DR M: ‘I HAD HIGH HOPES FOR NAJIB’

(Malay Mail Online) – Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has admitted that he had put his hopes in Datuk Seri Najib Razak when the latter replaced Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, but the prime minister completely ignored him for months after he was elected.

In a recent interview with Sydney-based daily The Australian, Dr Mahathir also lamented that ruling party Umno now lacks intellect to come up with a viable candidate to replace Najib, whom he has openly urged to resign.

“Well, I had great hopes for him … I felt my relationship with him would be very close and at least I would have the opportunity to give some views to him,” Dr Mahathir told The Australian in the interview published yesterday, referring to Najib.

“Unfortunately, for the first six months he totally ignored me,” he added, pointing out that Najib had failed to reinstate megaprojects planned by him that was scrapped by Abdullah, such as the so-called “crooked bridge” linking Johor to Singapore.

Najib had in April accused Dr Mahathir of attacking him for scrapping the project, but the former prime minister struck back by saying he was unhappy with Najib’s handling of the 1 Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) controversy and the murder of Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu.

“I began to have doubts about his performance. I tried to tolerate, I tried to support him during the election, I campaigned for him. But eventually I had to tell him I am not supporting him anymore,” said Dr Mahathir in the interview.

The nation’s longest-serving prime minister also claimed that he does not see anybody in Umno that he admires, amid accusations that he would have a hard time liking any prime minister who governs without consulting him.

“The people in the party do not want to have any capable people join them because it may result in their not getting the kind of positions they want. So the party is shrinking in intellect, so much so that we don’t have any candidates,” Dr Mahathir said.

Last month, Malay Mail Online reported Dr Mahathir admitting that there is nobody suitable to become the new prime minister, saying that Najib now holds too much power in office.

He also told reporters that he does not want to fall into the trap of naming a possible successor to Najib as some are deliberately trying to divide Umno.

Dr Mahathir, the country’s longest serving former prime minister, has been leading the on-going attacks against Najib’s leadership, saying that the prime minister should resign before Barisan Nasional (BN) loses the next general election.

Chief among Dr Mahathir’s concerns is the leadership’s handling of allegations surrounding 1MDB, the state-owned investment firm that has amassed a debt pile worth over RM42 billion in just a few years.