Mahathir quitted Umno at 12.35 today

Former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad announced that he has quitted Umno at 12.35 pm today.

Would this create an impact to the political scene in Malaysia? We have to wait and see. But the country can only have one Prime Minister and now is Abdullah Badawi.

Mahathir has his says for 22 years, what is more to say? Let the rakyat decide, let the Umno delegates decide.

It is shocking that Mahathir quitted Umno. That is his right, just like he has the right to voice out and to write blog. He is an ordinary citizen now. But because he is our former prime minister, he still enjoys some privileges, though he may be a non Unmo member. The people are watching to see what is his next move. He probably will campaign to ask more people to quit as a sign of no-confidence in Abdullah's leadership.

Mahathir said he would rejoin Umno after Abdullah had stepped down. Can you actually join a party when a person you dislike stepped down and leave when you suddenly do not like the leader? Umno itself has its rules and regulation and also it is a party with some kind of discipline.

One day before he quitted Umno, the Star made the following report:

PETALING JAYA: The Malays have loosened their grip in political power to the point where non-Malays no longer respect them and their institutions, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said.

The former Prime Minister said everything deemed as Malay privileges had been questioned and challenged by the non-Malays.

“And the Malays are not doing anything to counter all these and strengthen their positions,” he said in his latest posting on his blog www.chedet.com.

Instead, he said the Malays asked others to defend their position.

“But this is 'passing the buck' including the excuse that it is all because of Dr Mahathir who led for 22 years and chose Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as his successor.”

Dr Mahathir said that in the 50 years of independence, political power was in the hands of the Malays and they could call themselves tuan (masters).

However, he said the Malays could only become tuan if they were capable and successful economically and socially.

“This can be achieved if we are willing to master knowledge and skills in the IT era. But we are lacking efforts in that direction.

“We are more inclined to look for short cuts and let others feed us everything.”

Dr Mahathir said the fate of the Malays was in their hands.

He said Malays could not call themselves tuan if they had to depend on others and it was pointless to call themselves tuan when they were actually slaves.

“We can be tuan if we act boldly, we are willing to face risk, we make efforts to conquer knowledge and efficiency until there is no need to depend on anyone.

“Denying reality will not result in anything. Only by admitting that we have a big problem and we act to overcome it, can we redeem our dignity. Then we can call ourselves tuan. The world will recognise us as the real tuan,” said Dr Mahathir.