Dr M more democratic than Najib? Hogwash, minister says

(Malay Mail Online) –  Claims that Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was a more democratic prime minister and Umno president than Datuk Seri Najib Razak is misleading and incorrect, federal minister Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak has said.

Salleh was responding to former Umno deputy president Tun Musa Hitam, who said yesterday that even Dr Mahathir did not ban him from speaking at the Umno general assembly back in 1986 despite the bad blood between them at the time.

“The impression Musa is trying to create is that Dr Mahathir is more democratic than Prime Minister Najib Razak.  That is a misinterpretation of events. It is not that Tun Dr Mahathir did not want to silence Tun Musa.

“It is that Tun Dr Mahathir was worried of silencing him because Tun Musa and his Team B had the support of 50 per cent of Umno and if Tun Dr Mahathir had tried to silence him this would have backfired and would worked in Tun Musa’s favour and would have helped him gain more support,” Salleh wrote in a blog post last night.

The minister said that Dr Mahathir did eventually silence Musa by forming “Umno Baru” and blocking the former Umno deputy and his supporters from joining the new party.

“So, since Tun Dr Mahathir could not silence his critics in Umno, he formed a new Umno and left all his critics outside the party where they eventually had to form their own party, Semangat 46. Tun Musa and the Team B supporters then alleged that the Registrar of Societies need not have de-registered Umno since the offence was very minor and did not require such drastic punishment as de-registration of the party,” Salleh added.

He also claimed that Musa had in the past opposed Dr Mahathir because the former PM “does not respect democracy and does not allow freedom of speech.”

Dr Mahathir has criticised Umno’s decision to disallow deputy president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin from speaking at next week’s general assembly, saying that Umno is no longer the party he once knew as its members are not allowed to speak out even outside of party elections.