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Wednesday, October 25, 2006

AAB's Empire Strikes Back

AAB’s chief hatchet man, minister Nazri Abdul Aziz came out swinging in defence of his boss after the latter was still attacked by the Grand Ole Man. He accused Dr Mahathir of attempting to unseat the government, and criticised the doctor’s continued verbal assaults on AAB during the Hari Raya break.

He averred: "We all know that he wants to bring down the government, bring down Pak Lah. I don't know what's wrong with him. It is Hari Raya and we should be coming together, asking for forgiveness."

UMNO, initially upbeat about a possible reconciliation between the party’s two top blokes is now crestfallen, with fears of divided loyalties because Dr Mahathir is not without his supporters.

On balance, KTemoc sees also no compromise on AAB’s side. For example, there is yet no result from the so-called investigation into the Kubang Pasu UMNO divisional delegate election scandal, where allegations of money politics and abusive use of threats and government machinery were employed to block out Dr Mahathir. The lack of activity in this regard has been disgracefully so despite AAB’s personal promise that that it would be done.

Undoubtedly it has been swept under the carpet, what more when the investigating panel is filled by personalities hostile to Dr Mahathir. Even if the finding is eventually and painfully extracted like a rotten tooth, we may all expect it to be Hutton-ised, a whitewash.

I can hardly blame Dr Mahathir for feeling AAB or at least those behind AAB had been the ones not playing on a level field. The Grand Ole Man is hitting back in the only way left for him, with his supersonic megatonnage mouth.

Brendan Pereira, editor for the government-linked New Straits Times newspaper, a bloke that Dr Mahathir had attacked openly in recent times as an un-UMNO-ish import, unsurprising claimed that some Malaysians had experienced a colossal letdown after the talks.

He wrote in his column: "For many Malaysians, this has been an uneasy few months - watching two respected leaders slugging it out in public. For many Malaysians, it has been a difficult time - having to choose sides."

Not so, I must disagree. Malaysians did not expect much from the talks. In fact, most of us knew both sides had used that to ‘buy time’ and to avoid presenting the perception (to UMNO members) that any one side was unwilling to engage in the so-called reconciliatory discussions. If anyone was disappointed that Dr Mahathir would continue his ‘shock & awe’ I would say it’s the AAB side, with supporters like Brendan Pereira.

We independent bloggers are actually rapt, because we want to see the UMNO dirty linen being washed in public, and who better than Dr Mahathir as the dhobi.

5 comments:

  1. Yeah, bring it on! Like Steven Gan of MKini said "Let ’em slug it out"!

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  2. This tiff between them has gone long enough. Either Pak Lah is sent back packing to Kepala Batas, or Dr. M himself must be sent back to Kubang Pasu. For good. Both men and this country needs a closure. A ship can only have ONE captain.

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  3. Substance and not the act of criticising.

    Substance is the issue but the mediocre choose to silence the issues.

    Substance is the interest of the nation. Why do we refuse the voice that have the interest of the nation foremost in their mind?

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  4. Its clear the PM is taking time to think things over before responding. I don't think he has a choice. He needs to wipe out Dr. M once and for all. Its time to dig out some dirty little secret enough to lock him up. Otherwise it just goes on and on and demonstrating his poor leadership. My bet is he does not have the balls to do it.

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  5. If you follow the report on the talk betw both aab and dr M, you'll be able to deduce that Dr M did almost all the talking and AAB replied like a wall.... Why so? He could have rebuted what Dr M said.

    There is no denying on the involvement of the infamous SIL and as said, it involves the family. When you are in power, your family shouldn't be involved. During Dr M's stint, none of his family were involved(except MArina who only did charity and women awareness stuff). Now, during AAB's stint, we have his SIL taking the deputy Umno youth post when nobody ever heard of him before he got elected. Dr M alleged that the candidate for Umno Youth deputy was asked to step down by Hishamuddin, AAB did not deny this? IS it true?

    We should let Dr M speak his mind. He has been a great prime minister during his time and although many dislike him then, he was universally liked by all. No Malay leader has ever gained the popularity of Dr M among 3rd word countries, among the Muslim world, United Nations. Nobody (but Castro, Saddam) has the balls to criticize the United States openly. He was an inspiration to all. Sure, he has some drity tricks up his sleeve(cue anwar) but he was the BEST prime minister we ever had and that can't be denied.

    AAB should be given a chance to prove himself but so far, what he has done is close to nothing. Asli had theur report rejected for nuts, his infamous SIL, Najib sweeping everything under the rug, newspapers held back, proton, AP, failed bridge etc....

    Its time those 2 sat down and have a good talk/debate, not a one way conversation. The talk that day wasn't supposed to be a lecture but it turned out that way.....

    The malaysian ppl love them both and don't want to see a feud but we want answers as well....will it ever come?

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