Umno president is ‘strong’, Umno is weak
A. Kadir Jasin, The Malaysian Insider
The Kedai Kopi Assembly (KKA) continues to sit. Unlike the parliament and the state legislative assemblies, the KKA has no recess and its members receive no salary and allowances.
Among members involved in the last several sessions were (Tun) Dr Mahathir Mohamad, two other former Umno ministers, several bloggers, journalists, corporate sector executives, retired policemen, paddy farmers, Bumiputera car salesmen, young leaders of Umno branches, a Chinese doctor at a private hospital and an ex-stockbroker.
Among issues, facts and recommendations discussed were:-
1. When Dr Mahathir wrote in his blog on September 10 to announce that he had withdrawn support for the prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, he wasn’t being rude or rash. He had informed the PM of that beforehand.
2. Weeks before the blog posting, he wrote a letter to the PM outlining what he saw as the latter’s failure and stating that he could no longer support him.
3. In a KKA session with Dr Mahathir on September 19, also attended by two other bloggers – one of whom is a former minister – the ex-PM said the points he raised in the letter were the issues the people had brought to his attention.
4. He said not all young Malays were against Umno and not all non-Malays were against the BN. They were against the top leadership of Umno, BN and the government. They even raised the issue of wives and spouses of these top leaders.
5. Only after he received no response from the PM did he make his stand known via his blog because he felt responsible to those who came to see him and asked him to bring their concerns to the attention of the PM.
6. Dr Mahathir told us that instead of responding to his letter, the PM sent an intermediary to ask him to withdraw it.
7. Dr Mahathir said he has done his part and it was up to Umno and the people to decide the future of the PM, but he did not believe Umno would act on its president. The Umno president may be strong but the party is weak.
8. The talk that Muhyiddin Mohd Yassin is tired and uninterested to be PM are unproductive. The DPM and Umno deputy president should stop talking about being tired and wanting to retire. Instead, he should up his ante as the voice of the ordinary Umno members in particular and the Malays in general.
9. A young executive and former committee member of overseas Umno Club said younger leaders like Khairy Jamaluddin and Muhkriz Mahathir should be brave and open in defending the future of the bangsa and the country, and fulfil the aspirations of young Malays and Malaysians. They should stop playing safe and becoming apple polishers. They should emulate young Umno leaders of the past like Dr Mahathir and late Harun Idris who took risks for the sake of the party and the country.
10. The hypocrites and the apple polishers should stop treating the rakyat like fools by saying that they respect Dr Mahathir and support the PM. They should be replying to Dr Mahathir’s teguran. To say they respect Dr Mahathir and support the PM is not the answer. To say times have changed is also not the answer. Dr Mahathir’s teguran are about policies and they need serious replies.
11. Dr Mahathir is not demanding respect. He is asking them to listen to the rintihan of the rakyat, mend their ways, be less corrupt, work harder and make Umno strong and respectable again. They should be with members instead of tugging ministers’ coattails.
12. Some elements of the mainstream media appear to have gone back to the Abdullah era by denying Dr Mahathir the right to reply. An Umno-owned Malay newspaper had commented on Dr Mahathir’s criticism of Najib. But when Dr Mahathir sent a reply, the paper “refused” to publish his letter. The NST did the same during Abdullah’s era.
13. The KKA laughed off Musa Hitam’s defence of the PM. Musa was being very personal. Dr Mahathir was talking about policies and programmes like the debt-laden 1MDB. Musa talked about personalities. Was he serious about defending the PM or just carrying on his grudge against Dr Mahathir?
14. Dr Mahathir was curious why 1MDB bought the aging Independent Power Producers (IPPs) when the government could wait a few more years and get them “free”. Something is amiss!
15. A power executive who pioneered one of the IPPs not bought by 1MDB said, our IPPs are of the build, own, operate and transfer type. Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) are for 21 years in the case of gas-fired plants and 25 years for coal-fired with the option for an extension of five years. If at the end of the PPA period, the IPPs fail to secure an extension, the plants are transferred to the TNB for a token sum, something like RM100. Some of the IPPs bought by 1MDB have less than seven years of concession period left. The IPPs already recovered their costs and made substantial profits. One source said within seven or eight year they recovered their investment. So selling their plants to 1MDB earned them huge bonuses or extraordinary gains.
16. Why do we need 1MDB as a sovereign fund when we already have Khazanah? For whom is 1MDB? Why should 1MDB’s fund be kept abroad when Mida is working very hard to attract FDI? Why was it so hard for the auditors to approve 1MDB’s accounts if everything was above board?
17. Important Malaysians like Musa should stop taking the people for fools. For the record, Musa could not work with Dr Mahathir and he resigned of his own accord, believing that Umno would beg him to come back and force Dr Mahathir to reject his resignation.
