Nothing like being listed as Time’s Man of the … oh? Wait. Not that. The other one. The least popular world leaders one. The kind that sees you go up against Robert Mugabe, the nonagenarian president of Zimbabwe who has been at the helm of the country for 36 years and steered it into trillion-dollar inflation, and still come out on top. Or Bashar al Assad, who last month was accused of using chemical weapons against his own people, many of whom were children. Yes, Time magazine has included Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak in a list of unpopular leaders that neither of those guys could crack. A bit hyperbolic if you ask us. Man, that’s gotta hurt.
Also making the rogue’s gallery of unpopular leaders were Nicolas Madura of Venezuela, South African President Jacob Zuma, Greek PM Alexis Tsipras, and Michel Temer of Brazil, who has only been in office for months, but already sees his approval ratings in the single digits.
The reasons for the top 5 naming? Time cited our PM’s lack of popularity as a result of the 1MDB scandal, which saw the investment development fund deposit suffer losses, whilst his personal bank account later grew by $1 billion. This was deemed a gift from the Saudi Royal family, a claim later backed by the Malaysian attorney general. At least by the second one, after the first was dismissed.
Time goes on to highlight that popularity will have little effect of the rule of law in Malaysia. This is something Free Malaysia Today reiterated as well: the UMNO (Najib’s party) President and the ruling coalition, BN, are very much in control of their future, with a view to extending its 60-year rule in the next general election.
You know what they always say: there’s no such thing as bad press.
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