ANGRY Mahathir won't be 'good for Malaysia'

KUALA LUMPUR - MP for Shah Alam Khalid Samad warned of greater infighting ahead in prime Minister Najib Razak's Umno party, saying that this would not bode well for the country.

He was referring to the failure by Kedah chief minister Mukhriz Mahathir to win one of Umno's prized vice presidencies. Mukhriz is the youngest son of former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, who has made no secret of his wish for Mukhriz to follow in his footsteps.

However, despite the best efforts of the 88-year-old Mahathir, without Najib's endorsement for Mukhriz, he could not pull in enough votes for Mukhriz. Even the reported last-minute campaigning by wife Siti Hasmah could not help their son to wrest one of the 3 VP posts, which were eventually retained by Najib's close associates - Hishammuddin Hussein, Zahid Hamidi and Shafie Apdal.

Khalid, who is also a senior PAS leader, foresaw little positive change for Malaysia following the Umno election, which saw a number of new faces joining the party's central leadership.

According to Khalid, not only were the topmost Umno leaders the same, it was inevitable that increased infighting would engulf Umno and prevent progress in national development and programmes.

"I don't expect there will be very much change. There might be some new faces at branch level but the political culture of Umno has not changed and the top leaders remain the same. Sharizat, with all the issues (corruption scandal), still won. Khairy is still the Ketua Pemuda (Youth chief). The president and the great vice presidents are not new, so it's going to be the same," Khalid told Malaysia Chronicle.

"Obviously he is not happy because his son did not win. That is good for us, but not so good for the nation. But so long as Umno is at the helm, there is nothing much positive you can expect for the nation, so all this talk of transformation, we are back to square one."

Most galling

Perhaps most galling to Mahathir was Khairy's 'easy' path to victory. Khairy, the son-in-law of Mahathir's immediate successor Abdullah Badawi, is regarded as Mukhriz's main competitor in Umno.

There is also no love lost between Mahathir and the Badawi faction, with Khairy the most detested by those in the Mahathir camp.

Unlike Mukhriz, Khairy had scored a landslide victory to get re-elected as the Youth chief and while Badawi helped to pull in votes, he kept a very low profile unlike Mahathr.

Indeed, Saturday's Umno poll must have been a most painful episode for the proud and politically ruthless Mahathir. Hence the expectations that Najib will offer Mukhriz a supreme council seat as an olive branch.

Even so, few Umno watchers think that will pacify Mahathir and expect him and his faction to wage an all-out 'guerrilla war' against the Najib camp.

Malaysia Chronicle