Regarding the current earthquake in Sabah, the absence of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak from a dialogue organised by an NGO on ‘Nothing to Hide’, and his three-day official visit to Saudi Arabia starting from today, I think that the public can easily observe the panic and incompetence of PM Najib over how his public relations office and himself handled the situations.

As one who was keen on hiring an international public relations company in shaping his public image since he took office, he should have a clear idea and understanding how important and how crucial is public relations in governing a country.

Ever since he came to power, he has always been savvy in utilising conventional media and social media in shaping his public image as ‘the transformer’, to the level of coining the slogan ‘1Malaysia’, yet he never actually carried out any practical and realistic public relations-related matters.

Ironically, his image of shouting the slogan ‘1Malaysia’ during every public exposure, which intentionally encourages tolerance and mutual respect between ethnic groups, ended up in total contradiction with his incompetence in maintaining his position within Umno itself, his wavering stand about the hudud, not to mention the obvious racial cards that he has been playing.

All these do not just reduce the slogan ‘1Malaysia’ to words that are worth less than lies but also caused him to face criticism within his party, among the opposition and most importantly, from the public. All these only show how incompetence is his office in handling public relations.

Putting the focus back to the public dialogue, facing a confident and determined former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad, with the attention from the media and the public, PM Najib could have had a better excuse, or at least a better reason, to be absent from this event, if he didn’t want to attend. However, he chose the worst possible excuse ever, by being persuaded by the police not to attend the event in the name of ‘security concerns’.

Why do I say this is the worst excuse?

Firstly, the primary responsibility of the police is enforcing public safety. If the police could not even ensure the safety of the PM, then is there anywhere in this country that is safe at all? Secondly, the inspector-general of police (IGP) can actually persuade the PM from attending an event. This only shows how weak-willed and incompetent our PM is.

The opponent of the dialogue is only Dr Mahathir, a member of Umno. If he does not have points that cannot be fully addressed, why would he be worried and escape from the forum? Obviously, his panic and unprofessionalism set him on the path of a public relations crisis.

He could have jumped on the chance of facing a natural disaster in Sabah and escaped from being public shamed, and even regain control from this mess. The earthquake happened at 7am local time, while the dialogue was scheduled to be held by 10am local time. There was an ample three hours for the PM and his office to decide on the necessity of personally visiting Sabah, attending and taking control of the emergency response. He could have used this as a formal and legitimate excuse in avoiding a direct confrontation with Dr Mahathir.

Regaining popularity

Instead, He could have regained popularity and saved his image from the public. But he missed this golden opportunity and decided to escape from reality by visiting Saudi Arabia instead, leaving total chaos behind despite the serious earthquake in Sabah needing an emergency response.

As reported, a magnitude 5.9 earthquake in Sabah is considered as the most serious earthquake to date ever since 1976. Ranau being the epicentre of this disaster, several regions around it are facing dire situations, and mountain climbers from more than 20 nationalities are still trapped and awaiting rescue. This is not just a national disaster but an emergency situation that troubles international relations.

If the PM were to visit Ranau, Sabah, take control of the emergency response, strategically deploy military force and firefighter, just like People’s Republic of China Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, who commanded the People’s Liberation Army to respond to the Sichuan earthquake in 2013 efficiently, he could have saved himself from a public relations crisis.

Moreover, facing internal criticisms within his party, the PM had  visited Sabah just a month ago to obtain support from Umno and BN in Sabah, excitedly coining again another ‘fixed deposit of BN’.

If he were really sincere to his remark that he owes Sabah, with proper public relation skills and management, he could have enforced his status and image in Sabah by leading the emergency response, saving this ‘fixed deposit’ as he said, along with it saving his own image.

However, again he did not. As usual, he seemed to be totally oblivious to the situation in Sabah, and embarked in his three-day official visit to Saudi Arabia. Regardless of how important is this official visit, in the perception of public citizens, his acts only worsens his already messed-up public relations.

To the ordinary citizens, they will just perceive our PM had acted foolishly and shamefully in avoiding a confrontation with Dr Mahathir, and also irresponsibly left the country in a midst of a confused and panicky situation, leaving the safety of Sabah and the other nations’ climbers unchecked. These actions totally did not go well with his words of “Sabah is the fixed deposit of BN”.

His actions outright showed that a visit to Sabah, compared to Saudi Arabia, is not necessary, and Sabah is never being seen as so much ‘important’ as he claimed. Other than being perceived as a ‘coward’, he will be also seen as one who has no confidence, unprofessional, and basically, two-faced.

In fact, this is not the first time PM Najib has acted with such terrible public relations. Last year, just when the east coast of peninsular Malaysia was facing a terrible flood, PM Najib was reported playing golf with the President of the United States of America, Barack Obama, in Hawaii.

His game with President Obama might have been a meaningful political achievement, but to the public, they will only perceive that “my home is flooded. I am homeless. But you are playing golf in the states?” This also showed just how questionable is the integrity of PM Najib.

Only when the media and social media actively criticised his actions, did PM Najib return to Malaysia and survey the aftermath of the floods. By then, the damage had been done. Whatever else that he was going to do would be seen as an act without sincerity and responsibility.

The key to a successful political career

In the world of politics, using public relations skillfully and properly are the key to a successful political career. It is not just about image building, but also about handling public relationships.

In facing disasters, if the leader of the nation can take charge of the emergency response himself, with the ministries and government backing him, fully deploying necessary utilities and supplies for the response, these actions will be way more powerful than shouting out slogans, and taking pictures with the locals.

If he has done all these, his absence from the dialogue would not be a shame to him, he would not have been called a ‘coward’, and instead he would have regained his public image and firmly addressed to the nation as prime minister.  After all, citizens know the real people that care about them through actions, but not words.

However, by escaping the dialogue through a weak excuse, leaving the nation without even showing slight concern about the disaster in Sabah, leaving a messy and uncontrolled situation, it is not hard to think why citizens have started to doubt his capability as the nation’s leader. If he could not address these rumours, criticisms, and questions, his political pathway will definitely have a huge earthquake coming.

PHOONG JIN ZHE is Sabah DAP political education director and the managing director of a PR firm.