Dr Mahathir says can’t solely be blamed for money politics in Umno
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 13 — Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today he has no qualms about taking responsibility for the alleged money politics that festered in Umno during his tenure as party president in the 1990s.
However, the 98-year-old insisted he should not solely be blamed for it, as he claimed Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim should also be liable for it.
“I did not give, Anwar was the one giving [money]. When I was prime minister, he was my deputy and that time he started giving money.
“What happened was that Anwar himself did not take the money but he delegated the money chest to his people and provided access to the money.
“Ya if you want me to take responsibility I can but the reality is that Anwar was the one who introduced bribery as a method to garner popularity,” he said on the latest episode of the Keluar Sekejap podcast.
On why he failed to take any action to stem the corruption, Dr Mahathir also said it was not his responsibility to micromanage the relevant authorities to address the festering corruption taking hold within Umno during the 1990s.
“If they noticed any irregularities, they should not have waited for the prime minister’s directive to address the issue.
“That is not my job, that is the job of the police and the anti-corruption authorities,” he said.
When asked if he still felt love for Umno, Dr Mahathir said the only Umno he loved was the party founded in 1946 before independence to champion race, nation, and religion, which he said was no longer the case.
As for Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Dr Mahathir accused the former Pekan MP of being the cause of Malay disunity by practising “money politics” even though he had initially felt indebted to Najib’s late father, Tun Abdul Razak Hussein, in the past.
“I wanted to support him (Najib) but when he became PM, gradually he was not like his father and began to act in his own interest.
“Then he taught the Malays to be shameless with the use of his ‘Malu apa bossku’ (Why the shame, boss?), taught them to be dependent on the government; that is not the Malay way of life.
“When he became PM, he openly declared that ‘cash is king’. That is not Umno’s struggle.
“This is unacceptable for me,” he said.
“Malu apa bossku” refers to a reply made by Najib in a now viral selfie video of him alongside a long-haired man calling out “Boss kita!” (“Our boss!”), and the phrase has now not only turned into a rallying cry among the supporters of the disgraced former Pekan MP, but has entered popular culture.
Najib, who was the prime minister from 2009 to 2018, is currently serving 12 years in prison after being convicted of abuse of power, money laundering and criminal breach of trust.
On August 23 last year, he became the first former prime minister in Malaysian history to be handed a prison sentence after being found guilty of embezzling RM42 million in funds belonging to SRC International Sdn Bhd.
