On 3 Sept 2017, the Washington Post published a scathing opinion editorial (op-ed) on our PM Najib Abdul Razak. The columnist Josh Rogin, besides listing down the similarities and differences between Najib and US President Donald Trump, also accused our PM using criminal law to routinely jail his opponents and critics in his ‘authoritarian power grab’.
A competent ambassador would have issued a statement to rebut such accusations by a foreign media by now, in defence of our PM’s tarnished name.
However to date, our ambassador to US, Tan Sri Dr Zulhasnan Rafique, or any relevant official has yet to issue any statement in relation to this. This failure to defend our PM gives rise to unavoidable questions.
Firstly, it shows the incompetence of the ambassador’s office by way of their slow response. Is it because of bureaucracy or is it because they are not comfortable using English in its defence statement? In fact, our embassy can also come out with a statement in Bahasa Malaysia, which I am sure the US media will be able to translate into English perfectly using qualified translators.
And secondly, it may show that the embassy’s deafening silence is tantamount to acceptance. Does Zulhasnan agree with Rogin’s op-ed? As a representative of our country on foreign soil, our embassy in US must issue a statement to rebut the article and to protect our leader’s name from being further tarnished.
The dignity of Malaysians, not only in US but also in the eyes of the world, depends on you now Dr Zulhasnan! If you are clueless as to how to respond to this Washington Post’s article, or perhaps you require more time to ponder this over, please say so. Don’t just keep silent.