It is very perplexing that Lim Kit Siang wants Dr Mahathir, Musa and Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to take over from Najib and jointly run the country when much of the ills of this country — racism and religious extremism included — are due to these people. How can we propose the problem as the solution?
(The Malaysian Insider, 12 July 2015) – “He has struck a good chord with the public and has become a popular hero overnight because he has taken on issues that have touched the hearts and minds of the people,” Musa told The Malaysian Insider in an exclusive interview recently.
“He is a lifetime critic of any government that does not conform to his mould.”
Musa also described Dr Mahathir as a “political terminator” who had successfully brought down two prime ministers and deputy prime ministers, including himself.
Dr Mahathir was responsible for the resignation of first prime minster Tunku Abdul Rahman after the racial riots on May 13, 1969, and Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, the nation’s fifth prime minister after the 2008 general election where Barisan Nasional failed to retain its super majority in the Dewan Rakyat.
Former deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who held office between 1993 and 1998, was sacked for corruption and alleged sexual misconduct.
“This is the third prime minister (Najib) that he is going after and I think he is going to succeed, one way or another,” Musa said, adding that Dr Mahathir’s guru is Sun Tzu, the famous 6th century Chinese military strategist and philosopher who authored the book on warfare.
“Dr Mahathir is brilliant and supremely confident of himself in politics.”
Musa said even before the 1MDB issue cropped up, he told Najib that Dr Mahathir was already uncomfortable with him.
“It has come to a situation where a plan was hatched on how to get Najib out,” he said. He added that he had also advised Najib to be firm, rational and decisive in running the government to stop Dr Mahathir.
Musa said Najib could not be voted out as party president, and this was due to Dr Mahathir’s own doing. “Dr Mahathir has made it impossible for party members to remove Najib as party president because he ensured it could not happen,” he added.
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On 12th July 2015, The Malaysian Insider published a very interesting interview by Tun Musa Hitam that more or less confirms what I have been saying this last month or so.
Most importantly is that the plot to oust Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak was mooted before the 1MDB crisis exploded onto the Malaysian scene. This confirms what I said earlier: that the 1MDB issue is the excuse rather than the reason why Dr Mahathir wants Najib out.
Dr Mahathir needed an excuse to go after Najib and the 1MDB issue offered itself as the most convenient and viable excuse. It was something that would gel with the people and, as Musa said, Dr Mahathir “struck a good chord with the public and has become a popular hero overnight because he has taken on issues that have touched the hearts and minds of the people.”
If it had not been 1MDB it would have been something else. In fact, at first, in 2013, Dr Mahathir made his move on Najib on grounds of the poor 2013 general election performance when he accused the Prime Minister of giving in to the Chinese while not getting their votes.
Dr Mahathir said if they want to save Umno then they must get rid of Najib. Hence getting rid of Najib is not about abuse of power or corruption but to make sure that the Malays do not lose political power.
Then it shifted to Najib being too soft with Singapore and giving in to Singapore’s demands. Dr Mahathir said he does not know what Singapore has on Najib and why he bends to Singapore by refusing to build the Crooked Bridge.
So the goalposts were shifted many times. Even the 1MDB issue has shifted from RM42 billion disappearing into thin air to part of that disappearing into thin air and now to RM2.6 billion of 1MDB’s money being banked into Najib’s personal bank accounts.
The latest salvo is about Najib being implicated in the polymer bank notes scandal between 1999 and 2004. But then Najib was neither the Finance Minister nor the Prime Minister during that time. Dr Mahathir was (with Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi towards the end). Najib became Finance Minister in September 2008 and Prime Minister in April 2009.
Musa suggested that Najib takes leave while the Special Task Force investigates 1MDB. That was exactly what Musa did when he sulked (merajuk) — he left the government. But Najib is not about to sulk or bend to Dr Mahathir’s demand that he leaves.
Musa’s problem with Dr Mahathir was regarding Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah. Musa wanted Dr Mahathir to sack Tengku Razaleigh but Dr Mahathir would not. Instead, Dr Mahathir demoted Tengku Razaleigh from Finance Minister to Trade and Industry Minister. And this hurt Musa’s feelings. So he sulked and resigned as Deputy Prime Minister.
Dr Mahathir said that anyone who hides a crime and does not come forward to report a crime is equally guilty of that crime. Recently, Musa revealed that Dr Mahathir was not in China during the Memali incident as earlier claimed but was actually in his office in Malaysia.
What was reported to Parliament at that time, therefore, was false and both Musa and Dr Mahathir are guilty of this crime of lying to Parliament and of misleading the nation about one of the bloodiest episodes of Dr Mahathir’s rule.
It is very perplexing that Lim Kit Siang wants Dr Mahathir, Musa and Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to take over from Najib and jointly run the country when much of the ills of this country — racism and religious extremism included — are due to these people. How can we propose the problem as the solution?
I suppose when someone who was touted as Selangor’s most corrupt Menteri Besar is now called a patriot just because he joined the opposition then anything can happen in Malaysian politics that believes in marriages of convenience and in the ends justifying the means.
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Raja Petra Kamarudin
