Dr M quits Umno

surf blog dr mahathir untuk memahami pergolakan minda Dr M zaman Paklah

Blog Dr M

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Petikan Star online

ALOR STAR: Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad announced Monday at 12.35pm that he is quitting Umno, citing a lack of confidence in the current leadership.

He said this during a talk here on Monday.

He has been critical of his appointed successor Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, blaming the current Umno president for the party's disappointing performance in the 12th general election.

The ruling Barisan Nasional coalition, of which Umno is the largest component party, won the March 8 election with a simple majority, and saw four more states join Kelantan under Opposition rule.

Dr Mahathir urged other party members to quit too, as a way of pressuring Abdullah into vacating his post.

However, he advised those who do quit not to join any opposition party, adding they can all rejoin the party once there is a change in leadership.

Abdullah has so far refused all calls for him to step down, and said he would defend his presidency in the party polls in December.

Dr Mahathir joined Umno at its inception in 1946.

He became a Member of Parliament in 1964 when he won the Kota Setar Selatan seat.

He lost the seat in the following general election in 1969.

Following the May 13, 1969, riots Dr Mahathir was sacked from the Umno Supreme Council on July 12 because of the widespread distribution of his letter to first Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman criticising Tunku’s manner of handling the country’s administration.

Dr Mahathir rejoined Umno on March 7, 1972 and was appointed Senator in 1973. He relinquished the senatorship post a year later to contest the Kubang Pasu seat in the general elections. He was returned unopposed and was appointed Minister of Education.

In 1975, Dr Mahathir became one of the three vice-presidents of Umno.

Tun Hussein Onn appointed Dr Mahathir Deputy Prime Minister on Sept 15, 1978.

Dr Mahathir was Prime Minister of Malaysia from July 16, 1981, until Oct 31, 2003.

Umno information chief Tan Sri Muhammad Muhammad Taib said he was surprised at the decision, but added that it was Dr Mahathir's right to do so.

"Every member has the right to join or leave the party," he said.

Asked if Umno would convene an emergency meeting, the former Umno vice-president and Selangor Mentri Besar said that "we will wait and see."

The next Umno Supreme Council meeting is scheduled to be held within two to three weeks.

Timeline


1946: Joined United Malays National Organisation (Umno).


1947: While a medical student, he wrote extensive anti-colonial commentaries in Malay newspapers under the pen-name "Che Det".


1957: Resigned from government service as a doctor. Starts private practice.


1964: Entered active politics as Kota Star Selatan MP.


1965-1969: Member, Umno Supreme Council.


Sept 1969: Expelled from Umno for disciplinary reasons. Re-admitted on March 7, 1972.


June 1972: Elected a member of the Umno Supreme Council with the highest number of votes. Lost in the election for an Umno Vice-President post.


Dec 1972: Appointed a Senator by the Kedah State Legislative Assembly.


1974-2004: MP for Kubang Pasu, Kedah.


Sept 1974: Education Minister.


June 1975: Umno Vice-President.


March 1976: Deputy Prime Minister & Minister of Education.


1977: Acting Chairman, Umno Liaison Committee, Malacca.


Jan 1978: Deputy Prime Minister & Trade and Industry Minister.


May 1978: Chairman, Perak Umno Liaison Committee.


Sept 1978: Umno Deputy President.


June 1981: Barisan Nasional Chairman.


June 1981: Umno President.


July 16 1981: Fourth Prime Minister of Malaysia, Minister of Defence (until 1986) and Minister of Home Affairs (until 1999).


July 17 1987: Umno Political Bureau Chairman.


Feb 16 1988: Pro-tem President of Umno Baru. Umno was declared an illegal society on Feb 4, 1988.


Dec 1993: Kelantan Umno Chairman. Chairman, Politics and Constitution Committees of the Supreme Council.


Sept 1998-Jan 1999: Finance Minister. June 2001 - Finance Minister.


June 22 2002: Announced his intention to resign from all political and government posts at the final day of the 56th Umno assembly. Appeals from Umno Supreme Council members.


Oct 31 2003: Retired as PM and Umno president after 22 years.


Sept 2006: Fails in bid to be an Umno delegate for the Umno general assembly coming in ninth out of 15 contestants in the Kubang Pasu division.


May 19 2008: Quits Umno

visit blog http://mastereload2008.wordpress.com

Blog Dr Mahathir

http://www.chedet.com/

A Weak Government is not good for Multi-racial Malaysia


I would like to thank all visitors to chedet.com. for their kind words and for welcoming me to the blogosphere. To be honest, I was indeed surprised by the overwhelming response to my weblog.

To my critics and detractors I welcome your comments, but I would appreciate that responses be focussed on the issue that I blog. This is to allow a healthy debate and to gauge points of view which differ from my own.

I apologise that due to the overwhelming traffic, I may not be able to respond to all comments and queries as much as I would like to. I will be selective and respond to points repeatedly raised by commentators in relation to what I've posted.


I shall also not respond, unless absolutely necessary, to issues that have been raised and answered by me in other forums, especially those pertaining to unsubstantiated allegations.

With regards to my first posting on the appointment of judges, most commentators disagreed with my comment that when Government works with the opposition it is a sign of weakness, and that I consider the opposition as the enemy.

Politically, the opposition is the enemy. Being forced to work with the opposition is not undemocratic but it shows up the weakness of the Government.

A weak government is not good for multi-racial Malaysia. It leads to unwarranted challenges against its authority. Governments cannot please everybody. If a Government cannot be firm and is forced to flip-flop there will be a lack of confidence which does not augur well for the smooth implementation of policies or project. Some people might already have noticed this.

A Government with little need for opposition support would be better able to disregard the sniping that all Governments must face. It should however take note of opposition views and respond where necessary.

In today's context, the Federal Government is unable to initiate necessary changes to the constitution and would be held to ransom every time.

One of the most important things about a two-thirds majority is that there would be hardly any threat of defection. Today we hear of this threat everyday. The leadership of the Barisan Nasional is like a cat on hot bricks. And cats on hot bricks cannot achieve anything.

Previous Federal Governments had never failed to obtain the two-thirds majority. As a measure of strength, a two-thirds majority allows a Government to do everything on its own and be totally independent.

But perhaps the proposed request for opposition support is made with sincerity in the spirit of democracy.

The question is why now? Why not when the Government had 90 percent majority after the General Election of 2004? Changes to the way judges are picked could have been done after the 2004 resounding victory.

I have always been of the opinion that this country must have a strong and independent Federal Government which can then serve the country and people without fear or favour.

But I have been on record in advocating a strong opposition. This is to ensure the Government does not stray from the right path, or abuse its authority.

The combination of a strong (two-thirds majority) Government and an Opposition with the capacity and willingness to check abuses by the Government would serve Malaysia well.

As to the Government's latest proposal to set up a judicial commission, is it because it now thinks it is a good thing or is it a desperate attempt to win back the support it has lost?

As for my criticisms of the leaders of the present Government, I believe I have every right to do so. Retiring from the Government simply means giving up authority and power. It does not mean I must abdicate my role as a citizen. I have every right to be concerned over the flip-flopping mismanagement of this country and that of the party I helped to revive in 1987. The party does not belong to Dato Seri Abdullah alone. Nor is it meant to support him as leader even when he mishandled the elections and the country. The party does not belong to me either. It belongs to all its members. Presently the members are not permitted to be critical. They can merely say yes to what Dato Seri Abdullah says or does.

Since the opposition is also supporting Dato Seri Abdullah, if I do not criticise, then no one will. And without criticisms the Government and Dato Seri Abdullah can really go wrong.

(Reminder: I welcome criticisms and critical comments and I will publish them. However, I will not publish comments containing profanities and demeaning references to certain names. Anonymous postings will also not be published.)

Hidden agenda behind 'Pak Lah, quit' calls

Kenny Gan | Apr 24, 08 4:16pm
In the aftermath of the 12th general election with the worst Barisan Nasional showing in history, the incumbent Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has been asked publicly to accept responsibility and step down. None is more strident than the person who put him in office, the ex-prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Although Abdullah has indicated that he will make way for his deputy in due course, this does not satisfy Mahathir who demands that he step down immediately. Joining in the chorus are those aligned to Mahathir, some of whom probably have dreams of advancing their own political ambitions.

What is this urgency to forced Abdullah to resign now instead of letting him choose his time to exit gracefully? The reason advanced by those making the demands is ostensibly that Umno needs to ‘re-invent itself’ to gain back support. They assert that time is running out and to wait longer may mean that Umno’s losses may be irreversible.

The reasons offered seem to be a thinly-veiled cover for other agendas. There is no reason why Umno’s healing cannot take place under the present Umno president with the cooperation of other leaders. The very reason why Umno is in turmoil is the incessant public calls for Abdullah to step down. Those making the calls are the ones who make it difficult for Umno to find its footing and get back to work.

There is something fishy here as there appears to be a hidden agenda in the way Abdullah is being pressured to resign immediately to make way for his deputy, Najib Razak. Is Najib the charismatic leader who can turn Umno around? But he is no Anwar Ibrahim. Could it be that as a person with a tainted past, Najib is susceptible to being controlled?

But controlled by who? Although this is only my conjecture, there may be a clique within Umno who is fearful of losing power and hence the fruits of corruption after the dismal results of the elections. This group sees eye-to-eye with Mahathir and have no qualms about using his authoritarian methods of maintaining power. They fear Anwar’s return to the corridors of power and feel that Mahathir is the only one who can frustrate him.

With Najib at the helm and Mahathir the real power behind the throne, repressive methods may be used to curtail democratic freedom and limit the opposition’s space to operate. We may even have a media war against the opposition and an ‘Operation Lallang 2'.

However, time is of essence. Abdullah stands in the way of iron-fisted methods as long is he is PM. Even ‘worse’, he appears to be pushing some genuine reforms such as judicial independence and press freedom which will make it difficult for authoritarian methods to be employed later. Furthermore, the longer the Pakatan Rakyat state governments operate, the more public support they are likely to engender with their fair and populist policies.

The way to rejuvenating Umno and Barisan Nasional lies in genuine reforms to repair the damage done to democratic institutions perpetrated by Mahathir. Hence, Abdullah is on the right track. Public support and rejuvenation of the party will come with real reforms. However, this means that Umno’s culture of corruption and arrogance will have to change.

This may be anathema to those who depend on corruption to support their lifestyle and would prefer the return of Mahathirism to maintain their hold on power. As for Mahathir, although retired, we should not underestimate the menace this old man poses to our nascent democracy. Let us all rally behind Abdullah to oppose Mahathir’s attempt to pull him down for his own nefarious ends

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