Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Mahathir:This Is "My Way"


Hantu Laut

I am not a member of UMNO or any political party, nor am I a supporter of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

I used to admire our former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad for some of the good things he had done to this country.A man who is truly an embodiment of 'the end justifies the means'.He would do what he feels strongly about even at the expense of personal liberty of others, so long as he gets his way.A man you either love or hate.A man who wouldn't give up a fight and will take it to the end, right or wrong.

His falling out with the present Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi over the shelving of some of his grandiose projects have now reached the end of the road and one that can culminate to a destructive political conflicts that will put UMNO to the test again, to stay united under Abdullah or split down the middle for the two men.The last time it happened was the power struggle between Tengku Razaleigh and him that ended up UMNO being declared an unlawful society by the court and the breaking up of the party and emergence of a breakaway party, Semangat 46 under Razaleigh and the reincarnation of UMNO under him.

At the time there were no other strong oppositions prevailing to challenge the ruling coalition.Now,the opportunistic Anwar and his Pakatan Rakyat are waiting in the wings to seize any opportunity to take over the government.

After a long period of frustrating campaign to remove Abdullah from office of prime minister, Mahathir has not gotten any where nearer his goal.Provoking Najib to stage a coup has not worked either.Calling Najib a coward to spur him to take on Abdullah has not brought him the desired result.The man is now at his wits end on what to do or deal with his burning desire to get rid of the man whom he personally chose as his successor and prime minister of this nation.

If his intention is to arouse senior party members to act against Abdullah and bring him down as prime minister and president of the party, it may disappoint him again as all those at the top would have a lot to lose, personally, if UMNO loses its grip on power.At this point of time the grassroots in the party is irrelevant, only the BN members of parliament can remove him as prime minister, or a mixture of BN and PR members if there were insufficient numbers from the BN that are prepared to be disloyal to him.To think a spontaneous revolt in the party would materialise is like clutching at the straws, it wouldn't happen.

Mahathir is not a man who would be prepared to eat the humble pie and accepts the fact that he is equally responsible and to blame for his poor judgement of Abdullah's character, or was it his selection of Abdullah was based on his assumption that Abdullah is of a complaint nature and will obey him, which fits well into his agenda for the continuation of all his pet projects, or did he expects Abdullah to be grateful for the appointment and would do every thing he says?

Being a prime minister for 22 years Mahathir should know the democratic process more than anyone else in this country.He should know that Abdullah was duly elected by the people and should be allowed to serve his time.He should only be removed by a democratic process in an election or a vote of no confidence against his leadership in parliament.

It appears that Mahathir has failed his gift of the gab and is now prepared to throw down the gauntlet even at the expense of destroying UMNO to get rid of Abdullah and put Najib at the helm.His clarion call for senior party leaders, ministers and deputy ministers to leave UMNO is execrable and undignified.

Although I don't subscribe to Abdullah's style of leadership, I still believe we should allow the democratic process to take its course.

Mahathir resignation from UMNO is a strategy to weaken Abdullah's already vulnerable position and starts a revolt in the party. Is he likely to succeed in his attempt to get UMNO senior leaders to follow him? Can Abdullah take the risk of calling a fresh election?

Mahathir is not short of controversies, this is the second time he is out of UMNO, the first was in 1969 when he was sacked from the party for going against the first Prime Minister Tengku Abdul Rahman.His tussle for the UMNO presidency against Tengku Razaleigh in 1987 divided the party.His conflict with his deputy Musa Hitam ended with Musa resignation as deputy prime minister.The sacking of another deputy, Anwar Ibrahim in 1998 culminated in massive street demonstrations in the capital city and the sending of Anwar to prison on charges of corruption and sodomy.

Most of the top leaders may not pay attention to the call of the clarion but at the middle and grassroots level the story may differ from the top.A fresh election is an option too risky to take at this moment.

The good question now is would Mukhriz follows in his father's footstep?If he does, that would be one less MP for UMNO and the BN.

13 comments:

Monsterball said...

In UMNO, incumbency is almost everything. If you are out of a position, you have almost no power and influence.
So I doubt many, even his son will follow. Mukhriz has no intention of handing the UMNO Youth opportunity to KJ on a platter.

I think Mahathir is doing something good for the country, hahahaha, but maybe not in the way he would intend it to be.

Malays will remain dominant politically in this country - there is no other way, and the non-Bumis are just asking for fairer treatment. But UMNO may well be seeing its days as the governing party nearing the end.

Meiyen said...

If Mukhriz is his father's son, he should have resigned without hesitation as soon as Mahathir made his announcement!

This shows he is as power hungry as his father and is sitting on the fence, watching all that is happening , before making his jump, to the side that favors him the most.

Raizzèn said...

Pemuda AMNO ?

I thought that was some pre-historic fossils from those old days.

Sorry for straying off the topic. Just that my favorite subject was History, but thats a whole another story.

Haih, Che Det, Che Det, he's at it again. Dramas again. The move, I'd say would not benefit him as much as it would benefit the PR.

Cheers.

Anonymous said...

yes sir...no balls since zaman tdm

Ted Torrence said...

Someone tipped me off that ..

Raja Petra Kamarudin is a Commoner ..

Q1: How come Raja Kamarudin has TWO GRANDFATHERS ie. Raja Uda and Sultan Musa?
Q2: Why he refused to answer such questions posted in his own site (Malaysia-Today.net)?

A: Sultan Musa is NOT his grandfather! More Here [ http://thexstories.blogspot.com/2008/05/raja-petra-kamarudin-is-commoner-i.html ]

gram.kong said...

kittykat,
Mahathir should bite the bullet.He made the mistake, so be it.

His anger towards Abdullah is not for the nation, is more for himself and his pet projects which Abdullah shelved.

His beating of the war drum against Abdullah is has become a personal vendetta, certainly not in the interests of the Malays,UMNO or the nation.

I used to admire the man before but I have changed my mind now, after what he was trying to do.

He thinks he is indispensible and has become selfish and unreasonable.

gram.kong said...

meiyen,

Agreed.He should have since he has asked Abdullah to step down.

A person should resign his/her position the moment he can't give full support or loyalty to the boss, be it in politics or business.

gram.kong said...

pemuda umno,

Jika BN boleh buat sebegitu, apa tak lagi PR, parti baru yang terburu-buru.

Pembelian ahli parlimen dari BN tidak akan munchul seperti yang didakwa oleh Anwar Ibrahim.Itu hanya stratagem Anwar sahaja.

I have visited your blog.Congratulations.Welcome to the blogging world and maybe a good chance to redeem yourself.

gram.kong said...

raizzen,
What Mahathir did may have the opposite effect, it could have drawn more sympathy for Abdullah and himself an object of ridicule.

gram.kong said...

hsh emperorx,

We all have two grandfathers, one maternal and the other paternal.We need these two to screw our grandmothers to get our parents.

Anonymous said...

I am a chinese borned in Malaysia and I have always admired and loved TDM. Now I am totally disguised with the way he played the race card again after telling all of us that they is only one Malaysia for all under the sun.
TDM you can go to HELL and rot there!

Yellow Dragon

gram.kong said...

anonymous,
I understand your anger, it's unbecoming for an ex PM to use the racial card to get the Malays to rally behind him.

Haughty Mahathir used the racial card to rile up the Malays to go against Abdullah.His objective is to demolish Abdullah by inciting the Malays to believe that their rights and 'ketuanan Melayu' have been eroded under Abdullah's administration.

Anonymous said...

can someone please check the mental state of Madir?

Has he senile or something like that?