By Din Merican
Prime Minister Najib Razak was in Washington DC today, busy eating nasi lemak and mee goreng as Bernama proudly reports. No mention of meetings with State Department, on Capitol Hill, with the White House, or any think tanks.
Instead he bragged about 1Malaysia to the choir of Malaysians who have already heard it so many times. He also offered some comments on Malaysia’s economy, which according to a recent report is failing to make much progress these days.
What is the point of a 20 million dollar contract with APCO if our prime minister cannot even get a manufactured speaking slot at the National Press Club? We’re not even talking about Brookings or SAIS where one has to have something meaningful to say to be invited. Anyone can speak at the Press Club so long as they can afford the cost of organising the function. Does the concept of 1World not carry much weight in the halls of international diplomacy or in the most powerful city in the world? I guess not.
I think taxpayers should demand to know why, after spending that much money on a DC lobby our prime minister cannot even get an interview on the local news.
On Anwar Ibrahim’s recent trip to the United States, in just a few days he held events at Brookings, SAIS (even our US Ambassador attended the function),Georgetown and the Council on Foreign Relations. He met with officials from the House foreign relations committee, the Senate Foreign relations committee, the state department and the White House. His visit covered in the media including the Wall Street Journal, Far Eastern Economic Review and theWashington Post (but not Bernama), Saudi television and ABS-CBN from Manila.
Does the Prime Minister’s flimsy schedule have anything to do with the scandal that just won’t go away? Not PKFZ. Not the Bukit Antarabangsa slide. Not the collapsed bridge. None other than the Mongolian who we cannot talk about. And in the time it took me to write this, how many new designer bags did the Prime Minister’s wife purchase?
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