As UMNO celebrates its 60th anniversary today, a two-hour DVD depicting former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad flaying the current crop of leaders for "lacking courage" and said members were afraid of putting their heads on the chopping block and thus opted for silence when things went wrong.

"If you want things to be right, you have to take the risk. But what I see now is a desire to avoid risks at all cost even if the country goes to the dogs." […]

My fear, it doesn’t really matter, I’ll be on my way very soon, so my fear is that if you’re not prepared to take some risks to criticise what is wrong, if you are only keen on saying ‘yes’ to everything, that the party will rot. That is my fear.

On cancellation of crooked bridge, Mahathir condemned the Government for showing over-respect towards Singapore, chiding the act of "playing golf" and "pat each other’s back" to make them happy.

The Second Bridge - as you know, the Second Bridge has been built. That is the Second Crossing, but I think you mean the replacement for the Causeway. Well, because we want Singapore to be happy, we have to wait until they agree. Of course, I feel that we need not wait.

Actually, when I became prime minister in 1981, I went to Singapore to make friends with Mr Lee Kuan Yew. I strained very hard. I bent over backwards until it became almost like a bow. But somehow or rather, I could not get Mr Lee to agree on anything but he would like us to give more things to him and as a result, of course, when I stepped down, the problem is still there after 22 years.

I believe that the present government thinks that they should try again to be friendly with Singapore, to play golf - I don’t play golf, which is very bad - and to pat each other’s back. Unfortunately, after two years, after putting in the piles, this bridge is not going to be built just as yet. At the same, the Customs, Immigration (and Quarantine) Complex will be completed soon, but that will be a white elephant because there is no road leading to this new complex. So the Second Bridge will not be built anytime soon.

If you were to wait for Singapore to agree, they will not agree. I was told by Mr Lee Kuan Yew, we will have to wait until Goh Chok Tong (to step down), because he has this nostalgia about the Causeway. Until he is not around, we cannot build the bridge.

But as you know, Goh Chok Tong stepped down as prime minister but he was elevated to senior minister and, apparently, more senior than the prime minister himself, because on the (bridge) issue, only he is allowed to negotiate and since his nostalgia is still there, we will have to wait until either he steps down as senior minister - which is not likely - or he fades away from this earth, then perhaps we can build the bridge. But since we want to be friendly with Singapore then we should be patient enough to wait for Singapore, to wait for Mr Goh Chok Tong.

As what Mahathir said, he may be on his way very soon, but being in his ownself, grab-and-bite-it-tight is something where someone up there needs to pay extra attention to.

At least senile still isn’t the right word to describe him, not for now, at least.

Permalink | Leave a comment | Trackback
Subscribe to Email Feed | Subscribe to RSS Feed