“Many of his promises went undelivered. However, delegates at the recent Umno Annual General Assembly were not free to raise such touchy issues.”
The people, before this, found it difficult to make ends meet, he added, but now they find it difficult to survive. “To make things worse, many have lost their jobs.”
“Before the present economic crisis, an income of RM3,000 monthly was barely sufficient for a family in Kuala Lumpur. Now, even those earning RM5,000 can’t survive.”
Former New Straits Times Group Editor-in-Chief Kadir Jasin was dedicating the blog posting to the Kedai Kopi Assembly (KKA). Several coffee shop assemblies were held before, during and after the December 8-12 Umno General Assembly (PAU) involving a varied group of participants.
Those who participated included Umno Deputy President and sacked Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, Malay business executives from Prowaris, communications and journalism students of a public university and like-minded bloggers.
Among many discussions, was one which touched on Najib having the audacity to claim not so long ago that “he made Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad the Prime Minister”. “He must be a serial liar,” said Kadir. “Where was he when team A and B were holding their final campaign on the night before voting in 1987?”
“He disappeared. He was a coward. He ran away and hid with his wife somewhere in town, and later claimed credit when Dr Mahathir won.”
Again, said the veteran newsman, he secretly created 1MDB and accepted RM2.6 billion worth of donations that nobody knew about until the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) newspaper exposed it. “He originally denied it and some of his people claimed that he inherited it.”
“The lies were exposed when his brothers denied the inheritance spin.”
When it was exposed that the money was in his personal accounts, he and his spinners started concocting all kinds of explanations, which changed from time to time, continued Kadir. “He said he would sue the WSJ but until today no such action has been taken.”
“And until now we don’t know who the donor is although the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s Chief Commissioner, Abu Kassim Mohamed, was reported to have interviewed him.”
Another discussion touched on Najib blaming his deputy and an Umno Vice-President for allegedly breaching collective responsibility by asking questions about the 1MDB scandal and his RM2.6 billion political “donation” controversy. “He has every right to sack them from the Cabinet and he does not have to give any reason,” agreed Kadir. “But he can’t sack them (critics) from the party. So, he stopped them from speaking at the Umno General Assembly.”
Najib also pointed out that his subordinates were appointed to assist him run the party, recalled the veteran newsman. “But it was when they pointed out to him that the 1MDB issue was causing problems to government and party, that he sacked them from the Cabinet.”
Those two – Muhyiddin and Umno Vice-President and Federal Minister Shafie Apdal — were just pointing out to Najib that the twin mega scandals matters were dragging down the government and the support for the party, summed up Kadir.