COMMENT | The tragicomedy of Najib’s return

COMMENT | Throughout Najib Abdul Razak’s tenure as prime minister, I have never thought of him as a funny man. Expensive clothes pressed by tailors, play-safe speeches prepared by speechwriters and awkward body language that missed the choreograph were what I remembered of him. I have also not come across anyone close to Najib who has described him as “funny” or “humorous”. 

But “funny” is now his primary online personality. 

If you go to Najib’s Facebook today, you will know what I mean. In five of the recent posts with approximately 15,000 to 18,000 likes each, the “laughing” emoji takes up almost 3,000 to 4,000. That means 25 percent of the time, people were laughing at his posts. 

Najib’s posts played into this. To reply to DAP chairperson Lim Guan Eng’s criticism of toll charges in Penang, Najib used casual language like “Eh”, “kantoi” (caught red-handed), “kat” (there) and sarcasm. He even ended his post by asking Lim when he would be visiting Pekan (Najib’s constituency) next so he could “belanja karipap dua biji” (I’ll buy you two curry puffs). 

In another post, he just reposted a Lee Kim Yew news report with the words “Haha” and then “Okay.” 

This is part of the Malu Apa Bossku transformation. When he was prime minister, you’d never see him on...