Let an independent panel agreed by BN, PN and PH decide whether Zahid’s speech at the MIC Assembly was “spun” by his opponents

UMNO President and Barisan Nasional Chairperson Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has alleged that his speech at the recent MIC delegates assembly had been “spun” by his opponents.

He said he made clear in the speech that he was talking about political persecution and selective prosecution.

He said: “That is the risk to BN leaders that I was referring to if our enemies win the 15th general election.”

Zahid has made a very weak and feeble attempt to explain away his “brutally frank” admissions in his MIC speech, something which no reasonable person can accept.

Zahid’s “brutally frank” admissions were;

(i) There is not only an UMNO “Court Cluster”, there is an BN “Court Cluster”;

(ii) He named UMNO/BN leaders who are on the “waiting list” of those who could be charged for offences which they had committed – people like UMNO Deputy President Mohamad Hassan, UMNO Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, MCA President Wee Ka Siong, MIC President S.A. Vigneswaran and MIC Deputy President M. Saravanan.

I do not know what are the corruption or other charges which could be brought against Mohamad Hassan, Hishamuddin Hussein, Wee Ka Siong, S. A. Vigneswaran and M Saravanan but Zahid should know better.

What made Zahid’s allegation all more loud and thunderous was the silence of the five to Zahid’s speech that they are on the “waiting list” to be charged in court.

Are the five on the “waiting list” to be charged in court?

I do not know but Zahid appears to know. The Five may know – and this is why their silence up to now is most suspicious and unexpected!

How long more will the Five keep their silence that they are on the “waiting list” to be charged in court?

Zahid’s MIC speech is the best example that UMNO today is completely different from UMNO in the founding years when it was under the presidency of Onn Jaafar, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Razak Hussein and Hussein Onn.

UMNO veteran Yussof Latiff had recounted the early days of UMNO when UMNO had no money and Tunku sold his house in Penang to fund the running of UMNO.

Razak Hussein “swimming pool” is now famous because of the recounting of his youngest son, Nazir, who recalled in his book “What’s In A Name” (page 51), where Nazir wrote:

“When we were all still young my brothers and I once trooped into my father’s office with a request to make: we asked him to build a swimming pool in the grounds of Seri Taman. My eldest brother Najib was the ringleader, corralling the rest of us to make the case, standing in front of my father’s desk in his study. My father listened to our proposal carefully and then calmly dismissed it. ‘How would it look,’ he asked, eyebrows raised, ‘if the Prime Minister spent public money on building a swimming pool for his family?’”

In 1979, at the UMNO General Assembly, the then Prime Minister, Hussein Onn warned that Malaysia will be destroyed if its leaders are “dishonest, untrustworthy and corrupt” and expressed the hope that the Bank Rakyat scandal would be a “bitter lesson to other government institutions and agencies including companies and subsidiaries set up by the Government”.

From a RM100 million Bank Rakyat scandal in 1979, we have graduated to a RM50 billion 1MDB scandal three decades later as well as many other mega scandals.

In the early years of UMNO, UMNO leaders asked the Malays and the people to sacrifice for the nation’s future.

After six decades, UMNO leaders asked the Malays and the people to vote for UMNO/Barisan Nasional in the 15th General Election to keep UMNO and Barisan Nasional leaders from jail.

Zahid claimed that his MIC speech had been “spun” by his opponents.

In that case, Zahid should allow an independent panel, agreed by Barisan Nasional, Perikatan Nasional and Pakatan Harapan, to decide whether Zahid’s MIC speech had been “spun” by his opponents or was a “brutally frank” admission of the criminal liability of UMNO and Barisan Nasional leaders.

Lim Kit Siang DAP Veteran