Obviously the way he handled matters concerning the recent LRT accident and his “performance” at the media conference held a day after the incident was simply indefensible. Hence the axe came swiftly.

I know you know I’m talking about Datuk Seri Tajuddin Abdul Rahman who until recently was Prasarana chairman. And you know what he did or didn’t do when the two LRT trains collided on May 24. For one, he did not turn up at the scene on the night of the accident but instead came “first thing ” the next morning.

And how he conducted himself at the media conference left many of us bewildered, to say the very least.

Amused we certainly were not. The video of the media conference went viral naturally. If it was a movie it would have been a box office.

Veteran journalist Datuk A Kadir Jasin rightly puts it like this: “Tajuddin’s insensitive, amateurish comments at yesterday’s (May 25) press conference had added insults to injuries for the victims and riled up the social media.”

The social media was indeed riled up with some netizens, some calling for his resignation and others for his termination.

In the past, Tajuddin had many a time hurt the feelings of lots of people with his remarks (we know what they were and how hurtful they were) which had easily angered people. It was as if he had a knack in doing so.

The last time I wrote about his “antics” was in November 2016 for Sin Chew Daily when he said something with a dirty connotation in referring to the surname of DAP’s Teresa Kok. Also on other nauseating comments he had made on people.

Back then he was protected and insulated by his powerful bosses as they were in government, i.e. the BN administration.

He got away scot-free most if not all of the time. Not even getting a slap on the wrist, so to speak.

But not this time. He was terminated with immediate effect by the Perikatan Nasional government. His termination letter was issued and signed by the finance minister on a public holiday – Wesak Day on May 26, and somehow made it on social media for all and sundry to savor.

A few hours earlier, former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak posted on Facebook to say he had called Tajuddin earlier the day, and the Pasir Salak Umno MP had “accepted being at fault” and also accepted his advice.

Long story short. What Najib said was Tajuddin would apologize over how he handled the media conference and had promised he would resign as Prasarana chairman “as soon as the Umno supreme council orders all Umno members to let go of their positions (in the Perikatan Nasional government) at an appropriate time.”

Tajuddin was surely referring to the imminent Umno’s decision for its members who are ministers, deputy ministers and GLC heads, to pull out following the party’s decision made a few months ago to sever ties with Bersatu (and by extension Perikatan Nasional) led by Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

Anyway, the reality is, he was sacked prompting a retired journalist to say at least the prime minister “knows the feeling of the people” while another said “perhaps the embarrassment was too much for the government to bear”.

However, as Kadir sees it, Tajuddin isn’t the only embarrassment to the Perikatan Nasional government, as many among Muhyiddin’s hundred odd appointees to the cabinet, GLCs and deputy ministers “are as bad or even worse than the Pasir Salak MP”.

That, according to Kadir, is to be expected because the appointments were not based so much on merit but rather to have as many MPs as possible on the government’s side.

As for Tajuddin, said Kadir, he “might have made an ass (as in donkey) of himself at the media conference” but the joke is on the person who appointed him.

As said earlier, Tajuddin is known for his crude, crass, racist, even sexist remarks and comments. But he is also known as a critic of the Muhyiddin administration despite being appointed to the Prasarana chair by the PM himself.

He is also a strong propagator of the Umno move to cut ties with Bersatu. And needless to say, he is loyal to Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Najib who are both at war with Muhyiddin.

But could all that somehow expedite his sacking? Notwithstanding he had the termination coming – an act many say was justified.

Read also: When Tajuddin got the axe (Part II)

(Mohsin Abdullah is a veteran journalist and now a freelancer who writes about this, that and everything else.)