Mahathir rejoins UMNO, but he is a liability to Najib
posted by din merican@Phnom Penh
Doublespeak? Dr Mahathir begs to differ — The Malaysian Insider
April 7, 2009
Even the champion of contradictions has found it necessary to explain why he rejoined UMNO after slamming it as a corrupt political party and urging Malaysians to vote for the opposition as recently as January.
Realising that while he can still pull a crowd, his words no longer have traction with many Malaysians, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today attempted to justify his decision to jump onto the UMNO bandwagon, saying that when he left the ruling party in May last year, he said that he would renew his membership only after Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi stepped down as UMNO president and prime minister.
So since this condition has been met, he needed to keep his promise, said Dr Mahathir, who has displayed an unerring ability to argue both sides of the cases on several issues. When the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) issue broke out in November and several of the leaders were arrested under the ISA, he slammed the Abdullah administration for not opening channels of communications with the group. A year later, he hammered Hindraf for making extreme demands and ridiculous statements.
More recently, he described UMNO as a corrupt party and disgrace to Malays, and attacked the Youth wing for electing Khairy Jamaluddin as the Youth chief. But since rejoining UMNO over the weekend, he has sung a different tune about the ruling party, hitting the campaign trail and extolling the virtues of Barisan Nasional candidates in Bukit Gantang and Bukit Selambau. While there has been little backlash of his changing positions reported in mainstream media, Dr Mahathir’s doublespeak has been challenged in the alternative media.
His latest posting on his blog appears targeted at the cynics. He said that he rejoined the ruling party because he has every confidence that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak will be more successful in cleaning up UMNO than Abdullah. “I believe that he will not select corrupt people like Khairy and others as ministers and members of his administration,” he noted, saying that he also appreciated the fact that Najib made an attempt to be on friendly terms with him.
In addition, he liked that Najib was not only thinking about UMNO’s needs and wants but the needs and wants of Malaysians. Dr Mahathir noted that this was evident from his closing speech at the UMNO assembly where Najib distanced himself from calls by delegates for the party to control the government.
Dr Mahathir also justified his sudden change of heart about UMNO by praising Najib’s decision to go on a walkabout to meet Malaysians. “He’s convinced me that he is concerned about the welfare of people. Because of these reasons, I am confident that Najib will try and clean up the party and government of the corrupt and corruption. These signs will be clear when he names his Cabinet on April 8. Though Abdullah no longer leads UMNO, if there is evidence that he still has influence on UMNO, then I will consider that my conditions have not been met,” said Dr Mahathir.
The last sentence sounded like an ominous warning to Najib to ensure that Khairy and several other Abdullah loyalists are not included in the Cabinet line-up tomorrow. It also suggested that while he may not crave for an official position in the new administration, he wants his views to be taken seriously. It looks like Najib is going to play ball.
Khairy will not be in the Cabinet line-up and neither will be several UMNO politicians aligned to Abdullah who were successful in the recent supreme council elections.
Mahathir is a liability, Najib is a liability; they both are double liabilities and double YAMMYs to UMNO. Bravo. The future looks good for Pakatan Rakyat.
Frusmalaysian - April 7, 2009 at 11:50 pm
Lucky you, brother Din! I salute the plucky voters of the two Bukits who have shown Najib & Mahathir the finger. I withhold comment on Batang Ai pending more information on what happened to the 14 ballot boxes en route to Lubok Antu.
A special message to the new Election Commission chairman, Whatshisface: Remember, sir, EC come, easy go!
Antares - April 8, 2009 at 12:33 am
Mahathir is a born lawyer but became a medical doctor by a twist of fate. It is the job of the advocate to argue his case (whatever that may be) and give his best. He doesn’t decide where the truth lies. The court does.
He earlier chose the role of prosecutor but now changes side and become defense counsel.
Mr Bean - April 8, 2009 at 5:33 am
Mahathir, the born Malayalee who decided that his Kerala genes be transformed into pure Melayu genes by his mere breath of his filthy mouth – I give you the Bapa Kemorosotan Malaysia, the emperor in his birthday suit who still thinks the world owes him a living.
barry - April 8, 2009 at 9:33 am
The global economy is now moving into a new phase which no one knows how it will turn out. Greed is good capitalism and the monster privatization is on trial. The G20 has made an attempt to put its stamp on what the developed countries think will be of benefit to them. We in the developing world have to survive this crisis on our own.
We need new ideas based on prudent economisc and financial management. The free spenmding policies that we adopted in the 80s and 90s have run its course and may not be applicable in the future. We have produced GLCs and big banks that are too big to fail instead of too good or too important to fail. Many put this developemt at the foot of the advent of soverign funding which essentially was a cheap money policy. And like everything that is in excess it flowed into non productive sectors. Money is like water. If you pour it into a glass it will fill it up. If you pour more into into it will overflow into all kinds of undesirable activities.
In a nutshell our survival will depend on our ability to make our RM1.00 work like RM2.00. How do we go about that. The state may have to go back to its original role of providing security, political stability, and lots of good infrastructure based on competitive pricing. Speding power of individuals who have the best experience of making RM1.00 work like RM 2.00 should be strengthened by sustainable wages. The present wage structure where non graduate earn around RM1000 and Graduates earn RM2000 is clearly insufficient to sustain the individual in an economy where the cost of living has increased ten times (1000%) over the period 1968 to 2009. Only the Members of Parliamnet have inflation adjusted wages. Amn MP was paid RM500 in 1968 and today he gets RM5000. Many so-called middle income persons like me know all about subsidising wages of our children many of whom are still dependent on us for housing and transport.
Now with this global financial crisis brought on by the baby boomers is not only placing hrardships on them but also their children who are now looking for after they had lost it.
We need new thinking on how to take on these problems. The old is good but has its limitations. We have to move our economy away from dependent on soverign funding and to one that is more suatainable base on the strength of individuals acting and working as a group. Sovreign funding ultimately led to fall of the communist and socialist empire. I hope that out new PM will weigh the options and come out with a new approach to take on the problems. He has my suppot and I wish him well and I want him to succeed because my future depends on it.
Thumb Logic - April 9, 2009 at 6:39 pm