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YOURSAY | Don’t cry for Rosmah, Malaysia

This article is 2 years old

YOURSAY | ‘But she is not alone. There are hundreds if not thousands like her.’

COMMENT | Why there is no saving Rosmah

Man on the Silver Mountain: Narcissism is a big word which not many people readily understand or use in normal daily speaking.

Yet, if this is descriptive of Rosmah Mansor, which makes her live in a dream world far outside the realm of reality, it has unfortunately shaped and moulded the traits of the children in her family.

Her daughter, Nooryana Najwa, well, we have been constantly fed with her vision of how saintly her mother and father were. That they were being wronged - it does not matter many people suffered in the process - all the lies the public needlessly has to bear and hear.

As for the son, Mohd Nizar Najib, only this week we heard how he compared his dad, former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak, to the late South African president Nelson Mandela, a claim far-fetched and beyond reality.

To the South Africans, who hold their former leader as a selfless hero who fought for equality amid apartheid in their country, such a comparison to a kleptocrat of Malaysia would be deemed scandalous.

We hope they will not initiate legal action against us because, yet again, we will be paying for the narcissistic effect of his mother’s defect.

MS: Rosmah represents excess and the sort of entitlement which enables privileged Malays like her to keep taking and taking without either guilt or remorse.

She is a by-product of ‘ketuanan Melayu’ policies which have collectively enabled the rise of a corrupt elite plundering the nation at every opportunity.

But she is not alone. There are hundreds if not thousands like her. They can be seen sauntering in places like the Pavilion and the first-class cabins of aircraft jetting to shopping havens across the globe.

Her notoriety, thanks to her position in Putrajaya, has only served to spawn more in her image - titled, morally clueless and self-absorbed.

And in a place like Malaysia where feudal instincts among the majority see the equating of unexplainable wealth with goodness and respectability, specimens like her will continue to set the benchmark for success.

Jordan Tan: With the guilty verdict pronounced on her by the court, now every one of her critics can say things about the Rosmah all of us read and heard from the social media.

The most important lesson is, can we learn from her fall and how did she end up this way? What are the causes and factors that shaped her narcissism?

For those who want to learn the origin of mental disorders or the psychology of negative character traits, two books may help shed light on the origin and root cause of such manifestations.

First, the ‘Psychology of Stupidity’ edited by Jean-François Marmion, and the second, ‘Your Inner Child of the Past" by Hugh Missildine, first published in 1964 and translated into many languages.

Unless we learn lessons from the life of such a personality, we may be producing hundreds of Rosmahs from countless families within this nation.

The professionals in the field of psychology need to do a post-mortem on how to unlock the mystery of parenting deficiency and failure to prevent the repeat of creating more Rosmahs.

Daniel Goleman book on ‘Emotional Intelligence’ and the ‘The Secret Life of the Unborn Child’ by Dr Thomas Verny have much to say about human misconduct in the parenting world.

OCT: Rosmah has the form but no substance. She may be well-known as FLOM (First Lady of Malaysia) but has no respect from dignitaries and the rakyat.

She said she started saving the moment she was born for her to afford to buy luxury bags and fine jewellery. Self-praise is no praise. All her accolades and praises are from government agencies and staff. All these are false pretences which have no real value.

Let's see how Rosmah is going to wear her jewellery, watches, and bags and have her hair done weekly at RM1,200 per session when she goes to jail.

Believe me, Rosmah will spend more time in hospital than jail time if she ever checks in. All politicians and VVIPs have apparently health problems the moment they are in jail.

Najib and Rosmah are creating history with their long and enduring court cases using tactics and ways that show they have the resources, networks and time to try to stay out of jail.

Headhunter: If one was to make a TV show centred on their extravagance, it would have to be a series and spread over several seasons.

Right up to this very moment, they have never shown any remorse and still blame others for putting the millions into their bank accounts without their knowledge, and yet they went to paint the town red with the money.

They act like they are entitled to live this way. Pity them? I think most of us would have more sympathy for that stray dog hanging outside our gate.

Doc: Unlike Bossku, who has hordes of fans, followers or gullible people who sympathise with him and believe he is being framed for political reasons, Rosmah, on the other hand, does not have such ardent support other than her children.

And that too, not all her children are supportive of her narcissistic persona. Malaysians may never agree on topics of politics, economy, corruption, race and social issues, but one thing for sure is that everyone agrees that Rosmah needs to be thrown in the slammer.

Frans Rozario: Indeed, there are no cries for Rosmah. Umno has remained silent, the whole nation seems not to care, and even her children did not come out to say a thing.

In the case of Rosmah, it seems everyone acknowledges she was and is the root cause of all the scandals surrounding Najib, not that he was not a party to it as he had willingly obliged.


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