Umno leaders’ latest turnaround to back Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak proves that the party's leaders are just power hungry hypocrites whose “DNA” cannot change, said a DAP lawmaker.
DAP national publicity chief Tony Pua said he was disappointed by the lack of fireworks over the controversial 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) - Tabung Haji land deal at Umno’s supreme council meeting yesterday.
"This is the proverbial story of the wolf or in this case, wolves who huffed and puffed with great pomp and vigour, but just couldn’t blow the house of (Umno president) Najib Abdul Razak down.
"(Last week) top Umno leaders lined up to speak up against the 1MDB imbroglio which touched a raw nerve when it sold a piece of land to Tabung Haji.
"But in the Umno supreme council meeting held last evening, everything ended up business as usual.
“The much-anticipated fireworks ended with a pathetic whimper," he said in a statement today.
Umno deputy president Muhyiddin Yassin , the party's three vice presidents, and even Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin, had all expressed concern about the 1MDB deal, which cost RM188.5 million and priced at roughly RM2,779 psf, 37 times 1MDB’s acquisition cost.
However yesterday, at a meeting coinciding with Umno's 69th anniversary, all the supreme council members pledged support for Najib, who is also the 1MDB chairperson and finance minister.
"The above only goes to show that Umno leaders are nothing more than a bunch of power-hungry hypocrites.
"At the end of the day, despite all the foaming at the mouth to express their disgust and anger against the billions lost by the taxpayers, it is more important to toe the line of the all-powerful party president," Pua said.
Spots can't change
He likened Umno to a leopard that can never change its spots, and would forever be subservient to its president no matter the degree of abuse of power, incompetence and corruption involved.
“The rakyat should not have any expectation that Umno is able to change its DNA.
“The only expectation they should have is, as long as Umno is in power, grand corruption, abuse of power and sheer incompetence will not only be tolerated, they will only become more blatant and brazen, as they did since the days of (former PM) Dr Mahathir Mohammed,” said Pua.
The revelation of the overpriced sale of 1MDB’s Tun Razak Exchange (TRX) land to the haj fund provoked an unprecedented uproar last week particularly from the Muslim community , and has been called a bailout of the debt-ridden investment arm despite Najib’s denial.
Yesterday it was reported that another government-linked body, the civil servants retirement fund KWAP has agreed to a similar purchase of a TRX parcel for RM2,300 per sq ft (psf), when it is currently paying only RM4 psf for its rented office.
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