Ismail Sabri calls Dr M "comatose patient waiting to die"

© Coconuts Media ... this guy, we tell you

The knives are decidedly out for Dr Mahathir Mohamad after the former prime minister announced his decision to end his membership with ruling Malay party UMNO, as evidenced by a statement today by Rural and Regional Development Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob. Ismail, commenting on Dr M's departure from UMNO and his continuing criticism of PM Najib Razak's administration, likened the nation's longest-serving premier to a comatose patient waiting for his time to die. "Many of us expect this. Statements made by Mahathir before this show his disagreement with the leaders today. 

We know this would happen sooner or later," he said in Kuching today, as reported by The Malaysian Insider Outsider's Ng Ai Fern."We are not shocked, just like sick coma patients suddenly pass away, it is expected, just a matter of time."The minister notorious for his idea of setting up the Malay-only MARA Digital Mall and the incident in which he did/did not eat endangered sea turtle eggs said Dr M's departure would have no impact on UMNO's clout in national politics, saying that even in Dr M's absence, the party would still have three million members behind it. Dr Mahathir announced his exit from UMNO - the third such time he has left the party - yesterday, claiming that UMNO no longer stood for its founding principles, but instead existed solely to further the interests of its current president. 

Dr M has been a sharp critic of Najib's performance as PM and UMNO president, particularly over his ties to scandals surrounding sovereign investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) and the transfer of RM2.6 billion into the PM's personal bank accounts in 2013. Ismail said that after Mahathir left UMNO in 2008, in protest of then-UMNO president Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, the party did not splinter and weaken, but continued to garner popular support and went on to win the 13th General Elections in 2013. 

"What is important is that existing Umno leaders and members continue the sole objective of the party on the struggles of Malays and Bumiputeras," he said."Many leaders have quit, Umno's first president Datuk Onn Jafar also quit, but Umno continues to be strong until today." Ismail added that members leaving UMNO - even those with as storied a relationship with the party as Dr Mahathir - was a normal phenomenon, as the party was a democratic one at heart.