“All political parties die at last of swallowing their own lies.” ― John Arbuthnot

COMMENT | When the Pakatan Harapan grand poobah claims that BN elected representatives will not be allowed to join Bersatu en masse but instead have to go through a “vetting” process, what the hell does this even mean?

The only elected reps that could join Bersatu are Umno elected reps. This whole horse manure about vetting and standing for independents is really just a fait accompli.

And this – “Not those people who’ve got a charge against them” – is really quite sinister. I mean if the state were really interested in going after the den of thieves, which is what Harapan more or less called Umno before May 9, then there really would not be anyone left standing in Umno to cross over, right? So are there any ordinary members who “just wanted to be elected representatives” in Umno?

This would mean you have to believe that there are Umno elected representatives who did not want a first class ticket on the gravy train? This would mean that you have to believe that there are elected representatives who did not partake in the gravy train which was the 1MDB scandal.

When Dr Mahathir Mohamad says that these elected representatives have to be independents first but support the government, does anyone else see how farcical this statement is? How can you be “independent” but have to support the government?

Although “appealing on bent knees” is exactly the kind of Mahafiraun statement that gets a certain segment of the Malay polity worked up. This, of course, will no doubt fire a very specific extremist base, which poses far more of a danger to Malaysia than Harapan supporters think that Umno does.

Of course, attempting to legally go after all these Umno miscreants is problematic. For one it takes time. The Attorney-General’s Chambers is already deep in covering the 1MDB scandal and of course the current Umno president's scandal.

Going after every elected Umno member is mendacious, considering those who left did not exactly join Harapan with clean hands.

Systemic Umno corruption is just that a complicated web of personalities, familial kinship and political alliances all wrapped around the upper echelons of a bureaucracy divided into various petty fiefdoms.

We are talking about decades of malfeasance with a cast of characters that could very well include the reformers that are saving Malaysia today.

Besides, Mahathir has many loyalists from the old Umno regime who were no doubt loyal to their old patron. These people no doubt helped Bersatu in many ways before May 9 and are just waiting to cross over to the new mothership. This is politics and someone like Mahathir has spent decades cultivating people who were loyal to him but publicly towed the party line...