The New New Umno
As a Malay and not a member of any political party, I can practically hear DAP’s Hew Kuan Yau laughing himself silly as his urging of ‘Malay screw Malay’ happened in front of his eyes though it is admittedly not exclusively his fault that this happened.
A H Azman
New government. Old heads. New administration. Old style politics.
That’s Pakatan Harapan. To give context to current developments.
Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and gang encapsulates these things clearly. As the head of the new government, he leads it by age and experience with support from other veterans chiefly Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, Mat Sabu, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s family and the father-son duo of Lim Kit Siang and Lim Guan Eng.
It is sad that it takes two ex-UMNO leaders to take down their previous party which co-incidentally happened during UMNO’s anniversary.
You and I know why they did so and the impact on the Malays at this point in time is muted, probably because everybody is absorbing Pakatan’s win in the just-concluded 14th general elections.
And no opponent of UMNO will be more delighted and ecstatic but for the DAP who for so long fought Mahathir and Anwar not too long ago and to see it happen on the day UMNO was founded, of all dates.
Dr Mahathir is fooling no one especially those steeped in political historical knowledge when he said ‘we will not seek revenge, we will restore rule of law.’
The enmity between him and Datuk Seri Najib had passed the point of no return when his grouses were disregarded and followed by his throwing away UMNO membership and established PPBM together with Muhyiddin and others.
The need for revenge but meshed with restoring rule of law is clearly seen as an attempt to silence majority opposition seats held by UMNO with pressure towards RoS in regard to the legality of the extension to UMNO’s leadership contest period.
As a Malay and not a member of any political party, I can practically hear DAP’s Hew Kuan Yau laughing himself silly as his urging of ‘Malay screw Malay’ happened in front of his eyes though it is admittedly not exclusively his fault that this happened.
What next? There already is talk about Najib is to be arrested and put to trial for alleged crimes in the issue of 1MDB and the RM2.6 billion donation. If that happened, Najib will follow Anwar as the second high-profile leader to be ‘in the dock’ during Mahathir’s reign, this time just after the people voted.
This ‘we are restoring rule of law’ line, however, just distracts from what Pakatan is supposed to deliver.
The attraction to really put the boot in against their faltering foe is at an all time high after all the years of living under the shadows of BN rule. All in Pakatan Harapan now with new members of PPBM and PAN, have an axe to grind against either UMNO and/or Najib.
What better time to do that than now, ironically spearheaded by Mahathir and Anwar with new buddies, Kit Siang, Guan Eng et al.
Nevertheless, fake news or not, there are already burgeoning allegations that need to be clarified or explained by Pakatan Harapan.
There are reports that the new state rulers in Perak and Johor had started to lock Kemas offices and that UiTM has already been ordered to open the institution to all races so will no longer be a Bumiputera-only entity.
All in all however, Pakatan has put themselves on the spot with a 100 days test with abolishing GST and PTPTN debt among the early targets. Those promises are the ones the voters want them to be solved immediately, surely.
I don’t know whether I want to see another round of political persecution ala Anwar. Instead, we want the new government to focus on their promises and reduced politicking so the country can move on to other matters including making sure the economy stay on an upward momentum.
Malaysians are counting on positive leadership not revenge politics. Pakatan Harapan is supposed to represent a new and better political culture.
Or is it all of them who want revenge?
