The Malaysian Insight

SOME 3,000 people turned up at Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s ceramah in Parit Yusof, Muar, in Johor last night, convinced that there was truth to what the former prime minister had been repeatedly saying.

Just like his other ceramah before this, Dr Mahathir did not change his script. He was at his best and had only one message for the crowd – we must get rid of the corrupt Najib administration.

And when he finished close to midnight, Ishak Mahmuda, 61, a businessman, had this pertinent question:

“Tun has been calling (Prime Minister) Najib (Razak) a thief, pirate and everything else. Why has no action been taken against him?”

“Maybe Najib has his own strategy and it is to protect the party,” added the man who attended the ceramah to get a clearer picture of what was happening in the country.

Another man at the ceramah, Mohd Aluan Salikun, 62, said perhaps Najib was afraid to take action against Dr Mahathir.

“If he sues Mahathir, more things will be exposed and it would have a bad impact on Umno,” he said.

Aluan, who went to the ceramah with his family, was once an Umno loyalist. He has switched his allegiance to Dr Mahathir’s new Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu).

He blamed his departure from Umno on the “corrupt administration”.

“I am now loyal to Bersatu. It is true that people said there was corruption when Dr Mahathir was PM, but it was not as bad as it is now,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

There were many in the crowd like Aluan - Umno members who became Bersatu members. They all held Mahathir, the nation’s longest-serving prime minister and Bersatu chairman, in high esteem.

The veteran politician remains a celebrated figure, if the reception he received at the ceramah last night was anything to go by.

The crowd cheered while Bersatu Youth members played the gendang to welcome him when he arrived at the ceramah venue, which was the house compound of a local resident Zainudin Sayuti.

 

The people stayed until close to midnight to listen to Dr Mahathir’s speech. As usual, he was the last Pakatan Harapan leader to take the stage.

Just like in his previous ceramah at other locations, Dr Mahathir called Najib a thief and criticised him over the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal and the RM2.6 billion “donation” deposited into his accounts.

As he spoke, he poked fun at Najib, drawing laughter from the crowd.

Dr Mahathir said he had tried his best to get rid of Najib but he failed because “Najib has very thick skin”.

Amanah member Nasir Abdul Hamid probably heard it all before. He is a regular at Bersatu ceramah. He recently went up to Malacca for a Bersatu gathering to listen to leaders talk about the current issues affecting the nation.

He said he would be going to the next Bersatu ceramah in Teluk Mas.

“I want to listen about what is happening. You don’t get the real picture watching news on TV3 and TV1. Those stories are one-sided.

“On those channels, you only hear that the opposition is bad and wrong about everything. Only the government is right and it is doing this project and that project.

“They are the government. It is their job to carry out projects with the public funds anyway,” said the Muar resident who went to the ceramah with his six children.

The former PAS member also took a dig at the leaders of his old party.

The direction taken by president Abdul Hadi Awang was different that former party president Fadhil Noor.

“Hadi doesn’t want unity between the Chinese and the Malays. I reject that. There must be unity,” he said.

PAS had a falling out with the other opposition parties, namely DAP, since 2015 over its insistence to implement the shariah penal code.

It rejects Amanah, a splinter party led by progressive leaders who left PAS after it broke up the former opposition pact Pakatan Rakyat. Now, at its ongoing muktamar in Kedah, it is attacking PKR and its leaders.

Other PH leaders at the ceramah last night included Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin, deputy president Mukhriz Mahathir and Bersatu Youth chief Syed Sadiq Abdul Rahman. – April 29, 2017.