Once upon a time, they were close and almost inseparable. What went wrong?
Thursday November 20, 2008
Dr M to name those involved in money politics
PUTRAJAYA: Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has promised to name Umno members implicated in money politics on his influential blog www.chedet.com.
He said he was willing to be sued for defamation and even risk arrest by the authorities because he was not afraid to expose the truth and the identities of such errant members.
“I can’t do anything about the complaints except to hand these over to the Umno disciplinary committee. I will put these names up in my blog.
“I am not afraid of being sued for libel or being arrested by the police. If they can release (blogger and Malaysia Today editor) Raja Petra Kamarudin, won’t they also be able to release me as well?” he said in his dialogue with a group of Umno members and leaders, ex-ministers and Malay student groups at the Perdana Leadership Foundation here yesterday.
Earlier, an Umno member from the Parit division had complained of money politics in his area and had asked for Dr Mahathir to look into the list of names of those implicated in the division.
Since its launch a year ago, Dr Mahathir’s blog has achieved nine million hits.
Earlier, in his speech, Dr Mahathir said voters would continue to reject Umno or Barisan Nasional if its new leader continues with the present policies and does not come down hard on corruption and money politics.
“Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has mentioned that he will continue with the teachings of Islam Hadhari. This is not a good sign as it shows that the transition is only in the person, and not in terms of policies.
“The voters did not like the policies that were put into place by the current Prime Minister, so they will still reject Umno. So, there is no point in having such a transition,” he said.(The Star Online)
Comment
Former Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir Mohamad uses his blog to comment on anyting UMNO. Rightly so, he is now telling UMNO people to be wary of money politics. He dares UMNO members to remove all those involved, irrespective of their rankings. Indeed, a novel thing to do for an ex-UMNO member who suddenly is so concerned with the current UMNO situation. And suddenly too Tun seems to become a kind of UMNO power broker of some sort, trying to celan the UMNO house. He has the ability to to rid of the "antah" from the "beras".
A public opinion in the UMNO circle suggests - thanks to Tun's tireless efforts to create such political atmosphere - that UMNO candidates in the coming March UMNO election should and must be been "clean" by this power broker. So it seems that everyone, vying for every post in UMNO is trying to jump into the bandwagon. it is not surprising , then, we often see some candidates, especially one from the deputy president's list continue to enjoy Tun's company, rather than beeing seen in the company of the current UMNO President.
Probably these cndidates are taking risk not to toe the party line, no matter what the outcome might be. After all Tun's recent remarks about UMNO and clean politics are by no means alien or strange to the majority of UMNO members.
With Tun revealing names of candidates alleged to be involved in money politics in his blog soon, many analysts expect no surprise as the list of names is already an "open secret list". The real surprise would be if Tun names otherwise.
It is fascinating to see Tun is so energized and obsessed with the current plight of UMNO and wonder why he takes him so long for him to rejoin the party he once and still loved. Tun, why wait until March 2009 to rejoin and with conditions attached. Won't it be much wiser strategically to act now rather than later?
Yes, Tun you can bet that the Malays, especially UMNO members, are a bunch of people, still plagued by the famous "mudah lupa" syndrome! Which reminds me of your recitation of "Melayu Mudah Lupa", not that long ago. How nice it would be if UMNO candidates can place their track record cards on the table for all to see.
Fo example for the post of the Deputy President, a simple question can be asked: Who was Tan Sri Muhyiddin before? who was Dato' Seri Ali Rustam before? Who was Tan Sri Mohamad Mohd Taib before?
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