MUBARAK's 15th AGM.

Sat 1 Dec 2018.

A muted, half-day, low key, cheap 15th. AGM for MUBARAK MALAYSIA was held at the "3-star" Hotel Maluri on the outskirts of KL to-day. It used to be a top hotel in a top spot. Everything had been cut down: the venue, the duration, the expenses, even the ranking of the chief speaker. The menu was cut. No meeting allowance this time. It was as if to underline the need to lie low and spend lower, now that the chief sponsor is no more.

Only the talk was expensive.

The M.C. strayed from emceeing and talked expensive. The reciter of the "do'a" strayed from solicitations and talked expensive. There were many loud "amin's" towards the end of the "do'a" that the reciter either didn't catch or didn't care about, because they were meant to remind him that he was getting too long and straying too far from topic. The President was expensive. And Ku Li was very expensive. 

Expensive because there was no talk of remorse about BN's loss of a 61-year hold on power. No mention of mistakes made  and what could be learned from them. No regrets about obvious caprice uncovered. Expensive because everybody who spoke, spoke as if he was the winner. 

The M.C. took it upon himself to inject partisan politics in his welcoming and introductory long and laboured speeches.

The reciter of the "do'a" went out of his way, from pleading to the Almighty for Guidance, to injecting partisan politics in his supplications.

The President, without notes, rambled on and on about his expensive pet student program, the huge property development project, the ills of the social media, and finding new sponsors.

Ku Li spoke at great lengths about the beginnings of UMNO and Tunku and Tun Razak, the current economic downturn and the price of palm oil and rubber, ending most expensive of all, with the challange to the PH government to give back the reins of power  to UMNO since they cannot run the country.

All these speakers received applause from the elderly audience. Not loud, But enough.

And the close-at-heart issue of the irregular and modest pensions of the ex-wakil rakyats MUBARAK represents  was never raised, even as they were cause for anger at the last AGM.

Ku Li said the press has been pressing him about whether he'd leave UMNO. He'll never leave, he said. He forgot to mention 1986 and Semangat 46 and the de-registeration of UMNO caused by him and his people.

And Sainy, Yusof Misai and Dr. Krishnan all attacked me for my PH support, saying PH cheated and won PRU 14, and Sainy in particular gave PH 2 years before being toppled, and in front of Derma I challanged him to a bet, the way I did with Yusof Misai in Cameron Highlands, and he's yet to pay for my 1-week lunch.

I say that if this is how UMNO members deal with the historic loss in GE 14, they'll never learn the true lesson, and the loss would be repeated. I said this to Tham and Foo as we sat for tea, before I took leave for home.

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