Bring back Mahathir ? Did you hear it right? Yes, you did, I say bring back Mahathir.
By now Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak should have realised he is surrounded by a bunch of self-preserving and half-cock incompetents. UMNO and BN are on the death throes if Najib doesn't make drastic changes to his trustees in
UMNO and his ministers in the cabinet. He is going to send this half a century old political institution to political oblivion if he doesn't act now to show his boys that he meant business and will take no nonsense approach to his reforms.He needs to change the mindset of the leaders in UMNO and change those who refuses to change or else expect to be changed at the next general elections.
Time and tide wait for no man, do it now, or face a humiliating defeat at the next polls.The powers that be would soon be the power that has been.
The negative public perception makes it difficult for BN to improve its image unless substantial and significant changes are made to the whole BN machinery. Corruptions, high on the list of public grievances have not been dealt with satisfactorily to change public perception.
The MACC, an old wine in new bottle, created under the Abdullah's regime has taken on even worse dose of infamy than its predecessor the ACA. With more power given to them to investigate and prosecute the MACC is like a runaway train. In the court of public opinion it is now seen as a monster and hatchet man for the powers that be. Even if that isn't true, public opinion is firmly galvanised by the mysterious death of Teoh Beng Hock, purportedly under its custody. If the Teoh's inquest can't find the true cause of death than bad politics will continue and public perception of the MACC unchanged.
Public perception is not necessary inaccurate or based on something other than the truth. It is something that can be changed if there is consensus for change.The BN and UMNO in particular need to rejuvenate, need new blood and new ideas. Providing mere lip service without making serious effort to take corrective action is suicidal.BN has lost 5 out of 6 by-elections and if this does not ring the alarm bell than the BN and UMNO might as well close shop now.
Public perception, right or wrong, is the building or stumbling block for any businesses, for any government, politicians and anyone running for public office.
It is now almost a year and a half since the last general elections and what have the BN shown in term of regaining it previous glory.Are the leaders still living in the past?.Obviously so and worse.They have not shown any noteworthy improvement.It is still dog eats dog affair.The Permatang Pasir fiasco is glaring example of promoting member of your clique rather than someone who is more qualified to contest the election, where party interest rather than individual interest should have come first.
A disbarred lawyer, no matter how innocent he claimed he was, should not have been considered as candidate for political office, not that UMNO can win the seat if other untarnished candidate was selected, because morally it's just a bad reflection on the party and its leadership.
It is also obvious that the Prime Minister has started some reforms and made changes in some sensitive areas which might not have gone down well with some leaders in UMNO and BN. Some of the changes might have transgressed the comfort zone of some of these leaders who wanted the status quo to remain for their own benefits and are willing to throw a spanner in the works.
It took Mahathir 22 years to build Malaysia into a fairly respectable economic power house and the envy of less fortunate countries. It took Abdullah Badawi less than 6 years to destroy the political dominance that was built by the Tungku, Razak, Hussein and Mahathir.It may take Najib less than 5 years to send UMNO and the BN into political oblivion if he doesn't act now and get rid of the self-preserving old turkeys in his party.
Maybe, it's time for him to seriously consider bringing back Mahathir as minister mentor and make his position the third most senior minister after the PM and DPM. Mahathir wealth of experience, shrewdness,assertiveness and politically savvy would be a tremendous boost to the revival of UMNO and BN.
Mahathir is still highly respected by majority of Malaysians and is popular with the youth of all races because they see him as a patriarch and a man of steel. His blog is testimonial of his popularity. No other political blog including those of Anwar Ibrahim, Lim Kit Siang and even the Prime Minister have become such a celebrity.He has over 22 million hits since he first started in May 2008.It could be the single individual blog with the biggest hits in this region if not in the whole of Asia.As I do not have any statistic I wouldn't want to speculate that he is the biggest in Asia as far as number of hits are concerned.
Undoubtedly, the return of Mahathir wouldn't be well received by the oppositions.They had a taste of Mahatirism when he was in power.
A kingfisher bird at Sukau, Kinabatangan.
15 comments:
Actually the answer to me is as clear as the sun shines every morning.
And no sir, it is not Mad Hatter. He is not your solution.
Tolong jangan kotorkan nama Mahathir sekadar sudah terdesak, membawanya balik dalam keadaan UMNO nazak umpama menghina beliau.
Biar UMNO itu hancur kerana itulah legasai Abdullah dan anak menantunya.
Biar seluruh Melayu dan Islam ingat bahawa pemusnah UMNO adalah dolah dan najib, mereka sekongkol menjahanamkan UMNO dan Melayu.
Bro HL,..heheh,..apo nak dikato,..memang kebenaran itu menyakitkan,..I seconded ur suggestion,..bring bac Tun M into d govt to stabilized not jst d political turmoil but d economy,..wth Tun M aroun insyaallah I strongly believe Malaysia will b on d rite course again,.. wat else can I say,..heheh,..(,")
Bring back d great Statesman of d Century!! Tun M, we Malaysian needs U!!
http://brobrotherhood.blogspot.com
You are right. With the current leadership, UMNO is destined for political obvilion, sooner rather than later. 7 out of 8 by-election losses are mute testimony to that. And it doesn't help that the 1 victory was in Sarawak.
But, it would be an error of titanic proportions for Mahathir to return.
All it requires is a few good and sensible men to arrest the slide of UMNO.
We have all seen it time and time again in the public and private sectors.
No one is indispensable or irreplaceable!
dp
We ae all of 1 race, the Human Race
You must be joking and out of touch with the ground for suggesting to bring back Mahathir.
How I wish your suggestion is taken by your PM and will have more punching bags in BN/UMNO. The UMNO leaderships will be out of their mind if the old man return now. But if you want to see the groundswell and the demise of UMNO soonest then, bring Mahathir in quickly. I bet you will see the reality!!! for once Mahathir has destroyed the nation and for once love to see him being destroyed.
You ni kejap sokong Tun M, sekejap tak sokong. Sekejap KJ, sekejap tak KJ, Sekejap UMNO, sekejap tak...mana satu ni?
Macam ada had dan hari nya sahaja...
Bro while concerns are legitimate but before the threat level reaches orange we have to step back a little bit and remind ourselves of the statistics of the last March 2008 election:
Parliament seats: BN 140(UMNO 79), PKR 31, DAP 28, PAS 23.
State Seats: BN 307 seats, PAS 83, DAP 73, PKR 40, Bebas 2.
In Parliament BN was only short of 8 seats to achieve 2/3 majority. While BN lost 5 states(now 4 states) it does still have the highest number of state seats.
In the ensuing 8 byelections,:
1. Permatang Pauh Parliament seat – PKR won after its President resigned to allow her husband to contest.
2. Kuala Terengganu Parliament Seat – PAS regained the seat from UMNO after its MP died and BN helped by putting up a hugely unpopular candidate.
3. Bukit Gantang Parliament Seat – PAS won the seat again after its MP died.
4. Batang Ai State Seat – BN won the seat after its ADUN died.
5. Bukit Selambau State Seat – PKR won the seat again after its Adun resigned under “mysterious” circumstances.
6. Penanti State Seat – PKR won again against independents after its Adun and Deputy CM resigned because “he wants to further his studies”.
7. Manek Urai State Seat – PAS won the seat again albeit with a considerably reduced majority after its Adun died.
8. Permatang Pasir State Seat – PAS won the seat again albeit with a slightly reduced majority after its Adun died.
So except for Kuala Terengganu and Batang Ai the other 6 by-elections were actually won in either PKR or PAS dominated area. I think the Pakatan do not have to brag too much about their victories as by-election are won on narrow issues and more local in nature. While some pro pakatan analyst likes to extrapolate the result of the state by-elections and saying that the wind for change of National Government is strong, I think its just a futile exercise of masuk bakul angkat sendiri. By-elections won in one’s own backyard could hardly qualify as a politically earth shattering event unless of course the BN candidates lose their deposit, which will never happen.
However, it is clear that PM Najib’s work is all cut out for him as there are many lessons to be learnt from the by-election defeats and sole victory. No.1 is the candidates for ANY election must be as clean as a whistle with good family background and support. (Maybe try avoid lawyers completely(they should only represent UMNO/BN in the courts) so more Engineers, Doctors, Accountants, Professional Managers, Teachers etc.), No. 2 is no more character assassination in response to PAS,DAP and PKR tactics as voters now are more sophisticated and can judge a candidate on their own. No. 3 BN must just be themselves, the candidates are important but the message that BN can and will deliver stability, security, health care and job opportunities to the constituents must be put through effectively and consistently.
Its too bad that Abdullah retired almost 1 year after the March 2008 election and Najib could only start as PM about 5 months ago. So real reform in UMNO/BN actually started about 5 months ago, I think we should give all the support to Najib and his team to plan and deliver the goods to the nation in time for the next battle royale, the 13th General election. I would not want the nation to fall under the DAP,PKR,PAS Pakatan which has nothing to offer but rhetorics complaints, blaming others and instability with all three parties having different opposing apolitical agendas. Yes of course Najib should take advise not just from his close circle of advisors but also from the UMNO elders in particular Dr Mahathir who took this great nation screaming and kicking out of the agriculture age into the industrial and technological age. Don’t know whether Dr Mahathir will want a ministerial post though, maybe Special Advisor to the PM with Ministerial Credentials so that he too could attend cabinet meetings if required. TQ.
Bro,beyond the byelections, I think the events in the MCA is cause for concern for the BN, yesterday Dr Chua was expelled and I do not think his supporters will take the expulsion lying down and this will cause serious instability in the MCA and by extension the BN and the plans to woo back the Chinese community will be considerably slowed or just wither away until the battle between Dr Chua and Ong Tee Keat is over, but when?
What is it with the MCA, it seems they have a tradition or some sort of a curse where the President and Deputy President is always not in the same picture.
I hope that Dr Chua will appeal the decision and MCA president have the courage to rescind the expulsion order as the misdeed happened early last year and he has paid for it by resigning from the Cabinet and all post in the MCA. He was re-elected as Deputy MCA President this year and that showed that majority MCA members have allowed sleeping dogs to lie.
Besides being MCA Deputy President, Dr Chua was also chosen to be BN Coordinator for states under DAP,PAS and PKR administration. The decision to expel Dr Chua put obstructions in BN plans to retake those states. If MCA permanently expels Dr Chua then who will be BN coordinator? Ong Tee Keat the lone ranger? No, this job need someone who is good at building rapport and consensus. Ong is only good at one up manship.
I hope common sense will prevail and Ong who is stuck in the PKFZ quagmire with Tiong will need PM Najib and other BN leaders to step in as mediator, otherwise the MCA which have already lost a lot of political support from the Chinese community will drift further into despair, rudderless and not knowing where it is going.
KJ! Thats the new UMNO. Pls give him a chance.
HL,
I notice that you are in your element in your Economic articles. However, when it comes to Politics, you let your Heart rule your Head!
Bring back Mahatir...ya rite...Najib is going to do that!
However, what you said about the men surrounding Najib is so true.
All Najib needs to do is "Clean-up" his Cabinet & his subordinates & NOT only in UMNO but in MCA. MIC, PPP, Gerakan & the other BN component parties!
Look what the MCA (& OTK) just did to CSL!
Najib should start by cleaning up UMNO, then getting rid of Soo Khun, Kavyeas & Semi Value! Then get OTK to resign!
Mahatir can be used as a "sounding board" before Najib does anything important. I'm sure the "Old Man" will be happy to give his advice.
Until then...it's good that UMNO & UMNO supporters still say that UMNO is relevant & they are gaining back the support of the Malays & Malaysians...because when the next GE comes they won't know what hit them...HABIS BN bah!
eddy/SM,
I am in the jungles of Borneo right now.Well, no exactly deep deep jungle.
I am at Sukau, Kinabatangan photographing some of Sabah wildlife and didn't have much time to attend to comments on the subject of my idea of Tun Mahathir comeback.Will do this when I am back home.
The good thing is although I am here I still have access to the internet at the eco-resort I am staying.
I have posted one photo I took last night at about 9 pm.
Bye.
Ah???? Bring back Mahathir? This is crazy! The BN got the best results ever in the 2004 election. You must remember that in 1999, it was a near disaster: if the Chinese and Indians had not strongly supported the BN, the results would have been much worse than in the 2008 elections. 1999 was of course the last General Election for Mahathir, and in 2004, the people overwhelmingly voted for the BN, not because they loved Abdullah Badawi, but because they were truly happy that the reign of the aging dictator was over.
Najib isn't a good leader. His unintelligent racist DPM is even worse. But this doesn't mean that we should bring back Mahathir! Please!! What BN needs to do is to reform itself in order to keep up with the times. The sad thing is that neither Najib nor Muhyiddin is capable of doing this.
Mahathir is an old-style leader who will probably make the situation even worse for the PM and his DPM. His help is certainly not needed.
Sulaiman
HL,
Enjoy yourself & don't get bitten by anything!
HL
That shot of the kingfisher - so beautiful it wants to make one cry, doesn't it!!
Well done.
dpp
We ae all o 1 race, the Human race
Bro, time waits for no man. Enjoy while you can. Blogging can wait. Salam Merdeka.
Post a Comment