Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has announced yesterday (Nov 10) that his government would not offer government posts to Mustapa Mohamed, former International Trade and Industry Minister under previous Najib regime and one of UMNO warlords who had jumped ship from the corrupted and racist Malay nationalist party to Mahathir’s Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM).
That is definitely a piece of good news. However, Mahathir’s announcement could be an “afterthought” decision after huge condemnation from the public, especially on social media. If Mustapa is being offered a position now, not only will the 93-year-old premier be mocked and insulted, but he would certainly be accused of bribing Mustapa with posts to defect.
Still, that doesn’t mean Mahathir will not change his mind later. Already, his decision to welcome Mr. Mustapa into PPBM is a joke. Prior to Mustapa’s admission to his party, the old man had said that UMNO MPs can only join PPBM if they quit UMNO first to be independent MPs, and there will be acooling off period, not to mention it’s not a guarantee they would be accepted.
Mahathir made it sound like PPBM is a very exclusive club. Yet, one month after Mustapa quit UMNO after serving loyally for 40 years, he was accepted by Mahathir with open arms. So, is 1-month the standard period for UMNO MPs, whom most were crooks, to cleanse themselves of past corruptions and sins before they are considered fit for admission to Mahathir’s club?
Subsequently 2 weeks ago, Kadir Jasin, the media and communication adviser in the Prime Minister Office, dropped a bombshell – up to 40 UMNO MPs(Member of Parliament) were ready to jump ship, presumably to Mahathir’s PPBM party. UMNO currently has 48 MPs left, therefore, at least 8 of the MPs are too toxic and dirty to be interviewed to be crews of Mahathir’s ship.
The revelation by Mr. Kadir has raised millions of eyebrows for obvious reason. The idea of accepting UMNO crooks into the new government was already bad enough. And after fighting tooth and nail kicking out the evil UMNO, all Mahathir could think of to rebuild the nation is to welcome all those thieves, crooks and even perverts or rapists back to the new government? Has he gone senile?
Yes, it appears perverts or rapists such as Shahidan Kassim would be one of UMNO 40 thieves that Mahathir has no problem accepting. The coffee shop talks have it that with the exception of Zahid Hamidi, Annuar Musa, Nazri Aziz, Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim, Khairy Jamaluddin, Tajuddin Rahman and of course, Najib Razak, everyone from UMNO is welcomed.
Actually, the naughty Kadir Jasin was merely testing water when he threw the cat among the pigeons. He deliberately dropped the bombshell because his boss Mahathir wanted to assess the response from UMNO leadership and its 48 MPs. More importantly, Mahathir wanted to see the reaction from PKR President Anwar Ibrahim, or at least his proxies or lieutenants.
Anwar was wise not to take the bait and swallowed the hook, line and sinker. The premier-in-waiting cleverly played down the claims of 40 UMNO MPs jumping ship, saying he has faith in the Pakatan Harapan coalition government. He knew it was a provocation from Mahathir’s camp to see if he would repeat his 1998 stunt – making his move to topple PM Mahathir again.
After massive public backlash over PPBM’s dumb idea of accepting up to 40 thieves from UMNO, Mahathir’s son – Mukhriz – stepped forward and clarified (or rather damage-control) that only Mustapa Mohamed was welcome to join his daddy’s Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia, but any other UMNO member will have to go through a vetting process.
Mukhriz conveniently justified that there was nothing wrong in accepting the 40 UMNO frogs, simply because there are no laws that restrict MPs from changing parties. Exactly who does Mr. Mukhriz try to hoodwink? Unable to convince the people who were increasingly getting frustrated with the idea of forgiving the UMNO crooks, Mahathir came out with a rather silly excuse.
In his attempt to further justify admission of UMNO MPs into his party to make it the dominant party in the Pakatan Harapan coalition, essentially making the PPBM a new version of UMNO, PM Mahathir said last week that not everyone was “wrong”, adding that some deserved a chance to join the ruling coalition.
Mahathir shrugged off critics who said Mustapa was part of crooked Najib Razak’s Cabinet, and who had concerns that he could be linked to the 1MDB scandal. Mahathir defended Mustapa – “Even when he was in Najib’s Cabinet, he used to come and see me. He was not happy, but he was afraid. A lot of people were afraid. I was also scared of him.”
That was the silliest defence from Mahathir over his recruitment of Mustapa. What good of a senior minister such as Mustapa if he had no courage whatsoever to criticise, or at least comment, about Najib’s looting or plundering of national coffers? Exactly why Mahathir happily accepted someone who had preferred to “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” is beyond comprehension.
Perhaps Mahathir has a very low requirement in his hiring – even a coward is acceptable as long as he never mocked or insulted the old man in the past. Today, he said it was the policy of the Pakatan Harapan government not to offer posts for a certain period of time to any former UMNO leader. But what is this so-called “probation period” before they can hold any posts?
Mahathir Mohamad said his party will only admit former UMNO members who have proven to have repented. He also said they should eliminate their “cash is king” attitude. After 61 years living like a parasite, is it even possible for the UMNO crooks to repent? Just exactly how the great Mahathir plans to measure and certify that a UMNO member has genuinely repented?
Can the infamous “kerisman” Hishammuddin Hussein, the cousin of crooked Najib Razak, automatically becomes a good guy if he manages to bring Najib’s partner-in-crime Jho Low back from China? After years of brandishing his dagger against non-Muslims, can the racist Hishammuddin be forgiven and allowed to keep all his treasure and fortune accumulated through decades of corruption?
What is Mahathir’s measurement of a “clean” UMNO MP, if such human even exist in the first place in the corrupted party? Considering that Najib and his wife Rosmah could have stolen and stashed over RM100 billion in foreign bank accounts, as alleged by Sarawak Report, will Mahathir therefore accept UMNO MPs who had stolen 1 billion ringgit only (that’s merely 1% as corrupt as Najib)?
How about UMNO MPs like Ismail Sabri Yaakob, Mahdzir Khalid, Noh Omar, Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, Azalina Othman, Ahmad Maslan, Anifah Aman or Bung Mokhtar, just to name a few, who were all Najib’s biggest bootlickers and had been supporting the ex-Thief-in-Chief’s 1MDB scandal, before the previous Barisan Nasional government was defeated on May 9th?
Heck, even Hasan Arifin, the disgraced former PAC (Public Accounts Committee) chairman who admitted to deleting parts of the 1MDB report to cover up his boss Najib, might get to enter Mahathir’s club. Mr. Hasan is the same guy who foolishly shot his own foot when he said he was merely “cari makan (earning a living)”, when he disclosed it was not necessary to call PM Najib Razak to testify before the PAC.
Obviously, it was a wishful thinking when Mahathir said his party – PPBM – won’t allow hostile takeover by ex-UMNO members. He should know that all the 40 UMNO thieves are incapable of repentance. All the crooked UMNO MPs, however, are capable of stealing and plundering again if Mahathir naively allows them to abuse the system – riding the PPBM or Pakatan Harapan gravy train.
FINANCE TWITTER
Source | https://malaysiansmustknowthetruth.blogspot.com/2018/11/mahathir-anything-but-naive-political.html
Most View Article This Month !