Mahathir the happiest man Part 2

Mahathir has been reading, studying and digesting the Malay mind very intensely. So intense that he could maneuver them to an extent that Malays take him as a hero without even realizing they are being deceived and follow through his dubious intend and motives.

After the 1981 big fight for Deputy President, Mahathir had the initial grip on UMNO when he balanced the TR/Musa factor. Musa was all out to make his existence felt as he was there as Deputy by the will of Mahathir.

Musa was not at all happy that TR was in the line-up again but was not showing as appointing TR as the Finance Minister was on the unanimous call from the delegates and wishes of men on the ground.

The defeat of TR was taken sorely by the public as he was the man who had done too much for the Bumiputra in the efforts of economic re-engineering of the rakyat as stipulated in the New Economic Policy which was well accepted by the people including the Non-Malays.

The ism of TR was everywhere; banking sector, commerce, politics and the public sector as he was looked upon as the de facto Prime Minister in the eyes of every Malaysian during Hussein Onn’s administration.

TR was hands on over every government project for the Malays and Bumiputra and he did his job well and accepted by the people, as there were no element of corruption and cronyism and everything he proposed and implemented gave direct impact on the people especially among the Malays and Bumiputra.

Mahathir didn’t want to appoint Musa directly as his Deputy as what has been traditionally practiced by previous Prime Minister. He did not want to have Musa to be appointed directly as he was worried Musa might have solid support from the grassroots which he was unsure of Musa allegiance to him.

He chose to witness Musa going through the severe contest with TR and to him this could be a good balancing factor for him to maintain comforts on the PM’s seat. Mahathir wanted the two factions continuously in adversity so as the 2 power men would always be put at bay.

Musa in the meanwhile was all out to make his presence felt and he started doing things which was out of norms such as using Biro Tata Negara (BTN) as his personal political tools and this irritated a lot of people including Mahathir and members of UMNO who were leaned to TR.

Musa managed to place his men to important positions among them Shahril Samad as the full minister and getting Ajib Ahmad who was too junior to be the MB of Johore to ensure good footing for him in his home state of Johore.

Musa unceremoniously sidelined Muhammat Rahmat, Jalal Abu Bakar and a few others whom he was not comfortable with.

Mahathir looked at Musa’s action as threatening but he didn’t have much worries as he knew TR was going for another round of contest for the Deputy President against Musa in 1984 and that contest would tire Musa up to the optimum.

With that contest Mahathir knew Musa would never be able to force him out as he (Musa) was not having rock-hard support from members and delegates.

Mahathir expectation was right as TR still managed to secure more than 500 votes out of 1200 delegates; a formidable support as underdog against Musa who enjoyed the total support from Mahathir in this second round of contest.

TR was once again in the cabinet line-up but was given the task to lead the Ministry of Trade replacing Tengku Ahmad Rethauddin while TR’s position in the Ministry of Finance was given to famous (to some people as notorious) Daim.

Having TR and Daim in the line-up annoyed Musa a great deal and he then realized he was just made to be the tool of Mahathir and he found it too hard to manage the new culture of materialism that had slowly crept in UMNO.

From this point Mahathir had his free hand to do anything he wished as TR was no more in the Finance Ministry. Since then the culture in UMNO latently changed and materialism slowly became the order of the day.

Musa rhetoric on nationalism became blunted and TR’s focus and effort to transfer the wealth that the government owned to the Bumiputras was curtailed and Mahathir slowly dismantled the New Economic Policy that was too dear to the heart of TR and the Malays.

Daim took the office of Finance Minister and his first task was to sack the Governor of Bank Negara Tan Sri Aziz Taha as he was not comfortable with strict laws and ethics of administrations.

Since then, Mahathir and Daim made decisions on ad-hoc basis and all Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) were not adhered to any longer. Administering the country was nothing more and nothing less like managing a simple Kubang Pasu Sepak Takraw Committee Members.

Mahathir enjoyed the splits in UMNO as he can only survive his politics if there were big crisis in the party. Mahathir couldn’t survive politically if there were unity among members and leaders under him.

Express gigantic projects became norms and all were decided on ad-hoc manner and he didn’t address all possible problems that may follow as consequences of his hasty decisions.

Mahathir was so focus on Mega Projects and he wanted it to be done fast and by doing so the country had to import capital goods in haste and that spiral the costs. This man didn’t bother the negative impact on our current account which in the end weakened our ringgit.

No one was supposed to criticize him then; whoever tried to think in dissimilarity with him would be taken to task.

He went head on with the basic and cardinal struggles of UMNO to create hundreds of thousand of millionaires but instead he went on negotiating Mega Jobs which were in only in the interest of 4 or 5 beneficiaries to be the billionaires.

The successes of economic management by TR in creating large number of middle class among the Malays are slowly depleting and when the economic down spiral sets in the middle class are the ones who suffer the most.

All costs of those mega projects were exorbitantly high and the rakyat had and still pay for the costs through their nose.

It will be very interesting to reminisce this abhorring history which is still new.

Mahathir himself in his blog wants everybody to read history as it is an important subject for the people to learn past mistakes; and this is just what I want to do; write a bit of history which I personally know without making even a bit of research.

Anyone is free to contest my opinion but what I am doing is nothing more than putting it on writing of what I see.

If anyone agrees with me, just recite for me Al-Fatihah if I am no more living then.

See you in few days for the following series.


Thanks……………………………………………………… Aspan Alias

Mahathir the happiest man Part 1

Najib is now the President of UMNO while Muhyiddin is his Deputy and that is what Dr Mahathir wanted all the way since he broke off the talking line with Abdullah Badawi since 2006.

Dr Mahathir has rejoined UMNO as he is not complaining much about the current political circumstances; he only has persona non grata with Abdullah and Khairy, and that was apparently the only reason why he helped UMNO to hell.

What he cares is only his wants and greed, and anything short he would damage the government and even the party.

In actuality Dr Mahathir is not that choosy about the right attribute of a leader to rule the nation in a proper manner.

Dr Mahathir is just like any ordinary member’s mentality and that is where and why Dr Mahathir feels so comforting having Najib to be the leader and deputized by Muhyiddin.

To Dr Mahathir his missions are accomplished except with diminutive disappointment over his son’s defeat in the contest for UMNO youth head to his arch rival’s son-in-law, Khairy; and that made him to decide not to attend the UMNO General Assembly in protest on the 26th March.

Unlike many on the street, Mahathir does not really bother to see Najib as a clean leader as his concern is to see Abdullah’s political demise and succeeded by some one whom he can turn and curve with.

He cares nothing for the people and to give a damn with the country’s political danger and I don’t think I can be wrong to say that he has a bit of a migrant mentality.

By days, weeks and months I personally see the real Dr Mahathir and if I can be permitted to say a line of Malay proverb, “saya sudah boleh menyelam air dalam tunggak” about this man who is very laudable to the eyes of the deceived lots.

Dr Mahathir is not irked or chagrined by stories written by major and mainstream newspapers worldwide about alleged involvement of Najib in the Altantuya Sharibuu’s murder case which is an automatic disqualification for ostentatious man to be the Prime Minister of this great nation if he does not come out in the open to clean his image and name.

He must go to courts and be firmly courageous enough to deny those allegations and sue those writers and if luck is with him he may even earn some clean money, the thing which he loves most.

Many expected Dr Mahathir to use his influence and get Najib to be on his toes and just do what he should in cleaning up his severely dented image.

Let us all see things objectively and agree among ourselves that with this extent of allegation against a Prime Minister of our sovereign nation, it is unbearable and if he continues to chicken out in this issue he has only one choice; that is to resign from all party and government positions and live in repentance.

Dr Mahathir in actual fact wants Muhyiddin to be the PM and he knows Najib’s credibility is at the lowest ebb and to him Najib may soon have to leave the position and give smooth passage for Muhyiddin to be the successor.

Dr Mahathir is truly an expert in mind game and also a good deceiver. History tells clearly he could deceive the whole UMNO members and leaders that other people were responsible for the demise of our original UMNO..... and almost everyone believed his cock and bull stories.

Dr Mahathir’s superb communication skills made him looked nationalist. He was the master planner to insubordinate Tun Husein Onn while he was the deputy to Husein and making use of forlorn and dejected Harun’s supporters which consequentially upstaged Sulaiman Palestine to contest against Husein’s position as the Party President.

Husein in the end announced that he was not defending his position in 1981. Hussein realized that he didn’t have the full support of members as somebody was expediently using discontented Harun’s supporters to insubordinate him from inside his trusted men around him.

The moment Husein announced his intention not to defend his position as UMNO President in 1981, the process of ostracizing Tengku Razaleigh begun as morally he was supposed to deputize Dr Mahathir when this man became the Prime Minister.

This was where Musa Hitam came in as he was one of those who felt edgy if TR became the Deputy to Mahathir. Mahathir was not at ease to have TR to deputize him as he was worried that TR may outshine him.

Both Musa and Mahathir were exceedingly discontented seeing TR were glamorously known and famous as he was recognized worldwide and the world made him the Chairman of World Bank in 1977 to 1982, the first person outside USA to sit on the chair.

Mahathir was not cheerful seeing Husein Onn giving all trust and important functions in managing the nation to TR especially in managing the nation’s economy especially in restructuring and reengineering economic distribution which was the core activity for the New Economic Policy (NEP).

Finally Mahathir got what he wanted; not to have anyone bright to be his Deputy and Musa sat on the chair of Deputy Prime Minister and he became the stop-gap partner of Mahathir until he found all excuses to displace Musa 5 years after.

Meanwhile TR was still maintained as the Minister of Finance as well as the Treasurer of UMNO as the delegates appealed for his continuous role in national politics and he held those positions until June 1984 when our great Daim came in to substitute him.

To Mahathir this was also an excellent opportunity for him to balance the new power man, Musa whom he has not trusted fully; Musa was just used to unseat the power man TR and subsequently made TR to check on the new uncharacteristic Musa.

Mahathir just sat pretty and save on the PM’s seat while watching his 2 pawns’ rivalry maintained at certain height.

Let me continue writing in series about Mahathir in my next writing. Let me write in series to see how Mahathir played his game until he managed to be on the helm of power for 22 years.

Please bear in mind that his personal successes were too costly for UMNO and the nation and the current adversities in Malaysian politics is definitely the consequence of his knifing politics which he enriched when he came to power.

See you in days, for 2 or 3 series of Mahathir’s successes in his personal politics which all were at the expenses of the nation and all deceived Malaysians.


Thanks……………………………………....Aspan Alias

UMNO rebah rempah

Keputusan pemilihan UMNO selesai sudah dan umum sudah tahu ke mana arah UMNO selepas ini dan ianya amat mengerikan.

Pendeknya keputusan yang kita lihat membayangkan betapa jumudnya UMNO dalam menentukan masa depan rakyat dan negaranya.

Saya selalu bercerita tentang dalil kiamat dalam tulisan-tulisan saya beberapa ketika dahulu.

Salah satu dalilnya ialah yang patut jadi pemimpin diketepikan dan yang tidak patut menjadi pemimpin ditegakkan.

Shahrir Samad dikalahkan, dan ramai lagi pemimpin yang sepatutnya menang tewas dengan teruknya.

Yang menggelikan hati ialah perwakilan memilih orang seperti Azeeez, ketua Putra yang berjaya mendapatkan tempat sedangkan Shahrir dan menteri-menteri gugur bergelimpangan seperti daun kering di waktu angin bertiup.

Menteri-menteri Besar semuanya kalah kecuali Musa Aman dari Sabah. Inilah kali pertama dalam pengalaman hidup bersama UMNO berlakunya keadaan seperti ini.

Siapa yang banyak menabur wang ringgit yang itulah yang menang dan orang seperti Shahrir yang tidak menabur tidak ada dalam ingatan perwakilan walaupun beliau adalah di kalangan hanya beberapa orang yang ada attribute seorang pemimpin dalan barisan Abdullah.

Kepada Shahrir, saya mengangkat topi dengan keputusan beliau untuk meletakkan jawatannya sebagai Menteri.

Sesungguhnya itu adalah pakaian pemimpin yang mengaku diri mereka sebagai demokratik.

Saya tidak nampak ramai pemimpin yang boleh melakukan tindakan yang mengikut semangat dan etika demokrasi seperti yang dibuat oleh Shahrir.

Apabila perwakilan tidak menerimannya untuk duduk dalam jawatankuasa tertinggi parti itu, maka adalah menjadi tanggungjawab moralnya itu untuk meletakkan jawatannya.

Shahrir tidak seperti Menteri-Menteri lain yang sanggup berbuat apa sahaja asalkan boleh duduk dalam Jemaah Kabinet Negara walaupun orang ramai memandang jelek kepada mereka.

Sekarang perwakilan mahukan Azeeez, ketua putra UMNO itu untuk jadi pemimpin maka UMNO ambillah Azeeez itu sebagai pemimpin.

Bagi diri saya sebagai rakyat biasa dan ahli biasa dalam UMNO yang tidak bersetuju dengan kemenangan Azeeez ini boleh pilih haluan lain, mungkin dengan berdiam diri terus atau memilih wadah perjuangan yang lain.

Kita yakin bahawa ramai orang sudah mula bertukar wadah setelah keputusan diisytiharkan, tetapi mereka tidak lari daripada akidah perjuangan.

Bertukar parti bukannya menjadi kesalahan; yang tidak boleh bertukar Agama dan akidah kita.

Lagi banyak pemimpin bercakap tentang perubahan lagi teruk keadaan di dalam parti.

Mungkinkah perubahan yang dijanjikan Najib ini ialah untuk membawa orang seperti Azeeez dan beberapa orang lain yang berjaya dalam pemilihan dua hari lepas?

Kalau kita ingin melihat perubahan seperti yang dijanjikan oleh Najib itu, kita memang sudah melihat perubahannya.

Perubahan yang ketara ialah permainan politik wang secara terbuka walaupun etika pemilihan nampaknya ketat.

Perubahan yang lebih nyata ialah terkeluarnya pemimpin-pemimpin yang ada sedikit sebanyak kepimpinan dan digantikan dengan pemimpin-pemimpin bertaraf Pak Pandir.

Perubahan yang tidak kurang ketaranya ialah perwakilan tidak menilai kemahiran seseorang pemimpin itu tetapi memilih mereka yang selalu bercakap seperti Bung Mokhtar, Mohamad Aziz dan beberapa Anjing Sukom yang malas rasanya untuk menyebutnya.

Dengan kemenangan Khairy Jamaluddin sebagai ketua pemuda Malaysia sudah pasti menjadikan Pemuda UMNO sebagai sayap yang tiada roh orang Melayu yang tulen dan ianya akan membawa pemuda ke arah lurah yang dalam dan menyemadikan UMNO di dalamnya.

Kadangkala saya cuba mematahkan jari untuk mengira berapa banyak dan jumlah wang yang ditabur dalam Perhimpunann Agung kali ini…tetapi tidak dapat jawapannya.

Kalau orang Arab Mekah dan Madinah berniaga dua bulan dalam setahun, orang-orang UMNO membuat bisnes tiga tahun sekali.

Saya diberitahu oleh beberapa orang perwakilan bahawa mereka mendapat tidak kurang daripada RM15,000 yang dikutip dari calon-calon yang bertanding.

“Dapatlah langsaikan baki tunggakan kereta saya di ‘finance company’ bang! Bukannya selalu, dia orang kebas lagi banyak bang!” kata salah seorang perwakilan kepada saya. Saya hanya mampu menjawab pendek, “oh gitu!”.

Saban tahun dalam Perhimpunan Agung parti Najib, Muhyiddin membuat ikrar untuk memperkasakan UMNO namun UMNO tetap menjadi bertambah lemah dan mempunyai masalah-masalah yang tidak terurai.

UMNO kini sudah dipandang sebagai makhluk perosak oleh orang Melayu dan rakyat jelata sehinggakan parti ini dengan pemimpinnya sudah dipandang rendah seperti anjing kurap yang melata.

UMNO dipandang seperti sampah-sarap yang bertaburan di tepi jalan dan rakyat menyampah serta jemu melihat pemimpin mereka.

Kepada Shahrir, saya sekali lagi mengangkat topi menghormati beliau dengan setinggi-tingginya.

Sesungguhnya beliau seorang pemimpin dan sebagai pemimpin tidak semestinya duduk di atas pentas.

Kita digalakkan sembahyang berjemaah kerana imam yang mengetuai jemaah itu tidak semestinya sampai doanya ke hadhirat Illahi; mungkin salah seorang jemaah yang ramai itu yang mampu bertawassul dan bertawajjuh kepada Tuhan dan Rasulnya dan doanya sampai ke arash untuk dimakbulkan Tuhan.

Begitu jugalah dengan kita dalam UMNO; Presiden UMNO itu hanya mengetuai jemaah ahli-ahlinya tetapi yang memperkuatkan parti adalah ahli yang ramai ini.

Dalam pemilihan tahun '87 hanya Tengku Razaleigh dan Rais Yatim sahaja yang meletakkan jawatan apabila kalah kerana itu adalah isi dan intiparti semangat demokrasi yang tulen.

Sebelum itu, pada tahun 1984 hanya Dato' Abdul Manan Othman sahaja yang tampil ke Dr Mahathir untuk meletakkan jawatan beliau sebagai Menteri Pertanian apabila beliau tidak dipilih menduduki Majlis Tertinggi.

Pemimpin yang sanggup berkorban seperti ini sudah jarang-jarang kita jumpa; yang kita boleh jumpa dengan mudah ialah pemimpin yang sanggup mengorbankan perasaan dan harta benda rakyatnya.

Bukan tidak ada pemimpin yang berkualiti seperti ini dalam UMNO; hanya mereka diketepikan kerana tidak sesuai dengan pemerintah semasa yang fakir jiwa dan miskin perjuangan.

Percayalah pemimpin sebenar UMNO berada di luar barisan; yang ada di dalam barisan adalah cebisan-cebisan sampah-sarap yang tidak bernilai yang hanya membawa penyakit kepada masyarakat yang mereka pimpin.

Selagi semua pihak tidak berusaha untuk mencari pemimpin sebenar untuk UMNO, selagi itulah kita tidak akan menjadi ikutan rakyat ramai.

Jika UMNO gagal melakukan pencarian ini, UMNO akan tumbang menyembah bumi, dan masa itu nanti jangan disalahkan sesiapa; salahkan pemimpin yang perwakilan pilih dua hari yang lepas.

Segala usaha telah dilakukan oleh pihak tertentu untuk memperbaiki UMNO serta menyedarkan ahli-ahlinya tetapi usaha murni ini masih tidak mendapat kejayaan.

Sekarang kita serahkan segala-galanya kepada Tuhan yang Maha Kuasa.

Lahaulawalaa quataillaabillah!!


Sekian………………………………………………….Aspan Alias

Ali & the rest should resign

Political situation has become cacar marba and who wants to be accountable for what is happening?

Someone has got to be responsible and take the accountability for the unprecedented problems and surely these problems cannot be solved through conventional traditions.

All these problems were caused by irresponsible, unscrupulous, uninspiring and unmitigated corrupt leaders and these negative traits have been in their bloodstreams.

It is noticeable that selective persecution is much in practice, in fact worst than ever before. Ali was found guilty for corrupt practice in the running of General Assembly but was allowed to stay on as the Malacca Chief Minister.

It is total disrespect of Law and highly dishonorable move by the party, and that was very clear attempt not to allow him to contest for the Deputy President post only.

For all intent and purposes Ali should resign from all government positions without any hesitant.

Khairy Jamaluddin was evidently proven to practice the same offence but he was just given a warning as he is the son-in-law of the president. This is sheer nonsensical disposition of the party’s attitude to their large family of party members.

Everyone wonders why Khir Toyo was found not guilty as he was trading the votes with money in the open and went on unhindered.

What about the other 900 odd complains; why are these complains not being addressed as yet and why General Assembly is going on as scheduled? Why these happenings are are not checkered?

There is no more law; politics undermine legal system and law is only applicable to persons whom the men in authority find objectionable.

While encroaching and battering the instituted laws institutions crash and collisions of their real functions and the political requirement for the material time make the whole nation in grave and weighty disorder.

Why is Najib too showy about his expected weaknesses to the extent that everybody with grey matter does not have self-reliance and believe in this biological son of Tun Abdul Razak? If he can’t handle these issues he should resign instantaneously.

While everybody is in deep trouble, Rosmah shamelessly made open statement that his husband is ordained to be the Prime Minister. Who is she to issue that kind of statement?

This woman is too enthralled and overly impatient to wait for her husband’s ascendance to the premiership. Public hullabaloo over her statement is heard nationwide and it only tops up the feeling of no confidence to Najib.

Everyone feels that in actuality Rosmah will be the de facto Prime Minister and this would send the country into eventual destruction.

History has proven to all that there were many great nations were thrown into total oblivion when the wives of those great leaders were so powerful over their great husbands.

Many great leaders became destitute when they were arm-twisted by unknown powers because of mistakes and ill-imaged wives and in the end the nation and its people suffer unendingly.

In veracity the country needs total cannibalism and reconstruct the nation in the spirit of togetherness and the love for the nation and it has to be managed by somebody outside the current bunch of self-claim leaders.

That was why the idea of having the Unity Government is the best solution to the current state of political affairs and it has to be done fast before UMNO vanished.

The current leaders especially Najib can promise heaven but let us be blunt enough to remind him there is an adage that says ‘a dirty mop can’t clean the dirty floor’.

Najib and the rest should be sitting outside and smoke cigars. If Najib claims that he is a great leader he has also the obligation to prove that he can also be a great follower.

The current manner of handling a nation is too risky to follow through as the people and their generations are the ones are going to suffer.

I advocate that the General Assembly to be set at a new date and in the meantime just amicably settle the numerous issues still unattended by the party.

This is the only manner to solve the overlapping problems and just for the first time set aside personal agendas over the needs of the nation and her good and hard working populations.

I am also advocating those leaders like Najib and the rest to get legitimacy of support from the members rather than hanging on through manipulation of powers which do no good to the country.

Get real support rather than securing it through patronizing of powers and that is not genuine.

In Ali Rustam’s case, it’s clear evident that UMNO allows leaders who committed corrupt practice to be retained as the Chief Minister and this is unbearable for anybody who is serious about achieving prim and proper leadership disposition.

For all that happened we should request for total revamp of UMNO, MACC, disciplinary Committee of UMNO and the whole leadership of the country.

All leaders of UMNO should resign as all of them are accountable for these nauseating circumstances. It looks like we have to start a nation again in order to have a reasonable government that can understand basic do’s and don’ts.

It’s time to pen off.


Thanks………………………………………………………………Aspan Alias