Mahathir quits

Tun Dr Mahathir staged a stunt by announcing a reverberating statement on the 19th May, that he was quitting UMNO, the party he personally formed in 1988 and made himself and his wife as members with membership number 1 and 2 respectively.

This shocking move was a latent reflection of his distrust for the current president whom he considers a man who deserves no respect and regards, for his failure to manage the party and this great nation in proper manner and moral.

The decision to quit is certainly done after a long and massive thinking.

Leaving his party for a ‘political animal’ like Mahathir, made everybody taken aback, and surely it was moved by demanding reasons.

His call for Abdullah to resign is known to all around the globe, as he cannot accept his weak and unfaithful successor staying any longer as the Prime Minister whom he thinks would eventually destroy the nation.

If Mahathir does not return to the fold within his last lap of his life, then he will be the fourth UMNO president who will die as non-UMNO member.

The announcement attracted the attention of media worldwide as Al-Jazeera, CNN and BBC almost immediately took the news as their headlines for the day.

At the local scene it took the reigning leaders to come out with individual statements of different flavors.

Some took the opportunity to amuse the current UMNO president with harsh and sharp attack on Dr Mahathir, while a few took a more sober line by calling Dr M to reconsider his decision leaving the party.

Vengeful Musa Hitam, as expected, expediently took the opportunity to throw sharp personal attack on Mahathir and was quoted as saying “ the thorn in the flesh for UMNO is now gone”.

However the feeling of Musa and Mahathir to each other has been mutual, and needs no elaboration.

For all intend and purposes, Dr M was clear in his mind as to why he took such decisive move.

He wants Pak Lah to go immediately and let the party members decide the fate of the party’s future.

Dr Mahathir believes that if the current president is still ‘loitering’ around in the party hierarchy, it would jeopardize the agenda to strengthen the ailing UMNO before the disease becomes terminal.

Dr M was indeed so disappointed and disillusioned as Pak Lah and the rest of the leaders do not take UMNO’s poor showing in the last General Election seriously.

We can’t deny that there were some soothing statements coming from Muhyiddin, Rais Yatim, Hishamudin Husein and few other leaders admitting UMNO’s own weaknesses for the dismal performances.

However, none of them did anything organically of consequence, but just stop at that point.

Meanwhile, Mahathir has been ‘yelling’ every other day calling the PM to take the blame for the people’s rejection on the party and instantly resign from the government and the party.

Abdullah conversely replied by saying that he has no reason at all to resign, as BN was just short of 8 seats for the two third majority.

He subsequently announced his decision to defend his position as UMNO president in the party’s election in December.

So, there has been no serious effort to strengthen the party….but individually the leaders are back to their normal politicking…. very busy positioning themselves for personal advantages.

To many political observers, the current political environment warrants all UMNO leaders and members to rally behind Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah (TR) to take command and revamp the party.

TR, by far is the only living UMNO leader that fits into the job. He has track record of experiences in the government, party and has been astounding figure internationally.

He has not been in the vulnerable line-up of supreme council which experienced rejection in the last general elections (GE), and hence makes him the best choice as party president for the party to walk tall in the eyes of the rakyat.

Once and for all, let us hand over the party leadership to TR, and we can surely feel the illusions for better UMNO, Malays and all Malaysian and eventually all of us will see the reality of our illusions sets in expeditiously.

I dare say, the party will be history if anyone within the current supreme council takes up the job of UMNO president.

Many think that TR will be able to develop the last of the exiguous feelings of members for the party and to bring back UMNO to be the sanctuary for harmonious Malays and Malaysians.


Thanks…………………………………………… Aspan Alias