“The most corrupt institution in the country”
Umno is rotten to the core; it is rotten from its lowest level to the highest, observes Martin Jalleh, echoing the sentiments of many Malaysians.
2009 began with the chairman of Umno’s Disciplinary Board, Tengku Ahmad Rithauddeen, proposing a radical (or desperate) solution to reduce rampant money politics in Umno – get rid of its Youth and Puteri wings! The Umno elite, Najib included, found the proposal ridiculous and rejected it.
Zaid Ibrahim advised Rithauddeen to retire and resign from the Tribunal since his efforts in reining in corruption in Umno had proven to be futile. Lim Kit Siang went one step further saying, as a result of Rithauddeen’s failure to weed out corruption, the whole of Umno should be uprooted altogether!
On 30 January 2009, a group of Umno Youth members protested against both Rithauddeen for his proposal and also the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) for its intervention in “party matters”. It rattled Rithauddeen so much that he resignedly replied: “We will do our job; MACC will do theirs.”
In March, two Umno members threatened to apply for an injunction to postpone the Umno general assembly until all allegations of money politics were investigated. They highlighted their report on the misuse of power on the (then) PM and Deputy PM and the more than 1,000 reports of graft in Umno.
Nine days before the Umno elections, the Umno Disciplinary Board barred Malacca Chief Minister Mohd Ali Rustam from contesting the post of party deputy president after three of his “agents” were allegedly found guilty of being involved in money politics in the run-up to the elections.
But Ali Rustam continued as an Umno member and CM. Even Dr Mahathir was stumped by this: “Isa was thrown out because he was involved in money politics…he also lost his position as a minister. But here we have a very strange decision. He was found to be corrupt but he can remain as the Chief Minister…”
Khairy Jamaluddin, who was a candidate for the post of Umno Youth head, was also found “guilty” by the Board, but was only given a warning. He won the post and was heckled by an Umno mob who yelled, “Khairy! Rasuah!” and “Penipu!” during his acceptance speech.
Another candidate for the post of Umno Youth head, Mohamad Khir Toyo, was cleared by the Board of all corruption charges. People expected Khir Toyo to be found clean, or Umno would be without an opposition leader in Selangor of his calibre and he would not look good in his new role as a “champion of good governance”!
