Bagan Datuk MP Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has caved in to pressure and announced that he would step aside as Umno president, handing his duties as UMNO President to his deputy Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan.

To whom would Zahid hand over his duties as Parliamentary Opposition Leader? Would Bung Moktar Radin be the acting Parliamentary Opposition Leader?

Zahid has hinted of the “punishing” conditions imposed on UMNO and the humiliation it suffered in a number of meetings he attended, where he not only faced rejection and insults, but even “humiliation, as if Umno is as unclean as the faeces of animals deemed haram”.

He said: “If we accepted that humiliation, there were two requests. Firstly, Umno must be dissolved. (Secondly) Umno members must jump to a new party.

“That means Umno’s seven decades of history would be erased, supposedly because people hated Umno so much.”

As a result, he had to pay a heavy price for his insistence that the party would not be dissolved.

All these indignities and humiliations were brought about by the UMNO leaders themselves, when they failed UMNO and Malaysia and aided and abetted former Prime Minister and former UMNO President, Datuk Seri Najib Razak in the monstrous 1MDB corruption money-laundering scandal, which brought shame and infamy to Malaysia by being condemned worldwide as a global kleptocracy.

Up till today, there has been no remorse, contrition or repentance among UMNO leaders for this great act of disservice, even treason, to the country!

Zahid himself played an important role in this national shame and infamy, for he was Najib’s right-hand man when the former Prime Minister launched the “Week of Long Knives” at the end of July 2015 and sacked Tan Sri Muhyidin Yassin as Deputy Prime Minister and Tan Sri Ghani Patail as Attorney-General as well as subordinated and suborned key national institutions like the Attorney-General’s Chambers, the Police, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and Bank Negara in the greatest corruption in the country – the massive cover-up of the 1MDB scandal.

Zahid himself even claimed in August 2015 that he had met with the Saudi Arabian royal family on the RM2.6 billion in Najib’s personal banking account, but he has refused in the past three years to substantiate his statement by revealing whom he had met, resulting in former Cabinet Minister Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz asking recently whether Zahid had seen “an Arab apparition”?

She rightly asked which Arab has that much money and net assets to donate RM2.6 billion to Najib!

This was why I had suggested that the UMNO General Assembly in Sept. 2018 should condemn and sack Najib from UMNO for the monstrous 1MDB corruption and money-laundering scandal so as to make a clean break with the 1MDB infamy, as well as publicly apologise for all the lies, falsehoods and fake news unleased by UMNO leaders against the Opposition, in particular the DAP.

Zahid can go on leave and Mohamad Hassan can take over the UMNO President’s duties, but Najib and the monstrous 1MDB scandal – as well as the other 1MDB-like scandals such as in Felda, Felcra, MARA, Tabung Haji – will continue to hound and haunt UMNO leaders and members unless there is clean and conclusive break with them.

I used to have great admiration for Mohamad Hassan, the former Negri Sembilan Mentri Besar, as one of the few UMNO leaders who dared to face up to reality and truth and not to live in the world of fantasy like many UMNO leaders.

He was the voice of moderation and reason.

He broke away from the mainstream UMNO mythology before the 14th General Election which tried to hold the Malays to ransom by warning that Malays will perish if UMNO was defeated in the 14th General Election.

Mohamad Hasan had provided the best rebuttal to UMNO leaders’ warnings that the Malays would perish if UMNO was defeated in the 14th general election in his speech at the opening of the Sembrong Division UMNO delegates’ conference in Kluang on 26th August last year.

Mohamad said Umno must woo the Malay voters to get the support of the majority of the people so that BN could win the 14th general election.

He said Umno could no longer think that the Malays needed it but instead it was Umno that needed the Malays in order to survive.

He said: “The Malays now have many choices such as PAS, Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) and Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu). We (Umno) cannot be complacent saying that the Malays need us.”

Mohamad was not completely right as he failed to mention DAP, as the DAP is a party which will defend and uphold the interests of all Malaysians, whether Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans, Ibans or Orang Asli.

In Penang and Selangor, which have been ruled by Pakatan governments after the routing of the UMNO/BN in the 2008 and 2013 General Elections, the Malays have been better cared for than in previous UMNO/BN administrations.

But what was most significant was that the myth of the equation that UMNO was Malay and Malay was UMNO, and that UMNO had to remain in power as the party was the only one that Malays could count on to uphold and fight for their rights, had been debunked by none other than Mohamad Hassan himself.

I find it very sad and tragic that Mohamad should now be peddling the lies, falsehoods and poison which he had exposed in his speech at the Sembrong Division UMNO delegates’ conference on 26th August last year, as evidenced by his leading a walkout from the Negri Sembilan State Assemby over the ICERD issue.

I am still waiting for an answer from the PAS President, Datuk Seri Hadi Awang on ICERD, and since Mohamad is taking over the mantle of UMNO leadership to lead an AntI-ICERD campaign together with Hadi, probably we can get the answer from Mohamad.

Hadi has said that all Muslims must oppose the ratification of ICERD, alleging ICERD is a “Freemason agenda” with the intention to destroy the religion, nation and society.

Does Mohamad Hassan agree with Hadi?

Will UMNO and PAS launch an international campaign to save Muslims in the world from the Freemason conspiracy, as 99 per cent of the 1.9 billion Muslims in the world are living in 179 countries which have ratified ICERD, including 55 of the 57 member nations of Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), such as Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Turkey, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Palestine, Algeria, Morocco, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan?

Is Malaysia to be the saviour of Muslims in the world, including Muslims in the Islamic heartlands centred in Saudi Arabia, or has Malaysia become the laughing-stock of the world?

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Jinan, China on Wednesday, 19th December 2018)