When will UMNO, MCA and MIC condemn the monstrous mega multi-billion ringgit financial scandals like the 1MDB scandal and stop glorifying “kleptocracy at its worst”?

History has many strange and even surreal turns and twists.

Ismail Sabri is not the most suited Prime Minister for Malaysia. In fact, Ismail Sabri himself never expected to be Prime Minister.

But he may be able to perform a role which other Prime Ministers in the last half a century cannot do.

I have said that the most important question in Malaysia today is not who will win the next general election but whether Malaysia will become a failed state before Malaysia’s Centennial in four decades from now - whether we continue in the present trajectory of kleptocracy or jump-start the nation-building process by getting into a new trajectory and return to the nation-building policies and principles agreed to by the founding fathers of the nation and enshrined in the Malaysian Constitution and Rukun Negara.

What is the use of winning the 15th General Election if the Malaysia continues to regress and lose out to more countries, ending up with Malaysia becoming a failed state before Malaysia’s Centennial in another four decades?

Ismail Sabri has suddenly an important and pivotal role in nation-building in deciding whether Malaysia becomes a failed state before Malaysia’s Centennial in another four decades.

UMNO President Ahmad Zahid Hamid said yesterday that he knew nothing of a meeting in Tajuddin Abdul Rahman’s house that brokered a deal that would see Zahid step down amicably as early as 2020 but the UMNO Deputy President Mohamad Hasan and former Prime Minister Najib Razak reneged and backed out of the plot before it was implemented.

Zahid’s position is incredulous but I am not a member of UMNO and I do not want interfere in UMNO affairs.

But whether Malaysia will have a grand kleptocrat as its 10th or 11th Prime Minister is not an internal UMNO or Barisan Nasional affair but concerns the future of Malaysia and that of our children and children’s children.

Every Malaysian must ask whether he or she will allow Malaysia to become a failed state before Malaysia’s Centennial in another four decades.

Closely related to this question is when UMNO, MCA and MIC, which had been notably silent for over a decade, will condemn monstrous mega multi-billion ringgit financial scandals like the 1MDB scandal and stop glorifying “kleptocracy at its worst” or whether they will criminally continue to keep their silence on these important and pivotal issues?