Abdullah dan Najib

1. Kita di beritahu oleh Dato Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi bahawa dia dan Dato Seri Najib Tun Razak telah bersetuju dengan peralihan kuasa. Tetapi tidak pula disebut bila tarikh itu.

2. Najib pula berkata dia mahu kuasa (Presiden UMNO dan Perdana Menteri) diserah kepadanya diwaktu parti dan Kerajaan berada dalam keadaan sihat walafiat sepertimana yang kononnya pengganti Presiden dan Perdana Menteri dahulu semuanya menerima peralihan kuasa apabila parti dan Kerajaan sudah dipulihkan dan berada dalam keadaan sihat.

3. Sebenarnya semasa saya mengambilalih daripada Tun Hussein Onn ekonomi negara sedang merosot. Sebab itu langkah pertama yang diambil oleh saya ialah memotong gaji Menteri, Timbalan Menteri dan pegawai tinggi sebanyak 10%.

4. Saya mengambil masa hampir tiga tahun untuk pulih semula ekonomi negara.

5. Keadaan UMNO pun lebih kurang sahaja. Tidak lama selepas itu Timbalan saya letak jawatan dan mencabar saya.

6. Tunku Abdul Rahman dan Tun Razak juga mengambilalih parti dan Kerajaan semasa keadaan tidak begitu sihat; Tunku selepas Dato Onn Jaafar keluar dari UMNO dan Tun Razak setelah rusuhan kaum berlaku dan Perikatan tidak bermaya.

7. Harapan Najib dia hanya akan terima jawatan Presiden dan Perdana Menteri di atas talam perak (silver platter) adalah alasan supaya dia tidak perlu bertanding pada Disember ini untuk jawatan Presiden. Mengetahui sifat suka senang Dato Seri Najib, Dato Seri Abdullah telah janji untuk melepas kuasa pada tarikh yang tidak ditentukan. Sekaligus Dato Seri Abdullah berjaya untuk melenyapkan kemungkinan dia akan dicabar oleh Dato Seri Najib. Dia (Abdullah) akan menang tanpa bertanding Disember ini. Dengan itu dia akan dakwa bahawa seluruh UMNO menyokong kepimpinannya. Oleh itu tidak ada sebab dia patut letak jawatan.

8. Jika setelah kalah teruk di lima buah negeri dan satu wilayah dia masih dakwa dia menang, mustahil apabila menang tanpa bertanding jawatan Presiden dia akan letak jawatan. Dia akan melegakan hati UMNO dengan berjanji dia akan kerja kuat untuk pulihkan semula UMNO dan Barisan Nasional dan selepas itu dia akan serah kuasa pada Dato Seri Najib.

9. Saya percaya diwaktu ini ramai orang Dato Seri Najib sedang menentukan berapa ramai bahagian yang akan mencalonkan Dato Seri Najib. Dengan kenyataan Dato Seri Abdullah orang Dato Seri Najib akan dapati banyak bahagian-bahagian yang tidak lagi akan calon Dato Seri Najib. Tanpa mendapat 60 pencalonan Dato Seri Najib tidak akan isytihar kesanggupannya untuk bertanding. Kalau dapat pun dia tidak akan berani mencabar kepimpinan Dato Seri Abdullah selepas janji yang dibuat oleh Abdullah.

10. Bilakah kita akan tahu hasil usaha pemulihan UMNO oleh Dato Seri Abdullah? Kita akan tahu dalam Pilihanraya Umum ke-13.

11. Saya percaya kali ini UMNO dan Barisan Nasional akan hancur langsung. Dato Seri Abdullah tidak akan jadi Perdana Menteri dan dianya tidak akan dapat serahkan jawatan Perdana Menteri kepada mantan Timbalannya, Dato Seri Najib Tun Razak.

12. Saya bukan nujum dan saya tidak dapat teka apa yang akan berlaku lima tahun dari sekarang. Tetapi saya boleh ramal memandangkan prestasi buruk UMNO dan Barisan Nasional dalam Pilihanraya Umum ke-12 dibawah pimpinan UMNO Dato Seri Abdullah Badawi yang di pengaruhi oleh anak dan menantunya. Selain daripada memberi gula-gula kepada Bahagian dan Cawangan, dan berbillion Ringgit kepada Sabah dan Sarawak tidak ada usaha yang menepati kehendak dan mesej pengundi dalam Pilihanraya Umum ke-12. Hanya dengan meletak jawatan barulah Dato Seri Abdullah dapat pulih UMNO dan prestasi Kerajaan Malaysia. Tetapi ini tidak sanggup dibuat oleh Dato Seri Abdullah. Oleh itu tidak ada harapan yang UMNO akan dipulihkan dan Dato Seri Najib menjadi Perdana Menteri.

13. Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin dan Dato Seri Rais Yatim akan terkapa-kapa tidak tahu nak buat apa. Apakah Tan Sri Muhyiddin akan bertanding Timbalan melawan Dato Seri Najib atau bertanding Presiden melawan Dato Seri Abdullah? Apakah jawatan yang hendak ditandingi oleh Dato Seri Rais?

14. Sesungguhnya dengan pengisytiharan persefahaman antara dirinya dengan Dato Seri Najib, Dato Seri Abdullah telah berjaya mematahkan segala cabaran terhadap dirinya. Disember ini Dato Seri Abdullah tetap menang tanpa bertanding.

Posted by Dr. Mahathir Mohamad

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Openness

After I stepped down there was a lot of talk about the Malaysian Government being more open. The foreign press gleefully reported that after I left UMNO, there would be even greater freedom in everything.

I would not be able to make a comparison between my “dictatorial regime” which a certain former judge described in his book as comparable to that of Idi Amin of Uganda with the present freely elected Government. But I would like to point out certain things that people and journalists seem to ignore, which seems to belie the impression of “openness”.

If people care to study the mainstream papers and all the Malaysian television stations, they may notice that until lately the reports were exclusively about the Government’s achievements in managing the economy, the stability of the country and the well-being of the people. The Gross Domestic Product Growth is high and all the different communities seem very happy with the Government.

At least four pages in the mainstream newspapers are devoted to the activities of the Prime Minister and his advice to the people on what they should do and how they should live. It is the same with the television stations.

Random interviews with members of the public show unfailing support and appreciation of all the policies of the Government and of the Prime Minister.

There are no reports of dissent or criticisms of the Government or the Prime Minister in particular. The spontaneous welcome of the people to his visits clearly showed the general love for the leader and support for him. The eagerness to shake his hand was touching.

Criticism if any came only from the alternative media, the Internet websites and the bloggers. This is only to be expected in an open society.

Then came a bombshell in the form of the disastrous General Election. The "popular" Government parties fared very badly indeed, losing five states, one federal territory and failing to get the usual two-thirds majority in the Federal Parliament.

How could a Government with such openness and popularity do so badly, be so obviously rejected by the people?

The answer is very strange. It is because there is really no openness. The policy of the Government was and is to shut things up very tightly, so tightly that people, especially the liberal western media failed to detect the lack of openness.

It began with the sacking of many of the editorial staff of the party-owned newspapers and their replacement with hand-picked journalists whose main qualification is their hatred of the previous Prime Minister.

Then there is the unofficial "supremo" who would phone editors, including those not owned by Government parties to tell them what to write and how to write.

The spin doctors would be busy spinning every report to make them look good for the Government.

It is the same with the electronic media. All the television stations are either owned by the Government or those close to the Government and understandably chose not to criticise the Government.

UMNO members at all levels were not allowed to be critical of the Government.

Mostly only those supportive of the Prime Minister would be allowed to attend the UMNO General Assembly. If they have to be bribed in order to extol the virtues of the leader then so be it.

A sense of fear has been instilled among UMNO supporters so that they would desist from voicing critical opinions of the Government even between themselves in case they would be reported and might lose something or might be deprived of some goodies.

Any forum that was not by the Government authorities or by the party where criticisms of the Government might be heard were out of bounds to party members. In particular if the speaker was the former Prime Minister UMNO members must stay away from them.

The Government was very successful in blacking out news or talks about its failures. So good was the spin that even the leaders of the Government believed in the doctored information that they had allowed to be circulated.

Everything seemed to go the Government way. Everything seemed under control. Such was the impression created by the censored news that Government leaders in particular the Prime Minister were convinced that in any election, at any time with any candidates the Government party would sweep clean and would romp to victory as in 2004.

But the results proved otherwise. Having muzzled the Press and the people, having doctored all information, the Government leaders fell into their own trap. They so believed in their doctored information that they failed completely to detect disaffection and the antagonism of the people including their traditional supporters over their lack of openness and the behaviour as well as the policies of the Government.

And so, unable to express their opposition openly, the traditional supporters of the Government parties voted for the opposition or deliberately spoilt their voting slips or simply refused to vote. The results of the March 2008 elections tell the whole story.

There is really no openness just as there is no transparency in this Government. You can deceive all of the people some of the time, some of the people all the time but you cannot deceive all the people all the time.

Posted by Dr. Mahathir Mohamad

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