Pua: Umno leaders power-hungry hypocrites

“The much-anticipated fireworks ended with a pathetic whimper.”

KUALA LUMPUR: Umno leaders are nothing more than a bunch of power-hungry hypocrites. It cannot be clearer by now that the party is like a leopard which can never change its spots.

At the end of the day, noted Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua, despite all the foaming at the mouth to express their disgust and anger against the billions lost by the taxpayers, it was more important to toe the line of the all-powerful party President.

“The rakyat should not have any expectation that Umno is able to change its DNA,” added Pua who is also DAP National Publicity Secretary. “The only expectation they should have is, as long as Umno is in power, grand corruption, abuse of power and sheer incompetence will not only be tolerated, they will only become more blatant and brazen, as they did since the days of Mahathir Mohamad.”

Umno is the proverbial story of the wolf or in this case, wolves who huffed and puffed with great pomp and vigour, continued Pua, but just couldn’t blow the house of Najib down. After all the fire and brimstone by top Umno leaders about the 1MDB bailout over the last few days, he lamented, the Umno Supreme Council meeting ended with a whimper, pledging complete support for the Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak. “It’s going to be business as usual.”

“The much-anticipated fireworks ended with a pathetic whimper.”

He noted that Najib disclosed that “the Supreme Council expressed renewed support for the president and the deputy president”. “The Supreme Council wants the president, deputy president, the council and all Umno leaders to unite as a team to face all challenges and take positive action to strengthen Umno and Barisan Nasional’s position among the people,” he quoted Najib as also saying.

The support from the all-powerful Umno Supreme Council comes after the Prime Minister publicly proclaimed two days ago that he will not bow to pressure to resign, pointed out Pua. “No matter how serious the degree of abuse of power, incompetence, gross mismanagement and corruption involved in the party, they will continue to support their supreme leader who wields near absolute powers.”

Despite the massive public uproar over the bailout of 1MDB via the sale of land purchased at bargain basement prices from the Government to other government-linked financial institutions at astronomical prices, he said, it remains business as usual for Umno.

Over the past week, said Pua, both Tabung Haji and the Pension Fund (KWAP) have been exposed as having purchased land from 1MDB at very high prices, providing the latter with the necessary life-support to service its interest payments.

Tonnes of evidence have surfaced which pointed to Jho Low embezzling billions of ringgit of 1MDB’s borrowed monies into his own company’s accounts, said Pua. “Despite that, Najib continued to insist that Jho Low wasn’t involved and the Umno Supreme Council happily falls in line.”

It was not so a few days ago, recalled Pua.

Top Umno leaders lined up to speak up against the 1MDB imbroglio which touched a raw nerve when it sold a piece of land to Lembaga Tabung Haji at RM2,773 per square feet (psf) which it bought from the Government for less than RM64psf four years ago.

Just a day ago, the Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin sternly warned that “Umno’s image cannot be smeared just because of 1MDB. It affects the trust i.e. the core belief that the people have in the party”.

Umno Youth Chief Khairy Jamaluddin demanded that the Ministry of Finance cancel the land transaction between 1MDB and Tabung Haji to “avoid negative perception”.

Umno Vice-President Shafie Apdal warned that if the 1MDB crisis wasn’t handled well, the credibility of the government will continue to be questioned.

Umno Vice-President and cousin to the Prime Minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, broke his silence to demand that an international auditor be appointed to audit 1MDB.