Why do you need to rejoin UMNO, Tun Dr. Mahathir?

Tun Dr. Mahathir,

I have some subtle feeling that you are still keen to see the outcome of Umno party election to be in line with what you expect the outcome to be! Since you have not in so far announced openly that what you expect the Umno election outcome to be (with the exception of your openly asking Pak Lah to resign from the Presidency of Umno and from the premiership), therefore there are still a lot of rooms for you to meditate on the question of whether to rejoin Umno or not to rejoin!

First of all, please ask yourself: "Why do I need to rejoin Umno?"

Perhaps you missed those glorious days of the past when you were surrounded by many fancy supporters during the periods when you were sitting in the power necleus. Once you had retreated from the power nucleus, people would try to be funny and dare enough to spray some peppers onto your face and then your eyes would be irritated with the pepper attack. However, does Tun still want to sacrifice all your pleasure time on many trivial matters in relation to politics again like what you had come across during your 22 years' tenure in the PM's office? Does Tun realize that Tun's essay writings have indeed attracted a lot of blog readers from all around the world? Doesn't this phenomenon seem to be another glory which will bring plentiful good sense of self-actualization for Tun in the retirement age?

Many people had given the honour of "father of development" to the late Tun Abdul Razak. However, I was not able to understand Tun Abdul Razak in detail even though I was already in Form 3 when Tun Abdul Razak passed away in heart attack. I tried to find some readings of his personal writing but I could not find a lot of paper contributions which had been written personally by Tun Abdul Razak. I could only recall the remembrance about Tun Abdul Razak by the personal impression he had given me through the implementation of Rancangan Buku Hijau, the introduction of New Economic Policy, the establishment of MARA, and the handshake photo of the late Premier of People's Republic of China, Mr Chow En Lai, and the late Tun Abdul Razak during the later's visit to Beijing. Because Tun Abdul Razak did not leave behind him with a lot of essay writings, it was highly sceptical that the Malaysians who were born after the demise of Tun Abdul Razak would be able to know much about this great statesman who was called "the father of development of Malaysia".

I first came to know about Tun when Tun was having the first official visit to Seremban as the Minister of Education. However, I only started to realize that Tun was indeed a biased man who had provoked a lot of controversial argument when I first read in early 1980s the book written by Tun which was titled "The Malay Dilemma". Even though the Non-Malays in Malaysia already gave Tun a strong endorsement in general election 1999, this strong support was given to Tun based on these reasons:
1) Giving thanks to Tun for not taking the Non-Malays as the racist scapegoat for purpose of mobilising political support around yourself in the midst of financial turmoil as the aftermath of speculative currency attack in 1997-1998.
2) Taking into consideration that peace and national unity were critical factors for restoration of the nation's economic prosperity, therefore Tun was again being given the strong mandate to restore peace and national unity in order to bring forth another round of economic prosperity for the whole nation.

However, the result of General Election 1999 was still inadequate to wash away the misconception or false perception of racist label on Tun due to the dirts and taints that had been negatively added to Tun's image by the lopesided book of "The Malay Dilemma".

In view of Tun's very excellent and vivid writing skill, I would suggest that Tun should give a serious thought about writing a book on decison making process for developmental economics. Hopefully, with the contributions of Tun in writing such a book, the future generations of Malaysia will be able to understand much better on how the success can be achieved by making always the right decision and failure be avoided from Tun's administrative experiences and personal advices. I hope such a valuable book about developmental economics will also benefit some other less developed nations in the African Continent or the South American Continent since Tun would have a lot of pleasurable experiences to tell and translate them into model building for the political leaders of other continents to adopt and follow.

I think writing a book that allows the humans to quest for excellence by following the examples which have been demonstrated by Tun with Tun's 22 years' practical experiences of implementation will surely provide much better self-actualization to Tun than another round of winning situation in the Umno party election by Tun's nominees. After all, politics are a weary and tiredsome affair which involves with a lot of personal hostility and enmity. It is much better for Tun to leave it to those potential candidates like Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to find their own way out for a leading edge in the party election. Only the leaders who can win with their own political strength will be able to stay long in politics for ensuring a long-term political stability of the party.

As for your good son Dato Mukhriz, it is much better that you leave him alone, lest people will accuse him for enjoying the uplift in politics by helicopter of nepotism as compared to other opponents' resort to only climbing the ladder of grassroot support by self-serving empty-handedness. Like the Chinese old saying goes, "The sons or grandsons will have their own bountiful blessings in accordance with their personal destiny. Therefore there is no need for the old folk to foreever serve them diligently like a functional horse or a functional bullock!"

What for if Tun is to serve the younger generations too much too often when what the younger generations really need is a chance to grow by themselves in order to achieve personal independence? Even if the younger generations will eventually have to distance Tun due to Tun's showing indifference and impartiality, there is nothing much to be worried about. No matter how and no matter what, the Almighty will always be with Tun!

Onlooker