Umno website asks: Where’s Mahathir?

'Is he not Malay enough to mingle with tens of thousands of Muslim Malays?'

PETALING JAYA: The Umno website MyKMU.net has questioned former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad’s absence from yesterday’s Rally for Malay Dignity.

“Where was Tun Mahathir?” it asked in a brief article that hailed the rally as a success.

The anonymous writer of the piece made some attempts at wit and sarcasm.

“Perhaps,” he said, “the absence of even Mahathir’s shadow was an assertion of his principles, particularly his stand against street protests.

“But if so, why did he present himself in Bersih’s street gathering, dominated as it was by the DAP Chinese?

“If he could be at the Bersih gathering, which was clearly illegal, why couldn’t he present himself at the Red Shirts rally, for which a permit had been obtained?

“Was he too ashamed to show his face in a gathering dominated by Malays?

“Or did Tun Mahathir feel he was not Malay enough to mingle with tens of thousands of Muslim Malays in Padang Merbok?”

In an allusion to a famous saying attributed to the legendary Malay warrior Hang Tuah, it said, “The gathering is clear proof that the Malay race will not disappear from the face of the earth. The one Malay who has vanished without a trace is Mahathir.”