MP SPEAKS | Two recent news items attracted widespread attention. The first quoted BN secretary-general Annuar Musa as saying that there was a conspiracy to undo the Umno and BN policy of "No Anwar, no DAP".

The second quoted Umno advisory board chairperson Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah who said that such a policy may not be cast in stone.

Previously, Umno supreme council member Puad Zarkashi had expressed similar views, that the slogan is not always relevant due to shifting political circumstances.

Johor Umno deputy chairperson Nur Jazlan Mohamed, meanwhile, said cooperation between the two nemeses may not be a bad idea.

At a forum organised by the National Professor Council yesterday, Razaleigh also said Umno must return to power to keep the Malays safe.

But can Umno return to its founding decades when party presidents were known for unquestioned integrity and honesty?

Bapa Malaysia Tunku Abdul Rahman had to sell his house in Penang to fund the running of Umno, while the former CIMB Bank chairperson Nazir Razak had recalled how their father, second prime minister Tun Abdul Razak, had given his sons a stern lecture on integrity and honesty when they had asked that a swimming pool be built at Seri Taman, the prime minister’s residence where they lived.

As for the third prime minister Tun Hussein Onn, his integrity and honesty were legendary.

Umno lost power in the 14th general election on May 9, 2018 because it had betrayed the principles of integrity and honesty – from the days when the Umno leader had to sell his house to fund the party's activities to the era when Umno leaders purportedly built palatial homes on ill-gotten gains from their public positions of trust and responsibility, turning Malaysia into a global kleptocracy.

The 1MDB scandal would never have happened under the watch of Tunku, Tun Razak or Tun Hussein...