An Outsider Commenting On TDM's posting

As an Israeli and a Jew, it is not really my business in the internal politics of Malaysia and it is an issue to be dealt by Malaysians solely.

May be I don't understand well the whole Malaysian political processes, but I would like to post my opinion as an "outsider".

Any political leader or any public or national servant must understand that when he/she joins the public role, he/she will be exposed to criticism. It is not a regular criticism. It is criticism using a magnifying lens. A mouse size of a mistake would look now in the size of an elephant. No one can escape of that political drama. This is also even your destiny when you entered the political life.

Where is the difference? There are two kind of politicians. Those who enter into politics for selfish ambitions and pretending to be working for the people and the other are those who enter into politics with the pure intention to serve the people.

Both types are making mistakes. The selfish are making their mistakes because of their narrow viewing angle. Looking always for their own and selfish promotion while the people are last priority. Those will be also the first to jump from the ship if it will sink. Criticism of those leaders by the people and the media is a MUST. The people must understand that this was a wrong choice. These kind of mistakes of the selfish leaders cannot be forgiven and must not.

The true people's political servant may also be mistaken. But this mistake is different, it is not done intentionally and not for selfish purpose. Because that type of leader is motivated for the good of his own people and view a wider angle, he/she may have mistakes due to the huge amount of data to be analyzed. Now he/she have a big dilemma to make a choice of several options. It is not an easy task and mistakes are part of the process. Of course those mistakes must be criticized by the people and media. But this must be with the intention of improvement and learning the lesson for the future. In this case if the leader is a honest servant, he/she will listen to the criticism, internalize the lesson and learn how to avoid similar mistakes in the future. Those mistakes can be forgiven by the people and a second chance can take place. In cases when honest politicians are committing severe mistakes, they are self resigning their position. A selfish leader wouldn't do that.

Dear Dr. Mahathir, I tend to believe that you are the second type of politician and this is why you have so many supporters even you are not leading Malaysia for almost 6 years. People are not forgetting the good things and the bad things leaders did for them. Having so many supporters is speaking for itself.

When people are criticized, it must be done in a way such that the criticized object will not be pushed against the wall. Pushing the criticized to the wall may react opposing to the intention of the criticism. So, criticism must have the proper approach and timing if the intention is to get improvement. If the criticism is in the intention to smear mud on the face of the leader, it will not achieve a thing since mud can be smeared on the face of the criticizer since he/she is not pure of mistakes. Everyone bears a Pandora box that maybe opened.

Now, Malaysians need to understand themselves who is a real leader and who is a false leader and criticize him/her accordingly.

Dear Dr. Mahathir, I’m continuing reading your posts even I'm not commenting on the internal issues of your country. Since "criticism" is a more generic issue, I felt that I may comment.

Dear Dr. Mahathir, I wish you all the best and good health.

Wassalam.

Hanan, Jewish,
Israel.