Last Old Man Standing.

13.5.2008.

I've just read, and commented on, Mahathir's blog. Finally he has put it in black and white, on the internet for the whole world to see, the full blame for the thrashing that UMNO, in particular, received at the GE13 - on Dolah's slim shoulders. To me, this is indeed a sad sight. An old man, standing alone, now facing the wrath of the entire UMNO Supreme Council. He can expect no one to come to his side now. Not even those who owe their political lives to him. 

The early post-election fervour, the shrill voices in Sungai Petani, Ipoh , Johore Baru and Cheras ,are gone and silent now. Perhaps this is a man facing the repercussions of his own bad judgement. In his frailty as a mere human, Mahathir has had his share of bad judgements. But this one, the choice of Dolah over Najib, will probably haunt him for the rest of his days. Perhaps this is why he is so persistent in trying to make amends . Dolah must respond to Mahathir's posting. If he keeps his "unelegent silence", then Mahathir is right. If he contradicts Mahathir, then one of them is lying. 

The plain truth is that UMNO got a walloping at the elections. Musa Hitam, ever with that axe to grind, had publicly said that this was Dolah's election. He had to say this for his new boss, because the 2004 elections that UMNO won huge cannot be credited to Dolah alone, riding on the coattails of the Mahathir era. Musa, and surely Dolah, too, must have thought, dreaming in their wildest dreams, this was a sure thing.

For the last four years Dolah had been trying very hard to impose his own print on the Malaysian body politics. One way of doing this is to build his own legacy. But this takes time.Mahathir had 22 years to do that. The short cut is to remove Mahathir's legacy. And in this scheme Dolah had plenty of help. Unfortunately, all his advisors had their own little agenda. No thoughts were given to the goodwill that Mahathir surely must have earned from at least among the older generation UMNO members. Believing in their own counsel, these advisors have led Dolah into, in turn, believing his own dreams, never anticipating the nightmare awaiting him.

Four years is enough time for people to judge Dolah. He entered the scene riding on the crest of the successes of Mahathir, and topped it up with so much promise of transparency and shared resposibilty, and the people bought it. All too soon it became obvious that he did not walk the talk. There was no transparency in the business dealings of his family members. There was no sharing of responsibilty in the flip-flop decisions by his Cabinet - "I'm the PM" he kept saying. Corporate decisions were made that beg for rationalisation to appear sane, like the national car fiasco ,and creation of economic corridors without in-depth studies.

All the while Mahathir is being flogged as the enemy, instead of being recognized as the longest serving President of the party. So much for gratitude. 

Meanwhile the class F contractors were not getting any jobs. These are the UMNO supporters who fuel the grass-root UMNO machinery. The industrialisation emphasis is reversed with an agricultural one, probably not realizing that all countries in the world look towards industrialisation for economic progress, not agriculture that is low impetus and gives lower income. 

During all this time, Dolah even has time to get married again. I mean, there's nothing wrong with that, but I find it hard to imagine that, at his age, a busy PM has the stirrings of a young colt, and so soon after the demise of a much "beloved" spouse. 

If Dolah has a shred of conscience in him, he would be at least be able to admit that his is the main cause of the election debacle. He should cast off the self-denial and stop blaming others. The honourable thing to do, in fact the only thing to do, is to vacate his PMship and allow someone else ,who is better endowed , to take over and resuscitate the party. 

No one is indispensible, not Onn Jaafar, nor Tunku, nor Razak ,nor Hussain, not even Mahathir. It would appear that Dolah is the only bad PM out of the 5 we've had so far. That's not a bad percentage. Unfortunately, as PMs go, that is one too many.

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