COMMENT | When former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak wants to debate, you know something’s not right.

In the past, Najib’s government never accepted any offer to debate. He famously said that debate is not our culture. He never accepts debate offers, let alone offering them. To initiate a debate against DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang now is strange.

But I think it’s because Najib understands one concept: A political debate is never about the debate, it is about performance. It’s not an intellectual exchange, it’s a showcase of rhetoric.

A politician would consider a debate successful if he’s able to sound good, go on populist overdrive to a roaring crowd, and humiliate and embarrass his debate opponent. He doesn’t have to engage with the finer points from the other side; he doesn’t even have to make sense.

So it doesn’t matter whether the debate topic is “How Malaysia became a global kleptocracy and how we can become a leading nation of integrity” or something else. Najib insists that the debate will not be limited to this topic because he knows: A political debate is not about the debate, it is about performance.

When you are in the opposition, you do not appear in the mainstream media every day. That is why public debates become important to push Najib back into the public imagination. He needs a public performance to remind people that he is still there...