Mat Taib Defends Pak Lah Against Bad, Bad Tun Dr M

From Malaysiakini

Umno information chief Muhammad Muhd Taib today lashed out at former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad for launching scathing attacks on his successor Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (Sounds suspiciously like a temper tantrum. “Don’t be so bad to my fren!” *pout* Perhaps he’s seeing the considerable amounts he can bring to Australia evaporate before his eyes!)

Defending his party president during a press conference at his Rural And Regional Development Ministry in Putrajaya, Muhammad said people should stop pointing fingers at Abdullah.(Let’s blame the internet instead and try and divert attention away from the perceptions of corruption, arrogance, and greed)

“What Mahathir and people are doing now is very, very wrong. It is not fair to point fingers at one person when everybody knows there were many contributing factors.

“It is very unfair to dump the blame on the PM. This is unfair and done in bad faith,” he said. (It IS a temper tantrum. “SOOO BAAAD” *stamps feet and jumps about*)

Muhammad was referring to “unfair” comments from Mahathir made at a forum yesterday on how Abdullah was shameless in refusing to resign for Barisan Nasional’s biggest election setback last month.

‘Not a level playing field’

He pointed out that there were also other contributing factors to BN’s performance including the role played by bloggers, news portals and short messaging service (SMS).

“It wasn’t a level-playing field (between the BN and opposition). BN did not use the portals, SMS and ICT (information and communications technology) to the fullest,” he said.(“Waaaaahhhhhh. The bad people TOLD EVERYONE about EVERYTHING we did. SO NOT FAIR!!!! It’s NOT OUR FAULT! They told! They told! How caaaannnn!!!!” *lies on ground and kicks and screams* Just a question though…so the flip side of this is that, it’s been a “level playing field” all these years?)

Muhammad noted that the BN lost in the “virtual elections” while opposition had cashed in on using video CDs showing temple demolitions which caused the swing of Indian voters.(Hmmm, so the violent handling of the HINDRAF rally did not have anything to do with it lah…and the fact that the Indians felt that Samy Vellu aka MIC didn’t represent them anymore)

The former Selangor mentri besar also questioned why are the people picking on Abdullah when other leaders have also previously lost in the elections.

“We lost Terengganu in 1999. How come nobody asked Mahathir to step down then? When PAS lost Terengganu in 2004, how come nobody told (PAS spiritual leader) Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat to step down?” he quizzed.

Muhammad noted that Mahathir was a good leader but his comments are not helping the party at this particular time.

“We are trying to fight one person but our guru is hitting us at the same time. Nobody can call for Mahathir to be disciplined because he is kebal (untouchable). This is too much,” he told reporters.

Football analogy

Asked whether ‘yes-men’ in the party had made Abdullah’s administration different from his predecessor, Muhammad said ‘no’.

“The ‘yes-men’ did not make a difference to the administration. I was under Mahathir since 1982 for 11 years. I think the way they did business and dealt with things is almost the same,” he asserted.

“Leaders are saying things that are pedas (scathing), bebankan (burdensome) and they label Pak Lah with all kinds of labels. That’s unfair,” he added.

The Umno veteran also said that what some party leaders are trying to do in abolishing the nominations quota system is like changing the rules of a football game.(I like these rules. I know these rules. I can use them to my advantage.)

“It is like changing the rules […] and the goalpost itself while the game is going on. It should happen after the game,” he said.(Wait laaahhhh till I take some more moneeeyyy firsstt from the kampungs! Like this how caaann??)

With that, Muhammad stressed that the abolition of the nominations system should be done after the party’s elections in December this year.(So that we can intimidate people not to nominate anyone else lah)

Oh Dear!

Looking at the full cabinet list it looks like business as usual. Some cosmetic changes were included. Datuk Zaid Ibrahim is the de facto Law Minister in charge of judicial reforms. How far he will be allowed to go will be interesting. He’s said things which actually sound very much like what voters want.

Datuk Amirsham is another professional brought in, I speculate, to calm the markets.

However, I doubt that the top leaders have learnt their lesson or heard the message of the voters.

While Datuk Shahrir Samad is a principled politician, and there are few enough of those in government today, most of the other appointments seem designed to reward political parties rather than to fulfill the roles of actually lifting the country out of the malaise and to deal with voter discontent.

Some of the old guard were dropped. But oh dear, SENATOR Muhammad Muhammad Taib of illegal money smuggling to Australia fame? How many million was it? And to have him made a cabinet minister through the backdoor.

And no one’s made mention of April 15 yet; when Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim will be eligible to contest again.

You know, this really looks like a case of the Prime Minister being on a different planet than the reality on the ground.

Hmmm…