Mahathir Mohamad has quit (*yawn*) UMNO, the political party he formed 28 years ago after the 1988 Judicial Crisis when the (old) UMNO was declared “an unlawful society”. In short, the original UMNO party formed by Onn Jaafar had already died since 1988. Today, Mahathir has merely quit from his own party – UMNO Baru (new).

 

Amusingly, this is not the first time 90-year-old Mahathir throws a tantrum like a 9-year-old kid who didn’t get his candies. He first quit in May 2008 during the tenure of former Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, and rejoined UMNO a year later after successfully booted Badawi and crowned Najib Razak as the 6th Prime Minister of Malaysia.

Has Mahathir gone bonkers thinking nobody has read the story about the boy who cried wolf? Going by how both Najib and Badawi grinning from ear to ear at the news of Mahathir’s quitting – again – we can safely assume that both believed it was a good riddance and Mahathir has finally been defeated at his own game.

 

Bloggers and cyber troopers under Najib’s payroll were singing songs of praise about the prime minister’s brilliance. In reality, Najib did nothing but hiding and bribing the already corrupted 191 UMNO division chiefs and Supreme Council members with cash. He was absolutely “lucky” to be entrenched in a heavily fortified UMNO Baru built by Mahathir.

Therefore, there’s nothing genius about Najib son of Razak. He was fortunate to be born at the right time and at the right place to the right elite family. The fact that he doesn’t know the very basic of keeping his friends close and his enemies closer speaks volumes about his “brilliance”. He shouldn’t have sacked Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin and Mahathir’s son Mukhriz.

 

Najib could always let both toothless Muhyiddin and Mukhriz bark until the cows come home. Now that Mahathir has decided to quit UMNO, a new chapter has begun. We know why Najib almost orgasm with joy at the news of Mahathir’s quitting. With the old man out of UMNO, Najib and his advisers do not have to plan and explain why the need to “sack” the former prime minister.

Earlier, we wrote why Mukhriz’s termination was a tactical error. Like it or not, Mahathir is still influential among rural ethnic-Malay who forms the backbone of support for UMNO. If there’s one thing Mahathir hasn’t done yet, it has to be election campaigns against Najib at the grass-roots level. But Mahathir figured he should start doing damage by quitting now.

 

Najib tries very hard to look cool as if he was as invincible as Vladimir Putin. But his situation is actually very weak. That’s why he sleeps with PAS supremo Hadi Awang. That’s why he sweet-talks Hadi into taking a temporary break from screaming “Hudud” while Sarawak state election is in full swing. That’s why the Sultanate of Johor dares poking fun at him.

That’s why he threw RON-95 fuel price at RM1.60 / litre for the month of March despite the fact there’s little difference in January and February’s average crude oil prices. Still, there’s something very wrong on how Najib regime determines the monthly petrol price (thus refuses to disclose the formula), if you look hard enough at the chart above. But that would be another article for another day.

 

Unlike Mahathir’s era, can you see how Najib lacks undivided support from other 12 component parties making up BN (Barisan Nasional)? At the very least, MCA and MIC should sing like canaries everyday, the same way Ling Liong Sik and Samy Vellu had done. There’re tons of signs that Najib is not as strong as he likes people to think.

For example, like a flasher eager to show off his manhood, Najib always flash his father’s name whenever in trouble. Throwing a party celebrating and glorifying his 40-year in politics was like Kim Jong-un telling North Koreans he invented hydrogen bomb (*grin*). True, Mahathir’s quitting will not attract the same strong wave of “Reformasi” as Anwar’s back in 1998. But here’s the significance of his latest move.

 

Earlier, we wrote Najib should watch out for his new deputy – Zahid Hamidi. So what does Mahathir’s quitting from UMNO has anything to do with Zahid? Has anybody realised how Mr. Zahid started talking sense with some substance lately, instead of a truckload of bullshit? Suddenly, he started talking about combating extremism, terrorism, racism and whatnot.

In short, Zahid wanted to be an acceptable leader, or at least he hopes to be seen like one. While Najib’s battalions of bootlickers welcome, laugh and trash Mahathir’s quitting, Zahid was the only one who didn’t rub salt into the old man’s injury, and even suggested Mahathir may rejoin UMNO. If we’re allowed to speculate, Zahid couldn’t wait for Mahathir to start his blitzkrieg on Najib (and UMNO).

 

Zahid knows very well that Mahathir is the magic key to his prime ministership. In fact, he must “secretly” lend some tools or spanners to Mahathir to do his job. If Zahid chooses to wait and do nothing, while watching his boss’ strength grows, he can kiss his wish to become the 7th prime minister goodbye simply because he is the same age as Najib.

If Zahid doesn’t help Mahathir demolish Najib, while the old man is still breathing and kicking, the son of Razak will eventually become invincible. Najib might become Malaysia’s Robert Mugabe, who has just celebrated his 92nd birthday – still ruling Zimbabwe. True, Mahathir may be targeting the same party he once created – UMNO Baru – because Najib was awesomely stubborn.

 

By bringing the battle to the rural grass-roots, Mahathir hopes he could deliver sufficient cracks to the party so much so that division leaders and Supreme Council members would panic and forced to choose someone else over Najib, before the next 14th national election. At the moment, Mahathir can accept a donkey as the next prime minister so Zahid is like Justin Timberlake to him.

Zahid and Mahathir could probably work together to ensure BN doesn’t win too big in Sarawak – through internal sabotage. But the opposition parties are too childish and weak to work as one effective coalition. That’s where Mahathir comes in – as new glue to gel them together as a unified force – the same way imprisoned Anwar Ibrahim did previously.

 

Mahathir has something unique Najib probably have had forgotten – the branding. The ethnic-Chinese votes are secured by virtue of DAP throwing support behind Mahathir. What the old man needs to do is to deliver the Malay votes from the rural areas. One has to remember Mahathir is a master of “divide and conquer”. Ever wonder why he quit now, with Sarawak state election around the corner?

 

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March 1st, 2016 by financetwitter

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