Mahathir reminded on what he taught Umno members all along

Pro-Umno portal MyKMU has reminded former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad that he was the one who taught Umno members to prioritise party interests above anything else.

Mahathir should therefore not be disappointed that many Umno members and leaders are now angry with him for working with DAP leader Lim Kit Siang to bring down Prime Minister and Umno president Najib Abdul Razak, the portal said.

"He should not be disappointed because this is the culture he taught Umno members since back then, for the sake of his own interest and the interests of his cronies.

"Mahathir is the one who said the party is more important than individual interests," MyKMU said.

He was also the one who condemned former prime ministers Tunku Abdul Rahman, Hussein Onn, his one-time archrival and Gua Musang MP Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and Umno veteran Rais Yatim for working with the opposition to oust him during his time in power, the portal aruged.

If Mahathir now thinks that Lim is right in wanting to remove Najib from power, was the DAP veteran wrong in wanting to bring down Mahathir when he was prime minister then, it asked.

"Do we need to bring up issues of the Penang bridge, BMF, Perwaja, PLUS, Renong, Forex Bank Negara and many others?

"No need, because those are definitely not the faults of Mahathir, who so easily forgets," the portal said sarcastically, referring to various scandals that took place during Mahathir's tenure as prime minister.

Umno members were also all deaf and dumb when Mahathir and then deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim locked horns, it recalled.

There was a time when Umno would support Mahathir, even if he had offensive views of Islam, MyKMU said.

"It's true that Umno division chiefs received millions of ringgit in funding to be channelled to the rakyat.

"Is it wrong of them to receive the funding to help out religious schools, vernacular schools and to provide aid to the students and the poor?" it asked.

'Mahathir only gave to his cronies'

For someone like Mahathir, this sort of help could just be chump change, but to the man on the street, such aid helps lighten their burden, the portal pointed out.

"Did Mahathir give (such aid) back then? Almost all the country's money was given to his cronies in the form of electricity, sugar, rice and petrol subsidies," it said.

Mahathir left the country with many great legacies, MyKMU conceded, but it also pointed out that all these came with a high cost.

It said Mahathir signed an agreement with toll concessionaires at a low price, to be hiked up drastically over the years.

"If the government does not allow the price hike, the government will have to pay the billions of ringgit in losses to the concessionaires.

"Who will have to shoulder this burden? Of course it'll be the prime ministers after him."

The pro-Umno portal also gave the example of the RM1.7 billion the government has to pay as lease for the Putrajaya land every year, as well as the struggle of Tenaga Nasional Bhd, which has to pay the full price for electricity production.

"It's true that in Mahathir's time, the cost of inflation was not obvious, because he pushed everything off into the future.

"It is very embarrassing to read Mahathir criticising Umno division chiefs as 'pemakan dedak'. From a statesperson, Mahathir has become someone who doesn't know better," the portal said.

It is okay for them to take the 'dedak' (animal feed), as long as it helps the rakyat all over the country, MyKMU added. -Mkini