UMNO President, Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi has become a classic case of a political leader whose statements frequently boomerang on him, raising the question posed by Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad about UMNO leaders becoming “dumb and dumber” over the years.

His latest and second smacking of PKR President, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim again had this boomerang effect on himself.

Zahid said UMNO rejects any offer to co-operate with Anwar as long as he is in “cahoots” with DAP.

Zahid may suffer from short memory.

It was only a week ago that Zahid insinuated that the Prime Minister and Bersatu President Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad was a stooge of DAP in saying that UMNO practised a culture of becoming “dumb and dumber”.

I must be a Master Machiavelli to be pulling the strings on two stooges, Mahahthir and Anwar, and going by this logic, Zahid must refuse to have anything to do with both of them.

However, PAS President, Haji Hadi Awang said yesterday that his party will work to keep Mahathir as Prime Minister for the full term, denying any handover of power to Anwar as agreed by the Pakatan Harapan consensus in January 2018.

There is a great contradiction here – it was only months ago when UMNO and PAS leaders were working on the assumption that the Pakatan Harapan coalition would disintegrate and implode within months, giving Hadi the hope to become Prime Minister or Deputy Prime Minister, which was the reason why Hadi caused the collapse of Pakatan Rakyat in 2015 as DAP did not agree with Hadi as Prime Minister-designate of Pakatan Rakyat.

What a political comedown – from expecting to kick “DAP stooge Mahathir” out as Prime Minister to “working to keep Mahathir for the full term”!

I must congratulate UMNO and PAS leaders for their inability to see the irony and contradiction they have trapped themselves, but that is another story.

I want to ask Zahid whether he will now obey the PAS President’s new line to work to keep Mahathir as Prime Minister for the full term?

I advise Zahid to heed the advice of the Yang di Pertuan Agong who said in an interview before his installation on Tuesday that he wants to see a Malaysia whose citizens are united and living in a peaceful, stable and harmonious country.

I fully support the Yang di Pertuan Agong’s hopes.

Would Zahid also support the Yang di Pertuan Agong’s aspirations?

If so, is UMNO under Zahid prepared to declare that klepto-theocracy or the misuse of Islam to support thievery, corruption, intolerance, bigotry, lies and falsehood is totally against the Malaysian Dream to unite Malaysians to build a top world-class nation respected and admired by the world?

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, 28th July 2019)