Monday, May 19, 2008

Dr M Quits Umno

By now, everyone is talking about former Umno president and PM Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad's announcement to quit Umno.

He announced his decision in Alor Star today before 1,000 people, mostly Kedah Umno members at a talk.

He said he was quitting because he had no confidence in the current leadership.

Dr Mahathir has explained his decision in his blog, saying that his wife, Tun Dr Siti Hasmah has also quit the party with him.

In his posting, Dr Mahathir said Umno today is not the party that he joined 62 years ago but one that exists only to support Abdullah and his family and policies that are not consistent with the interest of the race, religion and the country.

Read more H E R E.

Dr Mahathir's decision must have taken many by surprise. Umno president Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was shocked at this unexpected development.

Abdullah is far from pressured. In fact he is staying put and intends to continue fighting for the party.

Dr Mahathir told other members who feel the same way to also quit the party to pressure Pak lah to make that exit, but said that they should not join any other party.

He said he will rejoin Umno when Pak Lah steps down.

Umno veteran Sanusi Junid also quit the party today.

And I agree with many many people -- Dr Mahathir outside Umno will be a BIGGER pain (for Pak Lah et al) than inside.

Read the Star story H E R E.

Also Rocky's Bru has his take on this Vesak Day bombshell while a blogger friend Apanama wants to know what Umno is made of today!

I was quite shocked when I was told of his decision during lunch today but, then I figured, that is Dr Mahathir. You really would not know what he'd do next.

One thing, though, this was not an impulsive decision, which now makes me wonder what else does Dr M have up his sleeve!

Interesting to see the development(s) following this. Will he bring with him an "exodus"?

And will his "exit" impact on the upcoming Umno branch meetings, and subsequently the party elections?

We'll just have to wait and see.

I, however, would like to see who else will follow suit.

26 comments:

Husin Lempoyang said...

Husin harap janganlah Dr Mahathir itu dibiarkan sorang! sorang! macam mana peristiwa Dol Said tewas dalam Perang Naning ke II.

Old Fart said...

"He said he was quitting because he had no confidence in the current leadership."

Is he ever going to stop and ask if confidence in him might also be falling? That maybe paranoia might be guiding him now more than rational and logical thinking?

Fadhil said...

Salam Puan Nuraina,

Ikut katanya, Sanusi Junid pun dah umum keluar UMNO.

Bukan ke dulu Tun sendiri cakap yg dia takkan keluar dari parti yg dia wujudkan pada tahun 1988? Nampaknya Tun dah takleh tahan lagi dgn puak-puak UMNO yg ada sekarang ni.

Takpe la Tun. Ikut cara Dato Onn Jaafar dulu, buat lagi satu parti baru. Kita tengok berapa ramai penyokong yg ikut Tun.

Anonymous said...

leaders come and go...

tun dr mahathir is just one of leaders for the country, so he wont be the last...

hopefully, after his departure more and more sincere leaders, be it a kampung level, or even at the divisional level will abandon this corrupt-party and move towards a more just and meaningful society!

the 'ketuannan melayu' has branded melayu being the one that cannot live without assistance from government, corruptions, weak, and disable.

let us all wait & see how far the melayu can stand on its own feet... in comparison with others in the country!

mn said...

A.kum Kak Aina,

1. Dr.M bukan keluar UMNO tetapi dia cuma nak bersara dari politik jer.

2. Dia dah tua 83 tahun. Dia nak rehat pulak.

3. Jadi orang lain jangan pula cepat melatah.

http://www.penyokong-kj.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

UMNO is fast losing its supports from the Malays. I was at a wedding just now. I saw many teary eyes when the news of Tun quitting UMNO came about.

With Tun quitting UMNO, UMNO has become even more irrelevant for many Malays. Malays are leaving UMNO and I'm really amazed how the UMNO leaders do not even realize it or, worse yet, fail to do anything about it. Di mana janji anda untuk berjuang demi agama, bangsa and negara? Jangan lah nak tunggu sampai UMNO jadi parti kosong baru nak menjerit titah perjuangan.

Tolong lah. Dah tak ada dah orang Melayu yang sokong Pak Lah. Sokongan sedikit sebanyak yang ada sekarang pun sebab orang Melayu masih sayangkan UMNO. Sekarang, kalau Tun M pun dah keluar UMNO, ada lagi kah orang Melayu yang sokong UMNO? Sangat sedikit jumlah nya. Percaya lah.

Aduhai pemimpin-pemimpin UMNO,
hebat sangat kah Pak Lah tu sampai anda sanggup mengorbankan UMNO?


-Ahli UMNO Merbok-

Anonymous said...

Good riddance, Kak.

This politician has been very divisive and has not been letting Malaysia and Malaysians grow up and prosper in many ways (apart from just purely economically).

It is time he is ignored and left to retire and rest while the rest of us move on and restore Malaysia's standing and integrity

Anonymous said...

Anything to do with the "Linggam Case"? Maybe if TDM wins this Coup, the lawyers can be bought (again)... interesting! Lets see how many setia followers.

Anonymous said...

Malaysiakini reported today that former PM Mahathir has quit Umno. It also reported that former Kedah MB and former Agriculture Minister Sanusi Junid has also quit. It appears to me that Mahathir is trying to use Kurt Lewins philosophy of change management by asking Umno members to leave Umno now but rejoin it after Badawi 'has left the building'. This is akin to Lewins’ Freeze-Change-Unfreeze mechanism in Managing Change.

The only problem here is that the Umno members by now wouldn’t want to gamble with their political careers but would be pretty enticing and justifiable for them to be Independent MP’s, meaning they are neither BN or Pakatan Rakyat (PR). When this happens, we would actually have an interesting scenario where Pakatan Rakyat will come to power by default without even needing the ‘kataks’ (frogs) as PR will be able to form a minority Government with BN fragmented.

Why to do think former DPM Musa Hitam’s protégé Shahrir Samad is talking about a possible snap election? These UMNO racists will try anything now just to stay in power, as they know their days are numbered. The greatest fear the BN/UMNO politicians and their benefactors have is that when PR comes to power, you can just imagine the amount of dirt the new Pakatan Rakyat government will expose for all to see. You can expect even Bukit Aman to be turned inside out. Even IGP Musa Hassan’s toilet will not be spared. Say your prayers folks, for the Day of Judgement is at hand for BN/Umno and their cronies!

As for Mahathir’s use of Kurt Lewin’s Change Model for Umno, I’m afraid Mamak Tongkang’s plan will only backfire. You see, Umno, Gapena, Majlis Pemuafakatan Melayu must come to a realization that communal politics in Malaysia is history. No amount of Keris rattling is going to bring Malay support back to Umno. The same goes to non-Malay support for non-Malay BN component parties. Today, a new dawn has come to Malaysia. Today, we call ourselves as Bangsa Malaysia. Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans, Ibans, Eurasians don’t exist in this country any more. It only exists in our DNA. We are Malaysians for Ketuanan Rakyat! We are Bangsa Malaysia! Hidup Malaysia!

Bung Karno said...

Pengunduran Tun Mahathir sebagai ahli UMNO bukan bertujuan untuk menubuhkan parti baru. Ia juga tidak bererti ramai yang akan meninggalkan UMNO.

Tun M berhenti jadi ahli UMNO kerana UMNO kini diketuai oleh seorang Presiden yang tidak dihormati oleh lawan dan kawan. Presiden UMNO hari ini tidak ada wawasan dan tidak ada agenda untuk menjadikan UMNO sebagai parti yang unggul seperti sebelum PU12. Presiden UMNO hari ini adalah seorang yang populist dan 'self-centered' dan mudah diumpan dan diremehkan oleh pembangkang dan lawan parti.

Lebih dari itu, Presiden UMNO hari ini tidak mengendahkan pandangan akar umbi dan gagal menyuntik semangat dan membina kekuatan ahli parti dan rakan-rakan komponen BN untuk menghadapi pembangkang yang semakin berani dan lantang. Presiden UMNO yang juga Perdana Menteri tidak ada ketegasan dalam menghadapi cabaran dan lambat, tidak konsisten dan 'ad-hoc' dalam membuat sesuatu keputusan.

Tun M berhenti kerana malu untuk menjadi ahli parti yang diketuai oleh pemimpin yang lemah dan tidak peka kehendak ahli dan rakan BN. Bagaimanapun beliau tidak akan menyertai parti politik lain kerana akan kembali ke UMNO setelah pertukaran penjawat Presiden.

Seperti biasa DS Abdullah Ahmad Badawi sebagai Presiden Parti akan memandang ringan
perkembangan ini. Begitu juga dengan para ahli Majlis Tertinggi, tentunya akan menyatakan sokongan tak terhingga kepada Presiden parti.

Memang kita berharap tidak ada pemimpin-pemimpin tertinggi seperti DS Najib, TS Muhyidin dan Tengku Razali Hamzah tidak meninggalkan parti kerana mereka adalah harapan untuk membawa perubahan pucuk pimpinan dalam pemilihan Disember ini. Sekiranya tanpa mereka adakah kita mengharapkan DS Ali Rustam, Datuk Nazri Aziz atau TS Mohamad Taib menentang DS AAB sebagai Presiden?

Ketua-ketua Bahagian dan bakal-bakal perwakilan ke persidangan Disember ini juga harus terus
kekal dalam parti supaya dapat menetukan hak memilih Presiden. Tebalkan muka untuk terus berada dalam parti sehingga tempoh penetuan ini.

Sambil itu, biarlah Tun M mengkritik DS AAB sebagai pengkritik bebas, tetapi bukan untuk membantu pembangkang. Hanya kemungkinan Tun M menjadi penasihat kepada AP bebas, Datuk Ibrahim Ali, yang akan menubuhkan parti baru.

Posted by Bung Karno 21 PM

Anonymous said...

Salam saudara/saudari sekalian,

Betapa peritnya hati seorang negarawan apabila pengorbanannya membangunkan bangsa ketika negara berhadapan dengan pelbagai cabaran dan kesukaran tetap berjaya melonjakkan kedudukan Malaysia ke hadapan. Namun, kini apabila didapati negara tidak berkembang sepesat yang wajar walaupun keadaan semasa sepatutnya mampu melonjakkan pencapaian kita lebih jauh ke depan, membuatkan beliau kesal.

Siapa tau berapa kuat dia bekerja, betapa mendalam dia berfikir, betapa komited dia hendak memastikan pencapaian matlamat sesebuah projek pembangunan yang dijalankan, betapa bijaknya dia menepis segala bangkangan dan tentangan pihak-pihak yang melawan idea pembangunannya, betapa yakin dan kuatnya semangat dia mengatakan sesuatu yang sukar dilakukan, boleh dicapai dan betapa lantang dan beraninya dia menegur kuasa-kuasa besar dunia yang suka membuli negara sekerdil kita? Fikirkanlah. Memang beliau bukan seorang manusia sempurna, tetapi jasanya memang tidak sepatutnya dilupakan. Beliau menyuarakan kekecewaan kerana prestasi pemimpin hari ini jauh di belakang benchmark yang beliau capai dahulu. Jadi salahkah beliau menegur?

Where were we before he was our Prime Minister?

Yang ada pada hari ini takkan dapat bawa Melayu jauh ke depan kerana seorang ibarat kacang lupakan kulit - kalau dia boleh lupa orang yang naikkan dia dahulu apatah lagi kita rakyat biasa yang tidak dikenalinya; entah dia ingatkan kita entah tidak. Seorang lagi bercita-cita menjadi pemimpin besar tetapi dalam hati penuh dendam kesumat. Keistimewaan bangsa sanggup digadaikan supaya ideologi kepimpinan diterima oleh mereka yang pernah lantang mencercanya. Apalah malang nasib Melayu kalau tidak Mahathir siapa lagi yang mampu membuka mata kita.

Ketika segelintir Melayu lupa sejauh ini mereka berjaya - dalam pendidikan, kerjaya, kedudukan ekonomi dan bermacam2 lagi, saya dan ramai lagi tidak lupa diri.

Tun mempelopor dasar2 pendidikan yang meramaikan orang Melayu mampu mencapai tahap pelajaran ke peringkat lebih tinggi - dengan pemberian biasiswa, sistem kuota pelajaran, pembukaan banyak sekolah berasrama penuh, pembukaan ITM dan sebagainya.

Kepada yang beringat, mari kita kumpul semangat supaya bangsa kita tetap kuat.

Terima kasih

Zaib

Anonymous said...

At last a racist has left the party, hoped his son would do the same but i guess that's impossible as his father would want him to be on the throne.

i guess the people whom i can really respect was Tunku Abdul Rahman and Dato Onn bin Jaafar. For they don't have an ultra Melayu syndrome.

don't the Malay people realise that they are only accounted for as 54% of the total population in Malaysian(since Malays are bumiputra, the statistics would show 65.5% because of other bumiputras like the kadazans and etc etc). Not to sound racist or extreme myself, but threatening the non-malays that they can't survive without the Malays are just being naive. Malays need the non-malays to survive too. They forgot that independence was achieved through unity, not fighting amongst each other.

Maybe we should think of placing ourselves under the british rule, then the malays would feel how it's like to be a second citizen of their own country, like the non-malays now(even bumiputras like the ibans and kadazans are being treated far worse than the non-malays although they are bumiputras), or maybe we should have another Singapore, and with the racist sentiment running at a high now, i guess many won't mind. with this, the malays can rule all they want without the non-malays and there won't be problems such as malays and non-malays term.

Donplaypuks® said...

One of the important lessons I learnt early in my career was that no one is indispensable.

Not Kings, not PMs or Presidents, not tycoon CEOs, nobody.

TDMM and AAB too, must realise that it applies universally to all, as well as to them.

So, DTMM must learn to let go and enjoy his retirement.

He is, by his innate stubborn nature, close to losing the respect and credibility he established in M'sia, and somewhat internationally too, when he voluntarily stepped down in 1983.

If he's not careful, he will also lose his legacy to the nation, and be consigned to nothing more than a foot-note in our history books, if that.

Unknown said...

Why is his resignation even relevant in the current political transformation, when he should be simply enjoying the fruit of his past labour? It's clearly evident that he intends to carry on his personal vendetta against the PM by back-stabbing him. Does he rally care that much about UMNO?

J.T. said...

It will be interesting to see what else develops after this.

Anonymous said...

Actually nothing new for me. This not the first time he has left UMNO. But I have reason to believe that "The UMNO Dilemma" is in the pipeline.
I am really enjoying the UMNO political gameplay. So what's next Doc ?

mie said...

Salam,

Pada pandangan saya, TDM mempunyai pemikiran beliau yang jauh kehadapan. Tidak kita menjangkakan apa yang di fikirkan oleh beliau.

Tindakan beliau memberikan seribu satu pertanyaan kepada semua, menilai dari sudut ini dan itu. Akan tapi yang tersirat hanyalah beliau seorang yang tahu.

InsyaALLAH (",)

Malaysian Joe said...

You are right! Its not the party he joined 60+ years ago! Its a party he FORMED 20 years ago.

Angry old man needs to show some tantrums and take some along with him... this old fart wont go down quietly.

Anonymous said...

Now he has left his Party. His next move will be to leave his faith. After that he will leave the country (to escape prosecution). A man of no principle.

Anonymous said...

Mahathir's greatest fear is DSAI becoming the PM. If that were to happen, he is finished. He thinks the present administration is too weak to prevent that from becoming a reality.

Anonymous said...

i have all my respect with dr M and not the other half past six umno leaders.he is a man of his word. no doubt ppl say this and that about him....but one thing for sure when he was ruling the country....at least the economy was sound and without turmoil..nama baik Malaysia was well preserved.
to me Dr M is a superb leader who have vast knowledge and exp... but only prob is his malay followers. leaders in umno who cant see $$$$...and ..woman...asyik nak kahwin empat...which leads to corruption and distruction...

mark my word.."malays cant run the country...only brainy mix races can run.....malays always ended putting their personal needs before everything be it in ruling party or opposition like PAS which almost 100% malay dominant and not mix races...so what happen to kelantan..still backward...till today foreign investor tak mahu jejak kaki...hihihih salah siapa...hello jangan kata.."dah nasib.." very popular word among the malays.....kalau bagi kat mix race i gerenti kelantan cemerlang gemilang..tapi orang kelate pun tak nak berubah dah too much been brain wash by PAS....apa nak buat dah tak ada pendirian..sekejap panadang revolusi iran...sekejap hizbollah, sekejap saddam...but own idea tin kosong aje..

in that way i a very much happy that i had dr m as my leader yang tidak gentar dan takut.....

ps.ApA jadi with all those malay students that when o/seas to study on goverment scholars...majority especailly MARA and JPA scholars till today tak bayar balik the money...tax payers money..so the bottom lne malay leaders generally are corrupted and have the attitude of apa nak jadilah...janji i boleh kahwin 4 atau dapat kereta mercedes..atau joli sana sini..bye2 tanah airku...

mad said...

it's the most appropriate thing for tun to do but nobody saw it coming. good for him to abandon a sinking ship. umno has always been a money making machinery for the elites and corrupted, including tun in his days at the helm of umno. his quitting umno will further speed the demise of the rotten ugly dinosaur that is umno. it's time for change. it's time for a new and brave world. it's the new millennium and we're already 8 years behind.

Anonymous said...

Mahathir should really just retire in peace once and for all. Whatever he's doing now is not doing any good to his reputation. There goes my respect.

eddy said...

Kak, saya tak fahamlah kenapa nampak ada commentators kata Tun mahathir tu racist, masa zaman dia PM saya rasa ramai orang suku Kaum Cina, India dan Melayu jadi Jutawan Besar dapat kontrak dari Kerajaan, kawan-kawan dia pun berbagai bangsa so mana yang rascistnya tu.

Satu lagi the biggest challenge in UMNO now is not counting how many ahli atau pembesar UMNO keluar dari UMNO mengikut Tun Mahathir, tetapi berapa ramai sudah keluar dari segi hati dan spiritual mereka mengikuti Tun Mahathir. These silent UMNO members will NOT vote for UMNO in the coming PRU13 so long as Dollah is PM and President of UMNO and their votes will lead to unmitigated disaster to UMNO.

Anonymous said...

"melayu muda lupa" and this anti-Semetic Melayu is a despicable specimen of one who has selective memory. he conveniently forgets that he is greatly responsible for dismantling a vibrant and much respected judicary.

he conveniently forgets that he orchestrated the dismantling of Press and media freedoms and the unlawful arrest and detention of NGO, political activits, and many he considered threats to his diabolical crony-kingdom regime.

Mahathir is an unrepentant despot that is once again trying to orchestrate an Umno sabotage.

he and his diehard cronies see the writing on the wall with the judicial enquiry and it is clever strategy of deflection and of covering one's tracks of criminal escapde.

this resignation from Umno at this juncture stinks to Kedah. it is a malicous desperate attempt by a wounded fox. all in all, it is an exit that comes just two decades too late.

Anonymous said...

" Hey, you better STEP DOWN or i won't rejoin umno ! you bear the consequences...UNDERSTAND !!"