RENOWNED political commentator Prof James Chin has an idea for the doctorate dissertation of incarcerated former premier Datuk Seri Najib Razak who according to his legal counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah “is undergoing his PhD studies while in prison”.
In all fairness, the inaugural director of the Asia Institute at the University of Tasmania expressed belief that the former Pekan MP is qualified to produce a thesis entitled “How to Set Up a Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) Using Fat Chinese Boy and Arab Prince: A Theory of Contemporary Malay Political Culture”.
“Harvard University Press will be happy to publish this one! I will be the first to give it a five-star (rating). What do you think?” teased Chin who is also a senior fellow and the Governance Studies director at the Jeffrey Cheah Institute on Southeast Asia at Sunway University in a recent tweet on X (formerly Twitter).
Man, this is getting worse by the minute; by the end of 2024, we have to address him as “DR” Najib.
Dr. Najib will soon join Dr Siti, a USM PhD graduate (someone mentioned her thesis won an academic prize!).
To be fair, I believe he is qualified to produce a thesis titled “How… pic.twitter.com/Hu13lYzddC— James Chin (@jameschin110) December 2, 2023
Added Chin: “Man, this is getting worse by the minute; by end-2024, we have to address him as ‘Dr’ Najib. ‘Dr’ Najib will soon join Dr Siti (Kepala Batas MP Dr Siti Mastura Mohamad), a USM PhD graduate (someone mentioned her thesis won an academic prize!).”
Chin’s tweet somehow sent his social media account buzzing with netizen Ooi Beng Cheang (@luxentX) wondering if Najib is already qualified to be a “Dr” considering that “he already has a few honorary doctorates”.
“His Wikipedia lists a few of the doctorate. If you Google his name and honorary doctorate there’s more,” observed Ooi to which the good professor replied: “He is smart enough to know that you cannot use ‘Dr’ if it is an honorary degree.”
Sang Kancil Guru 🏴🏴🇺🇦🌻😷 (@sangkancilguru) suggested Pendidikan Moral (Moral Education) as the topic for Najib who is affably known as Bossku to his followers but only to be regarded by Chin as ‘’wishful thinking”.
Netizen JurGuns (@juringunsalam) toyed with the idea that Najib “might appoint you (Chin) as his thesis supervisor 😅” while Azman Rahman 🏴 (@mazmanar) suggested that Najib who is now serving a 12-year jail sentence at the Kajang Prison “can write a thesis along the line of ‘leadership styles of the corrupted elite’.”
Whatever said and done, Najib does have his fair share of supporters with netizen NAVIN MUNIANDY (@NavinMuniandy) reckoning that “@NajibRazak was a good prime minister and the only reason for his fall was corruption”.
“Please don’t compare him with some third class politicians like the Kepala Batas MP. He is still having the charismatic influence even from prison (which is) better than @anwaribrahim (Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim).”
Norsyahida Zaharudin (@syahidazaharudi) concurred by asking Chin to “be more sensitive and respectful to others”.
“You want people to respect you but first you need to respect others (first). Remember the person you quoted has family and friends. Please be more sensitive to their feelings. Don’t be sarcastic.” – Dec 4, 2023
Main pic credit: Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s Facebook
