Lu Tolong Gua, Gua Tolong Lu

PM Najib is fond of telling Malaysians "Lu tolong gua, gua tolong lu" ("You help me, I help you"). He allegedly said this again in his recent Thaipusam speech at Batu Caves.

Many see this as a pathetic plea for a mandate of his own from the rakyat. Najib became the prime minister of Malaysia by default when his predecessor Tun Abdullah Badawi was effectively forced out of office by an internal UMNO coup of sorts.

Najib is also fond of asking Malaysians to trust him and he will trust them in return ("Gua caya lu, lu caya gua")

But why should Malaysians trust him or help him? Since he became the PM more than three years ago, his administration has not shown any capability to help Malaysians in any meaningful way.

Najib is only fond of coming up with nice sounding slogans and beautiful plans with nice acronyms.

He started with the 1Malaysia slogan which was supposed to make Malaysians think of themselves as Malaysians first.

But as soon as his deputy Muhyddin came out to say that he was firstly a Malay and only secondly a Malaysian, thus giving the death kiss to the idea behind 1Malaysia, 1Malaysia gave up its ghost and only lives on as a side-show.

Since then, Najib has been flip-flopping from one idea to another, from one slogan to another. The next big plan came with NEM, the supposedly New Economic Model to make Malaysia a more competitive
country by making the playing field a more level one for everyone.

But again as soon as the right-wingers from his own party UMNO evinced a disinclination for the idea, Najib retreated and we no longer hear of NEM being spoken.

Then came the various ETPs (Economic Transformation Plans). But all that we Malaysian can see is "abuk pun tadak" - not even smoke to be seen! what more transformation of any kind for the better!

Correction, we do see the same modus operandi ala Mahathir in active service. The direct awarding of lucrative government contracts to favoured parties.

The latest is the award of a project, estimated to eventually cost some Rm7billion, to a company to build a highway from Banting, Selangor to Taiping, Perak on allegedly very lucrative terms including a 60 years toll collection concession period, probably the longest such concession in the world!

And this, while the controversies (which have come to be known as the ("cowgate") relating to the alleged mismanagement and corruption in the award of  the Rm250 million National Feedlot project to the family of Datuk Shahrizat Jalil, the Minister of Women, Family Affairs and Community Development, rage on without an end to their resolution.

There are many things that could be spoken, but suffice it to say that Najib does not deserve a helping hand from the rakyat to win a mandate to continue his bumbling ways.