STOP DEFENDING RASHID, SACK HIM DR M: LET THE OLD GUARDS KNOW CORRUPTION IS ILLEGAL – MAKE YOUR BERSATU LEARN HOW TO RAISE FUNDS, NOT STEAL LIKE CROOKS IN UMNO

It appears that the old guards and the young leaders within Mahathir’s party – PPBM (Bersatu) – are divided over a proposal to grant themselves government contracts or projects, a practice similarly carried out for decades by the UMNO regime to enrich warlords and family members before their collapse in the May general election.

After public condemnation, PPBM chairman, Mahathir Mohamad, said the statement by his vice-president – Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman – on granting contracts to cronies was his own personal view and did not represent the party. The PM said – “It was not a party decision, he gave his opinion, and we are not keeping to it. We do not want to do what Najib did, giving (projects) to friends.”

Abdul Rashid had, in his winding-up speech at the Bersatu second annual general meeting over the weekend, demanded that contracts be given to party division chiefs so that they could defend their seats in the next general election using the “resources (easy money)”. In essence, it would bring back the culture of favouritism, cronyism, nepotism and eventually corruption.

While it’s nice to see the 93-year-old premier hasn’t gone senile and rejected Abdul Rashid’s demands, one must remember that nothing goes trumpeted in the general assembly without the old man’s knowledge. As a former Election Commission chairman who had conducted numerous gerrymandering to help UMNO holds on to power, Abdul Rashid was Mahathir’s man once upon a time.

Therefore, it’s not an exaggeration to suggest that Mahathir most likely knew about Abdul Rashid’s demand for handouts, one way or another. It was deliberately done to test the water. And as predicted, about half of the delegates attending the assembly gave the crooked Abdul Rashid the amazing standing ovation with thunderous applause.

As much as Mahathir would like the people to think it was the personal view of Abdul Rashid alone, he cannot deny the fact that more than half of the Bersatu delegates were eager – even desperate – for free contracts or mega projects. The much respected premier should not insult the people’s intelligence into thinking that nobody in that assembly hall supported Abdul Rashid’s proposal.

Otherwise, how does Mahathir explain the leaked communications among some division chiefs who are sharpening their knives to slaughter the Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman for rejecting the evil and corrupt way of soliciting for contracts and positions from those in power? Clearly, the old guards and some young lazy chiefs aren’t happy with Mr. Clean Syed Siddiq.

As a new bird, Syed Siddiq had probably kicked the beehive without him realising it, when the youngest ever federal minister since the country’s independence in 1957 singled out and criticized the Federal Territories Bersatu representative for demanding contracts and positions, and for claiming that he had been promised the freebies by a minister.

But Mahathir should be smart enough to know that his party could plunge into a crisis if the war between the old guards and the youths are allowed to explode. It isn’t enough to rubbish Abdul Rashid’s demand as merely empty talks not worth further action. If an old man like Abdul Rashid could command standing ovation over handouts, imagine what crooks like Hishammuddin Hussein could do when accepted into Bersatu.

Mahathir might think using “democracy” and “freedom of speech” could wash away Abdul Rashid’s naughty suggestions. But as the representative of the youths, Syed Siddiq was right when he said – “I can tell you that Malaysian citizens are not stupid.” To prove that his government has no room for corruption, the prime minister has to sack Abdul Rashid.

Failure to take meaningful actions against his lieutenant would give an impression that either Mahathir knew along about the crook proposal and was actually using Abdul Rashid to test the water, or he isn’t serious about stopping the old UMNO culture of favouritism, cronyism, nepotism and corruption from returning to Bersatu. At the very least, the VP should be stripped of his chairmanship of the Electoral Reform Committee (ERC).

Doing nothing against Abdul Rashid would embolden the party’s greedy division chiefs – already inspired by the vice president’s incitement for mega projects – from launching more pressures or attacks against the Mahathir leadership to open the floodgates of free handouts. The virus has already spread and infected more than half of Bersatu’s delegates.

Essentially, PM Mahathir will lose his rights to criticise and lecture fellow Malays for being lazy and untrustworthy, let alone ridiculing Najib Razak’s “cash is king” mantra – if he allows his own leaders and warlords going unpunished for asking free cash and contracts. But how does Bersatu plan to survive without abusing and stealing handouts from the same government it is governing?

That’s easy – learn from DAP, a component party of the ruling Pakatan Harapan coalition. Generally, Malays don’t like the Chinese-majority DAP. But the fact remains that DAP party is the cleanest and most corrupt-free political party that has survived since the independence in 1957 without giving in to corruption. The only thing they can scream is Lim Guan Eng’s bungalow scandal.

DAP is the only longest surviving party which is free from the corrupt-DNA of the previous Barisan Nasional coalition government. Heck, if Mahathir doesn’t like DAP’s hard way of asking for donations humbly, he can learn from Amanah and even PKR on how to sell merchandise to raise funds from the public – not stealing government contracts like a crook.

– Finance Twitter