I do not believe that former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak’s pardon would be able to rejuvenate Umno after the party’s defeat in the last two elections not because I fear Najib.
I want the Anwar unity government to succeed which means I want UMNO to be stronger than both PAS and Bersatu, and I believe the only way to restore Umno to its former glory is for the party to return to its original nation-building principles and policies as entrenched in the Constitution and the Rukun Negara and accepted the by the first three Prime Ministers of Malaysa – Tunku Abdul Rahman, Razak Hussein and Hussein Onn – which includes restoring judicial independence and giving top priority to the fight against corruption.
I hope UMNO leaders will ponder this question, for Malaysia has lost its way by deviating from the original nation-building principles and policies of plural Malaysia endorsed by the first three Prime Ministers of Malaysia, who were also the second, third and fourth UMNO Presidents.
The present UMNO President, Zahid Hamidi blamed Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad for the hatred the party and some UMNO members held towards DAP.
He said it was Mahathir, during his days in the party, who gave a false impression about DAP.
He said: “But in the end, he is the one who accepted them and involved them in the government.
“Even Pas and Bersatu also accepted them in the past.”
In 2013, Mahathir wanted me dead but I prayed that Mahathir will live to 100 years to see the decline and end of Mahathirism.
Mahathir embarked on his mission in the 13th General Election to campaign in Gelang Patah parliamentary constituency to turn it into my political “burial ground”.
During the 13th general election campaign, Mahathir called on the people of Johore to pool their energy to ensure that the state of Johore will be my “kubur”, which elicited rapturous response from the then Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin who declared that I was “trapped” in Gelang Patah and that I was “finished” politically.
Gelang Patah in the 13GE was my “life-and-death” political battle but for my love of Malaysia, I was prepared to put my head on the chopping block, leaving the safe parliamentary seat of Ipoh Timor which I had won in 2008 with more than 21,000-vote majority to a high-risk Gelang Patah where the MCA/BN had won with 8,851-vote majority in 2008 and a humongous majority of 31,666-vote in 2004.
I survived the test and won with a majority of 14,762 votes and went on in the 14th General Election in 2018 to win Iskandar Puteri parliamentary constituency (following a change of name of the constituency) in 2018 with a majority of 44,864 votes. Liew Chin Tong won the Iskandar Puteri constituency in the 15th General Election in 2022 with a majority of 60,036 votes.
Life is too short to harbour life-long feelings against any person. I am still shocked by Mahathir’s recent change of heart and relapse to Mahathirism and I still hope he can return and embrace Vision 2020 and Bangsa Malaysia.
We must not lead Malaysians comprising diverse ethnicities, religions and cultures into into a cul-de-sac.
Why can’t Malaysia be a model country for the world for inter-ethnic, inter-religious, inter-cultural and inter-civilisational understanding, tolerance and harmony or in Bapa Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman’s words, “a beacon of light in difficult and distracted world”?