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Umno will dig its own grave deeper with its forex scandal blitz

COMMENT Annuar Musa appears optimistic that the nationwide information blitz that he is putting together next month on the foreign exchange scandal will garner more support for Umno.

For once, I could see the Umno information chief saying, “Bingo!”

All along, Umno has only attracted all the bad vibes especially with the display of allegedly thuggish behaviour by leaders such as the Sungai Besar Umno division leader, Jamal Mohd Yunos.

(After all, how many people really believed that Jamal had quit all his positions within Umno? Most of us were just waiting for the shadow play (wayang kulit) to unfold and behold, it happened as predicted that Jamal’s resignation letter was later rejected by Umno Selangor. They say, “Birds of the same feather flock together”).

It will only backfire

Now, on Anuar’s optimism, I beg to differ. With the level of scepticism that is already there regarding the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal, any attempt by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s administration to go back to the Bank Negara scandal will only backfire on Umno.

People will ask why the whole scandal was swept under the carpet for the past two decades. And if it involved such a magnitude of financial losses, why is a royal commission of inquiry (RCI) not set up for both the 1MDB and the forex scandals, respectively? Strange, right?

What is going to happen is that the task force will use whatever information it obtains to bad-mouth former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad in order to discredit him, just before the coming general election.

The same strategy was used to attempt to discredit Anwar Ibrahim in the lead up towards the last general election. No one believed the propaganda. Very quickly people saw through all the lies propagated about Anwar.

Anwar was accused of being a spy for Russia; the next moment, footage of what we know was nothing but a man disguised as Anwar with a China doll started hitting the screen. Anwar was also accused of sodomy. In other words, despite having a slipped disc, Anwar was still capable of doing what he was accused of. He must be a superman!

In the same breath, most Malaysians will not be so gullible as to believe in whatever the task force has to say about the forex scandal. This will be a sheer waste of time. It may hit the headlines in some local dailies, but people will just give it a snub.

From my understanding, most people by now have made up their minds who to vote for in the coming general election.

The fence-sitters in the rural areas would have realised something is not right, after nearly two years of exposure of the 1MDB scandal, especially since it has also greatly disappointed Dr Mahathir.

Would Umno be blamed?

Although the forex scandal was during the premiership of Dr Mahathir, it was also during the time when Dr Mahathir was with Umno.

That is already the past. In fact, like most people, I would say that Najib Abdul Razak should focus on solving the current economic woes resulting from the 1MDB scandal.

Digging into the past, when Najib fails to solve the current economic frailties and the escalating cost of living, can only backfire on Umno, causing Umno to be blamed for the country’s woes. This is what Annuar should realise, instead of being foolhardy enough to go ahead with his “bingo” storyline.

Most people can only blame Umno for the forex scandal. Dr Mahathir was at that juncture helming Umno, and he was the most powerful person in his time, which is why investigation into the scandal did not happen until now.

When you equate that with Najib, you can see why the 1MDB scandal does not receive the same treatment the way it was being investigated in some 10 different countries. Being in and part of Umno appears to be the real problem, and the moment the person is out of Umno, he sees things differently.

The same logic applies when Anwar was convicted and jailed for ‘abusing his powers’, it also happened at a time when he, too, was with Umno.

After leaving Umno, both Dr Mahathir and Anwar have a totally different perspective of what is right and what is wrong. This is what we want to see.

It also affects how Umno will protect them for their alleged wrongdoing that they have committed. The problem again lies not on the individuals but the organisation that is supposed to protect the interests of the people above its self-interests.

Otherwise, how else do you explain why it took nearly 20 years before the cabinet decided to set up a special task force to look into the losses suffered by Bank Negara? Dr Mahathir was still with Umno before 2016. Why did the cabinet not look into the forex scandal when Dr Mahathir was still with Umno?

On everyone’s mind is this question: “Why was the task force not set up back in the 1990s? Why only now is it set up?”

Interestingly, we are approaching 2020. It might it be that by 2050, a new generation of Malaysians would ask for a thorough investigation to be carried out against Najib and his involvement in the 1MDB scandal?

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