Dr M a parallel PM?

If MCA, which is a just a sidekick to Umno is worth RM4 billion, then Umno must be worth five times that – let’s say RM20 billion.

COMMENT

Why is former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who is well into his 80s, which, theoretically speaking, places him in the twilight zone, still at it?

It’s as though he is the parallel prime minister running this country.

The fact that he does what he does quite consistently suggests that current Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, despite his social media savviness, requires hand-holding to lead this nation.

It also suggests that despite his external popularity, Najib lacks substance to run this country.

So if you asked me whether Najib can reform Umno, the answer is no. How can he dismantle a system on which Umno survives?

That will be the end of Umno civilisation. Umno’s civilisation lives on a system of tender-preneurship.

Every level of Umno leadership looks up at the party being able to give out tenders so that Umno is worth at least five times the worth of MCA.

If MCA is rotten, Umno should also be five times as rotten.

Mahathir seems to concur. He once suggested that Umno is rotten to the core. But of late he has been singing praises about Umno.

Mahathir wants privileges

Don’t forget he also once declared that the government is corrupt from top to bottom. When he spoke of that kind of corruption at a lucheon with former ministers, he included the current prime minister.

But now Mahathir is saying good things about the government and is suggesting that voters re-elect the party irrespective of the quality of people who make it up.

How can a party not be corrupt if the people making it up are corrupt?

The fact is Mahathir is a despotic ruler. He eschews democracy. He uses democracy to achieve the position of power.

Once ensconced in power, Mahathir pursued only one aim – conferment of privileges on himself.

His recent remarks about the futility of questioning what happened to MAS in the 1990s, is symptomatic of the man, pursuing only one goal in his life – the entrenchment of privileges.

Privilege itself is anathema to democracy which is essentially about egalitarianism.

Mahathir doesn’t want anything egalitarian. He wants privileges in the form of selected captains of industry, in the form of protection of his children and friends doing business and so forth.

The most damaging to us, is his insistence now, to perpetuate the rule of a corrupt and deceitful government led by a corrupt Umno and Barisan Nasional.

Umno worth RM20 billion?

Look at MCA. It has declared its worth at RM4 billion. How on earth can a political party be worth RM4 billion?

This can only happen if it has tentacles in business. Political parties don’t do business.

If they do, and like MCA which is worth that, they must have achieved that by the abuse of power and trust.

My point then is, if MCA which is a just a sidekick to Umno is worth RM4 billion, then Umno must be worth five times that – let’s say RM20 billion.

The question now is, how did Umno achieve that figure?

Just like MCA it must have achieved that financial clout by having businesses which it acquired by using powers given to it by the rakyat.

What do you call that? It’s called abuse of power, or simply – naked abuse of power.

The writer is a former Umno state assemblyman but joined DAP earlier this year. He is a FMT columnist.