To a lot of Malaysians, Prime Minister Najib Razak proved his own irrelevance as a leader - someone who leads - when he avoided a direct reply to whether his multiracial 1Malaysia slogan was completely negated by the stand taken by his deputy Muhyiddin Yassin, who insists that he was Malay First and Malaysian Second
Najib's refusal to tackle Muhyiddin's glaringly conflicting stance is seen as a sign of weakness, that he is not confident of his support and filled with worry that Muhyiddin's clout might exceed his.
But few people felt sorry for Najib as they initially did when the rightwing hardliners in UMNO slammed the 1 Malaysia as a piece of fluff that no one understood. Instead of riding on the people's support, Najib buckled to the wishes of the power-brokers in UMNO and backstabbed those who had encouraged him to make a stand for himself. Sadly now, even after rolling back on the reforms he had promised, he is still distrusted by the powerful right-wing in UMNO.
Najib sunk by his own refusal to defend 1 Malaysia
