Both former Umno Baru president Dr Mahathir Mohamad and its Youth chief Hishammuddin Hussein Onn have spoken up against what they called ' traitors' to the party. It shows how they have deluded themselves and how they attempt to dupe the Malays on a whole gamut of concepts.

Legally and politically, today's Umno Baru is not the Umno founded in 1946 by the late Onn Jaafar. That original and genuine Umno was already destroyed in 1988 in the power struggle between Mahathir and Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah. It was declared illegal by the courts.

Today's Umno Baru was only founded in 1988 by Mahathir. Tunku Abdul Rahman and Tun Hussein Onn had never been known to have joined Mahathir's Umno Baru. In other words, to display their portraits and pictures in today's Umno Baru functions is a con job.

Indeed, both the Tunku and Hussein Onn applied to form another Umno in 1988 but they failed because Mahathir was then the home minister who also controlled the Registrar of Societies.

At last, they backed the formation of Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah's Semangat 46 party to oppose Mahathir's fake Umno.

Even when seen in the historical context of the original Umno, its first traitor was none other than Hishammuddin Hussein Onn's grandfather Onn Jaafar, who founded the party in 1946 but left it in 1951 to form the Independence of Malaya Party (IMP) and then the National Party in 1954.

Both parties aligned with PAS to oppose Umno. Despite the failure of his two parties, Onn Jaafar had never rejoined the original Umno which he founded in 1946. Again, displaying Onn Jaafar's portraits and pictures in Umno Baru functions is a con job.

Mahathir was also once a traitor to the original Umno because he was sacked by the Tunku in 1969. In his political wilderness, Mahathir attacked Umno and the Tunku on PAS' platform.

Of course, in the context of the 1987-1988 power struggle and from Mahathir's vantage-point, the Tunku, Hussein Onn, Ku Li and Rais Yatim were all traitors because they formed a new party to oppose Mahathir's Umno after the original Umno was declared illegal by the courts.

Although Ku Li and Rais Yatim have since joined (not rejoined) Mahathir's Umno Baru, that they led Semangat 46 for eight years to oppose Mahathir's New Umno is a historical fact.

Another historical fact is that the Tunku and Hussein Onn had never joined Mahathir's New Umno until their death.

In this sense, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is only the second president of Mahathir's Umno Baru founded in 1988. The Tunku, Tun Abdul Razak and Tun Hussein Onn belonged to another Umno that was formed in 1946 but declared illegal in 1988.

That is why not even Najib can claim any historical continuity from his father because, historically, his father belonged to a different party which must not be confused with the one his son belongs to.