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As Umno branches across the country prepare for polls, former prime minister and Umno president Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has called on party members to unite and get rid of leaders who disgrace the party in an allusion to Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Umno's recent electoral setback.
In his latest blog posting yesterday titled “Unity” at www.chedet.com and writing in Bahasa Malaysia, Dr Mahathir said Umno today no longer fights for the race, religion and country and instead fights only for the power and benefit of the party president Abdullah. "Unity is only sought to support the president," stated Dr Mahathir, who quit the party on May 19 in an effort to get Abdullah to step down as party president and prime minister, a campaign that he began a year after leaving office in October 2003. He said unity would be good if Abdullah had brought success for the party and country but thus far there has only been insults for Umno and Malaysia, adding that Umno and Barisan Nasional have lost badly in Election 2008 under the current president as party unity had frayed with members either voting in the Opposition or stayed neutral by not voting or spoiling their votes. "Calling for unity will not bring them back. Rather unity itself does not bring happiness. Unity only brings benefits if the struggle has the aims that everybody desires. Unity for unity's sake is not meaningful and will not bring blessings or benefits if the struggle is abused," Dr Mahathir said. Abdullah's trenchant critic said Umno has lost respect in and out of the country while the younger generation of Malays no longer find the party relevant to them, lamenting that Malaysia is no longer an example for other developing countries. He also repeated his charge that Malaysia's territory has been handed over to a small country in the south, naming Singapore as being treated as a big power with its approval needed to develop the southern region. "Even the prime minister's decision not to replace the Johor Causeway had to be reported and told to the former Singapore premier by the Malaysian foreign minister." Dr Mahathir said the country's economy was in tatters with Malaysian investors not reinvesting while the pump prices and other goods have risen without any controls. “Should the Malays unite to support all this? If we must have unity, it is to resuscitate the dignity and success of our race and country," he said, noting that unity is for good and not to cause suffering. "There is no reason for the current leadership to be strengthened by the unity of people behind it. In fact, the unity is needed to get rid of leaders who have brought disaster to the party and country," Dr Mahathir said. - The Malaysian Insider
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