YOURSAY 'Umno is beyond salvation and it must appeal to the racist instinct of their supporters to frighten them into supporting the party.'

Dr M: Umno won GE13 as people had no choice

Absalom: I always wondered how Dr Mahathir Mohamad can find faults with everybody else, when he is smack in the middle of the reasons why things are as they are. And with a straight face, too.

When you start kicking good and capable people out of Umno, the judiciary and other institutions and put your weak ‘yesmen' in there to do your bidding, what do you expect?

Mahathir's arguments do not hold water, he just shift the blame away from him. The reason for the deterioration of BN and Umno is mainly because of him and what he has done in his time in office, and keeps doing.

People are generally good and will not support what is wrong, so the urban people of all races, who knew about the wrongdoings, did not support Umno.

The rural people who are kept misinformed by the MSM (mainstream media) and the unfair election practices keep putting the parties and people whom the majority rejected, back in power.

The way forward for Mahathir and gang is keep the rural people backward and increase the number of corrupt people who will be afraid of them.

Teoh Soong Kee: Mahathir spoke the truth when he mentioned that the decline of Umno was due to corruption and self-interest, and that the party was not able to attract intelligent young Malays. However he forgot to mention that the rot started from his era as Umno leader.

RJ: Finally, he agrees that the Umno leaders are only holding onto their positions for their own sake and not to serve the Malaysians, and to line their pockets.

He and these leaders always speak about the Malay race because this in the only way they can hold on to power. The rural population will believe them but not the urban Malays since they are clearly aware that they are being used and lied to.

Hold Awam Accountable: Here Mahathir laments the decline of quality in party members: "By allowing only less talented people into the party so that they are not a threat, these people will eventually replace the existing leaders when they retire, thus creating a cycle of decline."

But he was the one who encouraged and perpetuated the ideal of mediocrity in Malaysia... in our school system, in business, in the civil service, in every aspect of our government.

Hard work, innovation, creativity and talent were sacrificed for cronyism, nepotism and greed. Anyone with even a smidgen of initiative had it snuffed out of them by the time they entered the workforce.

Kingfisher: Mahathir is spot on in his analysis of Umno's serious problem with its self-indulgence and its lack of liberal plans to infuse new and dynamic leadership while hanging on to its present incompetent team.

As Umno seems to have successfully depreciated the value of MCA and MIC in BN through its own folly, a progressive PAS and a healthy multiracial PKR and DAP have much promise to be the alternative.

FellowMalaysian: The Malays who voted for Umno are the farmers, Felda settlers, fishermen and invariably the rural folks who have little choices but to vote for Umno not because they are fearful of opposition leaders Anwar Ibrahim and Lim Kit Siang as insidiously insinuated by Mahathir but because the rural Malays are parochial in thoughts even in this day and age and this is partly caused by having little or limited access to the voices of the opposition.

The same reasoning applies to why the natives in rural Sabah and Sarawak voted for BN coalition parties.

But at the same time, Mahathir also claimed that the talents has scampered to the opposition. Then it is only plausible to expect voters gyrating their support towards the opposition as BN-Umno has been infiltrated and are infested with self-serving gluttons.

Indeed Mahathir is predicting that the downfall of Umno is not too far away.

Wira: Is there corruption in Umno that can be charged in court? I think not because all functional and regulatory bodies in the government have been inert to the excesses of that racist party.

Corruption have been legalised through commissions and rent-seeking. The lack of open tenders have enabled large contracts to be given out to cronies at extremely favourable terms.

Umno is beyond salvation and it must appeal to the racist instinct of their supporters to frighten them into supporting the party.

Anonymous_3f89: Mahathir is the master of blame shifting and in his old age, he is now trying to preserve his legacies by blaming PM Najib Razak for creating a cycle of decline in Umno whereas he was the one who has started the cycle of decline which had lead to the formation of Semangat 46 and Umno Baru.

The original Umno has since died and Umno Baru had started declining at a faster pace with the sacking of Anwar.

Tehachapi: Use the same Mahathir logic, Malaysian voters ought to accept that they have no alternatives, but to accept whatever Umno is prepared to dish out for them, including corruption, incompetence, blatant power abuse and violation of basic human rights. This is obviously negative thinking.

On the other hand, think about great possibilities within the grasp of all humans. I would like to share a more positive outlook for our existence from a stanza from ‘Invictus' by William Henley to cheer up my fellow countrymen:

"It matters not how strait the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul."

Lawan tetap lawan , until we can change such negative outlook and liberate ourselves from these oppressors. Life is meaningless if we just lie down and die because oppression is too great for us to bear.

Finally, the truth about Umno from Mahathir

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