The ghost of Mahathir continues to haunt UMNO and Malaysia; stop the ghost of Altantuya!
When the events were unfolding from UMNO HQ yesterday, where UMNO deputy president candidate Mohd Ali Rustam and a few other were barred from contesting as a result of “investigation” by UMNO disciplinary committee, I started to see the ghost of Mahathir loitering at Putra World Trade Centre, where UMNO HQ is located.
While we outsiders watch with interest (and excitement?) the sandiwara of UMNO politics, we Malaysians also feel ’short-changed’ by the UMNO political masters in this democratic country. The reason is simple: president and deputy president of UMNO are by default the prime minister and deputy prime minister of Malaysia, respectively. Malaysians are not involved, let alone consulted, in the process of selecting our own prime minister and deputy prime minister.
Worse, what happened on Mar 17 indicates that it is not even UMNO which decides who will be its deputy president and therefore Malaysia’s deputy prime minister. It is one man, the one who is now slated to be UMNO president challenged and therefore prime minister – Najib Tun Razak. Ong Kian Ming, in his analysis on Malaysiakini, did not even mince his words by saying that the decisions of UMNO disciplinary committee are those of Najib.
I am no fan of Mohd Ali and, in fact, I rejoice in seeing him go. But for Mohd Ali, after working so hard (with money or otherwise) in the party to garner the support, he now finds his fate sealed not by the party delegates, but by Najib. And his political future looks dim, also by the same Najib. While he can appeal to the party’s appeal board, chances are slim that his appeal will ever be heard before UMNO general assembly to be held from Mar 24. In other words, it is hopeless for him now.
That is where I first sighted the ghost of Mahathir. What was at play is true concentration of absolute power into a person’s hand.
