to open a college (which later turned into a university college), famed for its innovative ideas in graphic design, advertising and public relations. To please Tun as well as to expand his college, Lim made inroads into Africa. He even helped Nelson Mandela successfully in his election campaigns too.

I can still remember during Pak Lah's time, Lim got a Rm50 million contract to spread the 'Tak Nak' campaign nationwide, to discourage people from smoking cigarettes. Now that he is officially appointed to be Najib's PR man, it only goes to show that Lim's priority seems to be business first, while loyalty, if any, seems way at the bottom of the list.

So soon after Tan Sri Lim's appointment, Najib experienced the mother of all PR disaster. The question to most Malaysians seem to be: could it be that LKW has lost touch of his PR skills? Very unlikely indeed. Most probably, it was beyond his control or he did not even know about the decision to stop Najib from attending. So far, there is only silence from him.

Tun Dr Mahathir had actually said that Lim is no longer his friend, now that he is working for Najib. In other words, even powerful men are just like children when comes to friendship: if you friend my enemy, you are not my friend.

Out of all these guessing games, there is even a suggestion that Lim could be a Trojan horse secretly working for Tun, since the PR debacle had such great adverse impact on Najib. But we will never get to know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, in today's real time news, spreading information as well as misinformation.
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1 comment:

  1. Anonymous11:20 pm

    Lke the trojan horse theory.

    ReplyDelete