///Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said he was surprised over Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s call for him to reconsider the 2020 transition plan, saying this has been agreed upon by Cabinet and Umno.///—The Star

PM AAB said he was surprised, and that implied that he was alert. When PM AAB said that the transition plan was agreed by Cabinet, did he mean that it was a unanimous decision. Can cabinet decide by majority vote? The same applies to UMNO supreme council decision making.

The transition plan is UMNO matter, and the transition plan was clearly a political party issue. The Cabinet might be a venue for discussing party issue if all members belong to the same political party, UMNO. Were non-UMNO members transparent in the Cabinet in the sense that they could be seen through, and do no appear to exist when Cabinet decisions were taken. This might explain why the presence of non-UMNO members in the Cabinet had no consequence on decisions taken in the Cabinet.

As AAB had been so used to treat Cabinet as UMNO meeting, he announced that the Cabinet asked Ahmad Ismail to apologize. If Ahmad Ismail had violated any law, he should be dealt with according to the law. The Cabinet cannot decide that a person is pardoned if he had violated the law of the land. The accused had to be charged in court, and only the court could decide whether the person was guilty, and the punishment that follows. Only a pardon board can decide on recommending for appeal, and the right authority will dispense with the pardon. The Cabinet decides all government policies, but it cannot implement them as though it is an absolute monarchy. So the Cabinet was wrong in law to direct Ahmad Ismail to apologize, and it was wrong in law in not accepting the apology of Wee Meng Chee.

PM AAB was not surprised that Muhyiddin invited TDM to return to UMNO. What is surprising is that AAB consider TDM’s application to join, or rejoin UMNO a UMNO issue, when the UMNO supreme council decided to welcome TDM to return at the time TDM resigned and declared that he would only return when AAB is no longer the President of UMNO. I suppose AAB has to be cautious of TDM’s reentry since if AAB says that he welcomes TDM’s reentry, UMNO’s lawyers might say that it is equivalent to AAB taking action to facilitate TDM’s entry into UMNO through agreeing to TDM’s condition that AAB resigned as UMNO President. Yes, a UMNO lawyer is the second highest in command in the Judiciary, but can AAB be sure that the judge will be on his side in view of AAB precarious hold to his chair?

AAB will now have to explain why the Supreme Council decision should not be binding. We will be happy to see AAB prevent TDM’s return. TDM will be worse for the country if he is in UMNO than outside. In fact the country would have been blessed if TDM’s father had not migrated to Malaya. Unfortunately there is no time machine to effect that change.

UMNO should have sacked TDM at the time when he announced his resignation, but did not have the political will to do so. It was a torn that removed itself from the flesh. UMNO supreme council was happy that the problem resolved itself, and would have hoped that his son would follow suit. But the son was a fence sitter, and now the father is returning to help him achieve his ambitions, or more accurately the family’s longer term hold on the future of the country. The persons who now voice their welcome of TDM might be hedging their bet, and showing the opportunistic character since they are convinced that the 916 change is fast approaching and AAB will soon be consigned to history. They forgot that their support for TDM will haunt them for years to come.

If AAB caved in to allow TDM to return, then all those UMNO power-has-been who are crying for AAB’s departure will be emboldened. They can always depend on TDM’s support to be readmitted should they be sacked. In a way the three-year suspension of Ahmad Ismail might be more effective them having him sacked from the party. He could return on TDM’s tailcoat long before his 3-year term is up. But then TDM is 83, and had the history of staying in hospital three times last year. How many times he is going in this year is anybody’s guess.

AAB has the legitimate reason to say that the supreme council’s decision to welcome TDM’s reentry was only valid at that time, and would continue so if TDM had stopped undermining UMNO. TDM will have to reapply for admission which will have to be decided by the party, and the Supreme Council which has the final authority. But has AAB the number to ensure that TDM does not submit his application? Is Muhyiddin confident that he would command the require number? If he had, he might have been able to gain his position as a Deputy PM without having to team up with Tengku Razaleigh to fight the unknown battle. Kuli has everything to gain but Muhyiddin has his MITI post to lose.

PM AAB should have aimed high to be the PM who brought change to Malaysia for the better. But he was not that ambitious and limited his sight on his family and his son-in-law. It is a wasted opportunity for himself, and the people who love Malaysia. We cannot say this of TDM who ( as devils’ advocate) suggested that Malay professional preferred joining force with a neighboring country to fight the British rather than going through the route Tunku took, with the social contract. That would mean that Malaysia would be part of another country. It is like surrendering our homeland without a fight. Why do we bother with our defense spending if that could be acceptable?

In this 21st century when countries which believed and had history of acting on racial superiority are rejecting the old habits of suppression based on race, we still have people championing inequality based on religion as surrogate for race. He who holds this racist view should be condemned. He who manipulated racial politics for individual benefits should just enjoyed their ill gotten gain, and migrates elsewhere so that others would not suffer their bad influence. Only Anwar as PM would achieve that. May be it would be better for AAB to invite Anwar as President of UMNO.