Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has been instrumental in the unravelling of the Umno – his queries about the 1MDB scandal lead to a break-up of the party – but this did not undermine Malaysia’s PM Najib Razak.
But here is the reason why Mahathir’s campaign against Najib, exposing the 1MDB scandal across the country is having a biting effect on the Umno.
Mahathir has unleashed an attack on Najib that goes down to the facts, and like it or not, Malaysians are avid fans of facts though at times they prefer the rumour mill that acts as a tarnishing coat on the government.
What are the facts that Mahathir is slowly but surely pushing to the Malaysians who would give an ear – and they growing in numbers – to the old fox?
First of all, he is telling people to question the fact that money was transferred from Malaysia’s 1MDB to all corners of the world.
The people seem to agree with him that such monies were indeed transferred since he based his ‘accusations’ on Bank Negara Malaysia’s statements on the 1MDB.
He also based his statement on what has happened in Singapore with regards to the 1MDB issue, resulting in the punishment of bankers and financiers.
On the BNM, Mahathri is telling people the central bank did not lie when it investigated 1MDB for irregulaties and it found 1MDB at fault.
But since it is not the police or the court, it could only recommend actions that should be taken against companies that defaulted on their ‘promises’ to BNM.
With this, Mahathir established the fact that money was stolen, transferred and went illegally into some people’s bank accounts.
And Mahathir produces the date the BNM statement was issued, backing it up with BNM’s regulations on how it takes actions against the contravenants and in this case, it took actions against 1MDB by forcing it to repatriate monies exported but not used for the purpose they were registered for!
This goes down well to the unsuspected public, and it is impacting Umno’s support base in what is called the ‘hulu’ and the ‘estates’ in Malaysia.
Mahathir also tells the small folks that money transferred needed the involvement of people from the top.
Then Mahathir tells the people: “But the AG, the Malaysian police and 1MDB executives are not interested.”
This has a rattling effect, though Najib is ignoring it.
It is biting into the Umno’s strongholds, with more people joining the party (Parti Pribumi Bersatu) set up by Mahathir and the other breakaway leaders from the Umno.