Lim Kit Siang, aged 77, had been the opposition Member of Parliament since 1969 where he was first elected as an MP for the Bandar Melaka seat. He first emerged as a politician when he was National Organising Secretary of the DAP (Democratic Action Party) from 1966 to 1969. Yet, he did not want to be made a minister after the Pakatan Harapan coalition won the federal government.
Mr. Lim’s refusal to reward himself has basically busted the dirty tricks used by UMNO Malay nationalist party to spook the Malays – that the DAP supremo would become de-facto prime minister. Playing racial and religion cards, ex-PM Najib Razak had told the ignorant and gullible Malay folks that the Malays would lose their power to the Chinese. Of course, it is now proven to be just lies.
Even after being thrown into jail multiple times, he persevered and never gave up. Together with the late Karpal Singh, both individuals were iconic opposition figures who had fought and struggled for decades. Yet, despite being the poor and powerless opposition party, they had never stooped so low as to pay a visit to a Prime Minister pledging support and asking for guidance.
RELATED STORY: Hisham not running for top Umno posts – Malaysiakini
But that’s precisely what former Deputy Prime Minister Zahid Hamidi did. After unexpectedly lost its power, UMNO, the backbone of Barisan Nasional coalition is running around like a headless chicken. Ex-UMNO president Najib Razak had resigned and passed the baton to his deputy Mr. Zahid. However, instead of strengthening the party, Zahid has increasingly shown his lack of leadership.
Zahid, who is known for his arrogance and stupidity, appears to be nothing but an empty vessel incapable of rallying and uniting the so-called 3-million UMNO members. And he has the cheek to run for the party’s coming presidency. As acting president, not only he has failed to instil confidence among the disarray UMNO members, he has chosen to pay PM Mahathir a visit and bend over.
Mahathir reveals – “He called me. He wanted to see me because he was interested in supporting the Government.” When asked during a press conference, Mahathir said – “He is welcomed to support the Government, he is welcomed to oppose the Government also.” So, what was the reason Zahid paid a visit and bent over to be screwed by the 93-year-old Mahathir?
Mahathir told a tabloid – “He (Zahid) wanted to know how to manage UMNO.So I was honest with him, and said that UMNO had betrayed the Malays. I reminded him that we established UMNO to help the Malays. But UMNO has changed and UMNO has prioritised the wealth of individuals instead.”
Seriously? An UMNO leader seeking advice on how to manage his party? If Zahid was the guy asking how to manage his team in a company, he should be immediately fired. It means as a manager, Zahid was clueless and had no idea how to manage his subordinates. This perhaps explains why a UMNO mobster like Papagomo has little respect for Zahid and told him to make way.
Amusingly, the ex-Deputy PM Zahid had previously mocked and insulted Mahathir’s origins, that the former premier’s father was an Indian. Zahid said – “Dr Mahathir has likely forgotten about this fact: that he is the son of Iskandar Kutty. On his blue IC, his name is listed as Mahathir, son of Iskandar Kutty. His IC number is 2232519. No wonder he says Malays easily forget.”
Well, that son of Iskandar Kutty has successfully toppled UMNO, forcing Zahid to lose his pride as the descendent of Jawa and bend over at the office of the new prime minister. Did the despicable and ungrateful Zahid think Mahathir will easily forgive and forget what he had done in July last year? More importantly, why the impotent Zahid pledged his support to Mahathir?
Without power, Zahid knew he is at the mercy of the old man. He knew Mahathir knew he has amassed truckloads of ill-gotten wealth. When he was appointed as UMNO Youth Chief in 1996, he declared to his former boss Mahathir that he had RM230 million in his account. After more than 20 years, the educated guess is that his wealth has breached the billion ringgit mark.
By pledging his support to the new Pakatan Harapan government, Zahid probably hopes Mahathir would not go after his past corruption activities. But being rude to Mahathir wasn’t just his speciality. Mr. Zahid was a well-known racist who had bashed the ethnic-Chinese voters for being ungrateful. He even laughed off at Chinese’s stupidity for supporting Barisan Nasional despite being discriminated.
Still, there could be another hidden agenda from Zahid’s visit. He could be there to propose that Mahathir returns to UMNO, betting that the old man could be sentimental towards the party that he had once attached to. For the sake of his own survival, Zahid probably thought a proposal to merge UMNO and Mahathir’s Bersatu party could lure him.
Considering that Sarawak’s ruling party is about to pull out of Barisan Nasional, Zahid is ready to sacrifice even his old post of deputy prime minister as long as UMNO can be part of the federal government. Mahathir can become the president of UMNO again while Zahid gets a senior ministership. Having leeching on the national coffers for 61 years, UMNO cannot survive without the gravy train.
Unfortunately, Zahid’s hope was dashed when Mahathir said the following – that UMNO is now “hated” and it is difficult for the party to recover from their loss of support. That’s right, UMNO branding is too toxic that nobody wants to touch it even with a 10-foot pole. If Zahid gets the message, he should retire or disband UMNO entirely, and create a new party.
– Finance Twitter
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