The New Straits Times Press editor-in-chief has gone on six-months’ leave starting yesterday, before being placed to pasture in some corporate or government nook by his superiors.
It may be cruel but one can be excused to think of the saying, that one who lives by the sword will die by the sword - except that Kadir can still look to a life of comfort.
One of Kadir’s predecessors, who met the same fate of being summarily removed from the top press job, had protested that he was 100 per cent loyal to Dr. Mahathir only to be told that 100% loyalty was not enough as what was expected was more than 100% loyalty!
Kadir’s fate was sealed when the New Straits Times recently published articles advocating that contest should be allowed at least for the No. 2 post in the UMNO party elections.
We are seeing the UMNO party and leadership undergoing a rapid pace of Stalinisation - where there could not only be “no contest” for the two top UMNO posts, no criticism is permitted.
I begin to worry for former Deputy Prime Minister, Tun Ghafar Baba, who had spoken out against the UMNO Supreme Council’s “no contest” decision.
(19/1/2000)