Written by John Berthelsen
WED,20 AUGUST 2014
Former
premier lists specific reasons for his withdrawal of support for serving PM
As long as two to three
months before former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad publicly attacked his
successor, Najib Tun Razak, through his blog, the former premier sent Najib a
letter bristling with a list of demands to change his ways.
Mahathir’s irritation
has sputtered behind the scenes since before the disastrous May 2013 general
election, in which the ruling Barisan Nasional lost the popular vote for the
first time in 44 years although it retained its majority in parliament via
gerrymandering. Since that time, bloggers deployed by Mahathir have made
general attacks on the sitting prime minister, who took office in 2009 with Mahathir’s
approval.
But for the first time
he personally criticized Najib in his blog, Che Det, saying on Aug. 16
that he had withdrawn support. The campaign against Najib has been
mounted now in advance of the November United Malays National Organization
general assembly, where it appears Najib has an unassailable position as party
president.
Mahathir was scheduled
to leave tonight for London, where Najib and his wife Rosmah Mansor have been
for the past several days after a holiday that began three weeks ago after
Najib’s speech to families of the doomed MH17 airliner, which was brought down
by a rocket over disputed territory in Ukraine on July 17.
In the letter to Najib,
quoted to Asia Sentinel by
a businessman with links to UMNO, Mahathir reportedly listed seven demands.
Najib is said to have dispatched Tengku Adnan Tenku Mansor, the
secretary-general of the United Malays National Organization, to see Mahathir,
asking him to withdraw the letter. Mahathir refused, however, sources
say. In the intervening weeks, nothing has happened.
Since Mahathir’s attack,
the story has been playing out behind the scenes of the mainstream media, which are controlled by the
political parties that make up the national ruling coalition. They have gone
black, carrying only praise for Najib without mentioning Mahathir’s assault.
Instead, the papers have merely included statements of support for Najib from
leaders such as Foreign Minister Hishamuddin Hussein and others without
mentioning the reason the support is needed.
Meanwhile the story has
lit up the Internet, with independent news portals having a field day while
Mahathir’s blogger allies including Rocky’s Bru, Outsyed the Box and others
have defended him.
The demands listed in
the letter included one that Najib reform the controversial 1MDB sovereign
fund, which is deeply in debt after having funded a long string of
controversial projects. It is said to be a major scandal sizzling out of sight
and involving controversial Chinese playboy Taek Jho Low and Najib’s wife, Rosmah
Mansor.
The octogenarian former
premier also complained that not enough contracts let by Petronas, the national
energy company, were going to build up Bumiputeras, mostly ethnic Malays, but
instead were being let to more neutral parties. At one point in
October of 2013, Mahathir actually resigned from Petronas, saying his doctors
had advised him to slow down. But the real reason is said to have been his
anger with Najib’s performance.
He also accused Najib of
being too friendly with foreign governments including the United States over
the bid to join President Barack Obama’s TransPacific Partnership Agreement
free trade pact, andSingapore for bending to Singapore’s wishes and
cancelling a controversial crooked bridge between the two countries over the
Singapore Strait. He was also said to be miffed that Mahathir’s immediate
successor, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, attended a dinner with Obama during the
latter’s Malaysia visit
but that he wasn’t invited.
He also objected to the
so-called one-off BRIM cash handouts that the government announced to
households making less than RM3,000 (US$847) per month in 2012 as an election
sweetener to alleviate the burden of a rising cost of living for low-income
earners, saying it was breaking thebudget.
It ended up costing the treasury as much as RM4 billion.
He demanded that
Malaysia Airlines, which is 70 percent owned by the Khazanah
Nasional sovereign fund, be turned over to the private sector to attempt to
right it after two disastrous crashes that took the lives of more than 500
people and which is almost moribund, losing billions of dollars. The private
sector is said to be Syed Mokhtar al-Bukhairy, a longtime Mahathir crony who
became the country’s richest Bumi tycoon, largely through government contracts.
Finally, Mahathir
criticized Najib over the breakdown in racial and religious relations in the country,
which have grown progressively more poisonous by the year. That seems to
be a striking obtuseness on Mahathir’s part, since he has backed the
Malay-supremacy NGO Perkasa, headed by firebrand Ibrahim Ali, and has made
incendiary statements about racial superiority on his own. Prior to the 2013
general election, he sought to lead a major rally on May 13, the anniversary of
1969 communal riots that took the lives of hundreds. Najib forced
the cancellation of the rally.
Allies say Mahathir’s
aim is not to bring down Najib, but to apply enough pressure to force him into
making deep changes in the way the government is being run. However, at the age
of 89, having been out of power since 2003, and with few remaining allies in
UMNO, it is questionable at this point how much clout he still has.
However, he has a
formidable record, having forced the ouster of Tunku Abdul Raman and Hussein
Onn as prime ministers before his own 22 year period in office, beat
back challenges by UMNO stalwarts Tengku Razaleigh, the Finance Minister, and both Musa Hitam and Anwar Ibrahim as his deputy
prime ministers, all of whom attempted to unseat him, and then forced the
departure of the successor he picked, Abdullah Badawi. He is expected to
mount a daunting campaign against Najib when the two return from overseas.
Source: http://www.asiasentinel.com/politics/mahathir-case-najib-detailed/
No comments:
Post a Comment