Umno kena mandi air bunga untuk buang sweh

Anyway, maybe the way to “mandi air bunga” and “buang sweh” would be to just let the RoS close down Umno (the RoS and the MACC are currently working on this even as you read this). Then Mahathir’s “Umno Baru” can dikuburkan and Tun Hussein Onn’s “Umno Malaysia” can be reactivated, as what they originally intended in 1988.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

I was there: when Umno “Lama” was declared illegal and when Umno “Baru” was registered. In fact, I was in Deputy Prime Minister Tun Ghafar Baba’s office during all these goings-on and even witnessed the new party constitution being drafted.

This was how and why all this happened.

When Tun Razak Hussein died in January 1976 in London, Tun Hussein Onn took over as Prime Minister. He then wanted to appoint Tun Ghazali Shafie a.k.a. “King Ghaz” as his new Deputy Prime Minister.

But then Tun Ghazali was not an Umno Vice President. The three Umno VPs were Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah (Ku Li), Tun Ghafar Baba, and Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (in that order of priority based on vote score). So, according to convention, Tun Hussein must choose his new deputy from amongst one of the three Umno VPs.

Ghazali Shafie a.k.a. ‘King Ghaz” and not Mahathir was supposed to be the Deputy Prime Minister in 1976

Ku Li declined the post because he wanted to focus on managing Petronas, implement the New Economic Policy (NEP), etc. So, the post should have gone to Tun Ghafar. But Tun Ghafar did not have the right educational credentials. Hence it fell to the VP in third place, Dr Mahathir.

Ku Li told Tun Hussein to give the job to Mahathir and that when Mahathir goes up to become Prime Minister he (Ku Li) would become Mahathir’s Deputy Prime Minister. Ku Li and Mahathir shook hands on the deal.

Five years later, in 1981, Tun Hussein resigned and handed the PM’s post to Mahathir. Mahathir, however, refused to appoint Ku Li as his deputy as agreed in 1976. Mahathir said he will let the party decide so Ku Li would have to “fight for the post”.

So, back in 1981, Mahathir had already proven he does not honour agreements — even if they are legally signed (like in the 5% oil royalty case).

In 1976, Mahathir promised Ku Li the DPM’s post but backed Musa Hitam instead in 1981

Tun Musa Hitam decided to give Ku Li a run for his money and threw his hat into the ring. The Umno members, however, favoured Ku Li over Musa. When the press asked Mahathir who of the two he favoured, he replied he will leave it to the party to choose, but if he was asked to choose he would personally choose Musa.

Musa, the number two in the race, suddenly became the number one. Mahathir had endorsed him so many who were pro-Ku Li turned pro-Musa — hence Musa won. In the second round, Musa won again, and Ku Li was punished by demoting him from Finance Minister to Trade and Industry Minister.

Musa wanted Mahathir to sack Ku Li and not just demote him. When Mahathir refused to sack Ku Li (because then Musa would become too strong), Musa got angry and resigned as Deputy Prime Minister and Ghafar was appointed to replace him.

Mahathir closed down Umno in 1988 to get rid of Ku Li and now will close down Umno again to get rid of Najib Razak

Ku Li then decided to challenge Mahathir for the Umno Presidency while Musa wanted to take on Ghafar (not sure why since he was already the number two in the first place). Unknown to Ku Li, Mahathir had planted some illegal delegates in the AGM so that if he loses he can use this to declare the party elections “tak sah”.

It is said Ku Li actually won the party elections but there was some cheating going on and Ku Li ended up losing. The late MGG Pillai, in fact, wrote about this matter many times and explained, in great detail, how the cheating was done.

Anyway, some Umno members found out about the planted delegates and went to court to get the party elections declared “tak sah” so that new party elections could be held. This time Ku Li was going to win because they would be on the alert regarding the cheating. Hence Mahathir could not afford to allow for new party elections to be held.

Mahathir then told the RoS to get Umno declared “tak sah” instead (not get just the party elections declared “tak sah”). Hence Umno was wound up and no longer existed.

Hussein Onn tried to register “Umno Malaysia” in 1988 but the name was rejected by the RoS

Tun Hussein then took the initiative to apply to register a new party — called “Umno Malaysia”. When Mahathir found out, he asked Ghafar to also quickly register a new party — called “Umno Baru”. They needed the “Umno” in the name of the new party to be able to get back the Umno “Lama” assets worth billions (some estimates put it at RM50-100 billion).

The “Umno Baru” application was submitted two weeks AFTER the “Umno Malaysia” application but the RoS rejected “Umno Malaysia” in favour of “Umno Baru” on the excuse that the Umno name had “already been taken”. So “Umno Malaysia” was then changed to “Semangat 46”.

When Umno Baru was formed, they brought in all those old Umno members (about two-thirds of the members of the old Umno) but refused to allow the “Team B” leaders and supporters into the new party — who were then forced to go and join Semangat 46. The billions in cash and assets from the old Umno were then transferred to Umno Baru (not a single ringgit was transferred to Semangat 46).

In 1969, the Tunku said Malaysia is doomed if Mahathir ever becomes Prime Minister and in 1990 he cursed Umno Baru and refused to join the party until the day he died

So that was why Umno Baru was formed. First, to get rid of Ku Li and his “Team B” supporters. Second was to grab Umno’s cash and assets worth billions. It had nothing to do with the interest of the rakyat.

Tunku Abdul Rahman and Tun Hussein refused to join Umno Baru. Tun Hussein stayed out of the whole thing and focused instead on his eye hospital while Tunku Abdul Rahman joined Semangat 46 and swore he would never join Umno Baru until the day he dies.

In the 1990 general election, Tunku Abdul Rahman campaigned for Semangat 46 and sumpah (cursed) Mahathir and Umno Baru. The Tunku said as long as Mahathir is in Umno then both Malaysia and Umno are cursed.

It is time for Umno 2.0 to be put to sleep and for Umno 3.0 to be born

Since 1988, Umno and Malaysia have been cursed with one problem after another. Umno kena mandi air bunga to buang sweh. Its feng shui is so bad that 30 years after 1988 Umno got wiped out by the DAP-led Pakatan Harapan.

Finally, the Tunku’s prediction came true when he said Umno will one day die at the hands of Mahathir. Yes, in 1990 the Tunku said Umno will die at the hands of Mahathir and in May 2018 Umno did die at the hands of Mahathir. The Tunku also said, 50 years ago in 1969, that Malaysia is doomed if Mahathir ever becomes Prime Minister. Is Malaysia doomed?

Anyway, maybe the way to “mandi air bunga” and “buang sweh” would be to just let the RoS close down Umno (the RoS and the MACC are currently working on this even as you read this). Then Mahathir’s “Umno Baru” can dikuburkan and Tun Hussein Onn’s “Umno Malaysia” can be reactivated, as what they originally intended in 1988.

Umno mati ditangan “Bunga”