MP SPEAKS | While Malaysians breathe a new air of freedom and rebirth on May 9, 2018, taking tentative steps in the making of a new Malaysia, it was also a month of strange politicking by certain political forces whether of the previous incumbency or those who had hoped to be kingmakers to prop up the previous incumbents.

This is best illustrated by the news that the fallen ex-prime minister Najib Abdul Raza, was setting up court as an alternative Umno power centre by establishing an office because of a deluge of visitors from supporters, friends, Umno members and Umno leaders from across the country “to convey their good wishes, show support and ask for opinions on current affairs.”

There was not an ounce of compunction or penitence for the wrong he had wrought to Malaysia or the destruction he had done to Umno-BN, unlike his cousin who announced yesterday that he was fully aware that the GE14 results signalled the need for drastic reforms in Umno.

Hishammuddin said he will not be offering himself as a candidate for any position at the Umno national elections at the end of this month, or the more apocalyptic scenario of middle-rung Umno leaders likening Umno’s present situation as a “sunken ship” that sorely needed a new captain to salvage it and chart a new course.

On the contrary, Najib was on the offensive and appeared in the public arena more often than when he was prime minister, complaining that the Pakatan Harapan government was trying to erase his legacy.

Will Najib ever acknowledge that the legacy of his nine years as the sixth prime minister of Malaysia was the worst of all prime ministers of Malaysia – one of infamy, ignominy and iniquity of the 1MDB international money-laundering scandal which debased the Malaysian Dream of being “a beacon of light in a difficult and distracted world” into a global kleptocracy and 'kakistocracy'?

Umno leaders, including the acting Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, seemed to have disappeared from the public arena, leaving the field to Najib and a mysterious outfit, the faceless and nameless Umno strategic communications unit, which emerged after the May 9 electoral disaster of Umno-BN/

This raises questions whether it was camouflage or proxy for Najib’s propaganda, reminiscent of the 'fund units' obsession of 1MDB CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy before the 14th GE.

Although Najib had accepted responsibility for Umno’s electoral disaster and resigned as Umno president, he continues to live in a bubble, blaming slander as the cause of Umno-BN’s defeat.

What is even more shocking is that the present Umno leadership seems to be equally deep in this bubble of delusion and denial, with Zahid taking courage from other countries where long-time parties which had been defeated managed to make a comeback, but refusing to admit that it was Umno-BN which was responsible for the most vicious and irresponsible electoral campaign of the politics of race, religion, hate, fear and lies.

Soul searching?

The Umno general assemblies at the end of this month will be a battle for the soul of Umno.

As Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad told Zahid when the latter called on him, Umno had betrayed the Malays with Umno leaders focused on self-gratification, and why Umno is hated now is because it has deviated from its noble cause.

Will the Umno general assemblies repudiate and renounce the 1MDB and global kleptocratic legacy of Najib, or will it defend and justify it?

Will Najib establish an alternative Umno centre of power and continue to pull the strings from behind?

On the eve of the 14th general election, Najib repeated for the umpteenth time the big lie that the election was a battle between the Umno-led BN and a “DAP-led Pakatan Harapan”, and that Mahathir was being paraded as the leader and icon of the opposition which as a charade, as the DAP and I were supposedly the real power behind the scene.

Would Najib own up that he was disseminating downright lies, fake news and false information during the general election campaign, and will the Umno general assemblies later this month commit themselves to clean, honest and moral politics and total repudiation from such vicious and irresponsible politics of race, religion, hate, fear and lies?

There are signs that those who had hoped to be kingmakers in the eventuality of a hung Parliament after GE14 to prop up a kleptocratic prime minister, are now perpetrating politics of race, religion, hate, fear and lies.

Just as good sense had prevailed on May 9 despite the most vicious and irresponsible campaign, I am hopeful that more Malaysians can transcend ethnic, religious and cultural differences to come together as Malaysians to fulfill the Malaysian Dream to be “a beacon of light in a difficult and distracted world”.

LIM KIT SIANG is DAP Iskandar Puteri MP.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.