When "Black Shoe" Maszlee Malik declared last week that he was ready to debate Onn Hafiz, my first reaction was that Onn should simply ignore the challenge.
I thought so for several reasons.
First, Onn is the Johor BN chief, while Maszlee is not even the PH Johor chief. They are not political equals, making the challenge fundamentally uneven.
In any proper contest, both participants should have something worthwhile to gain by winning and something of roughly equal value to lose if they are defeated.
That is not the case here.
If Onn defeats Maszlee, all he would have accomplished is defeating one of PH's 56 candidates in Johor. But if Onn loses, it would not merely be a personal defeat. It would be seen as a defeat for the entire Johor BN election campaign.
Even a draw would be interpreted as a victory for Maszlee because Onn, as the incumbent Menteri Besar and BN leader, is expected to win convincingly. Maszlee only needs to avoid losing to be able to be seen as the victor.
Maszlee, on the other hand, has everything to gain.
If he loses, few would hold it against him because he challenged someone politically above his rank. If he wins, it would be celebrated as a major upset. Even a draw would make him come out as the winner of this uneven contest.
Given how one-sided the incentives are, I believed any fair-minded person would conclude that this debate should not happen.
The manner in which the challenge was issued also did not help.
Instead of coming from PH Johor's leadership, it was issued through an obscure third-party Facebook page called WOW Malaysia. That hardly gave the challenge the stature such an event deserved.
In my view, if PH genuinely wanted such a debate, it should have been the Johor chiefs of PKR, DAP or Amanah who issued the challenge, naming Maszlee as their champion while allowing Onn the option of fielding his own champion.
That would have made the contest one that is fair for both parties.
But, as they say, a week is a long time in politics.
Today, barely a week later, I find myself forced to reconsider my earlier position.
One reason that I am forced to change my my earlier position, is because something significant has changed since nomination day.
Although PH has never formally declared Maszlee to be its poster boy for the Johor election, its actions increasingly suggest that he is exactly that. Through a series of subtle signals, PH appears to be positioning Maszlee as its de facto face of the campaign and, by extension, its likely Menteri Besar candidate should it win the election.
If that is indeed the perception taking hold, then Maszlee is no longer viewed as merely one of PH's candidates.
He becomes Onn's direct rival.
And once that happens, refusing the debate no longer looks like declining an unequal challenge.
It begins to look like avoiding an equal one.
Unfortunately, the way Onn rejected the challenge, by saying that "debates are not the Johor way," has only made the matters worse for him.
Instead of saying debates were "not the Johor way," he could have simply demanded that PH officially declare Maszlee as its Menteri Besar candidate before agreeing to debate him.
That would have shifted the pressure back onto PH while preserving his own political standing.
Instead, that onn dismissed the challenge by saying debating was not "the Johor way" is just making him look like he is indeed afraid to face Maszlee.
After all, to decline a challenge by a worthy political rival , is a ridiculous proposition.
Politics is a contact sport played by winners. Debate is one of the principal arenas in which political leaders demonstrate their competence, conviction and courage.
To reject debate on the grounds that it is somehow contrary to Johor's political culture risks conveying not dignity, but insecurity.
It also lends credibility to an increasingly common rumour — that Onn is merely Johor's nominal leader while the real political authority lies elsewhere.
The fact that Puad Zarkashi, once an Umno insider, has repeatedly pointed out instances where Onn declined to debate political opponents only reinforces that perception.
One may argue that Puad is simply attacking Onn because his relationship with Umno has deteriorated.
Perhaps.
But that does not erase the doubt as to whether Onn is a "leader" material who rose to his position because he is willing to fight and win, or whether he is elevated to a position of power despite not having the qualities of a leader, because he is willing to be a "yes man" or a "puppet" to a power behind the scene, as Puad has already accused him of being.
A leader is not merely a manager.
It is not enough for Onn to argue that his role is simply to administer Johor well and manage the state's economy.
A Menteri Besar must also demonstrate political leadership.
He must show that he can inspire confidence, defend his policies, and prevail when challenged.
Leadership requires proving that you are prepared to fight when necessary.
If Onn wishes to dispel the growing perception that he is merely Johor's "puppet" Menteri Besar, he must demonstrate that he is willing to confront someone whom the public increasingly regards as his principal challenger.
He can still insist that PH formally declare Maszlee as its Menteri Besar candidate before accepting the debate.
That would be a perfectly reasonable condition.
But beyond that, if he wants to establish himself as Johor's undisputed political leader, he must show that he is not afraid of stepping into the debating arena.
Let's see how the cookies crumble.
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