YOURSAY | The sticking point is this - why did Mustapa take so long to leave Umno?

Idiocracy: Now that former minister and Umno supreme council member Mustapa Mohamed has joined Bersatu, perhaps the East Coast Rail Line (ECRL) will be back on track, the war chest will be big enough to recruit Umno grassroots leaders and win Kelantan.

PAS will slowly collapse and their members join Amanah. Amanah and half of PKR will toe Bersatu’s line. This may seem subtle but the Tok Pa move is the one ring to rule them all.

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad is uniting Malays under Bersatu. Race-based politics will return and democracy will take the back seat for another 50 years.

It is unlikely that PKR leader Anwar Ibrahim will become prime minister and for DAP to sustain its current position.

What else could a 93-year-old PM and his old sages think about? Building a long-term race-based legacy. Sauron wants his ring back.

David Dass: I suppose it is a case of better late than never. Mustapa has a reputation for being an honest, hard-working technocrat.

That he stayed on as minister and Umno supreme council member in the previous regime even after there was overwhelming evidence of kleptocracy and wrongdoing was initially perceived to be a problem.

Clearly Mahathir is satisfied that he was not complicit in any of the wrongdoings. Malaysian politics is complex. Pakatan Harapan's vulnerability was the absence of substantial Malay support in the last elections. Now the tide is turning.

Mustapa's joining of Bersatu may encourage other MPs to do the same thing. There is the fear that Bersatu will become Umno 2.0 and replicate race-based policies and politics. But I think that we are past that point. The die is cast.

DAP is not the MCA. They have strong support from the non-Malay community and are committed to a multiracial government.

PKR also has strong Malay and non-Malay support. They are also committed to a multiracial government and to more inclusive policies. There is a new reality in the world today.

Race-based politics and policies simply divide us, sap our energies and hold us back. For too long, we are a country that loses many of our brightest minds to other countries and bring in low-skill workers to do low-level jobs in the country.

That results in wages in Malaysia being depressed, our infrastructure being burdened by more than five million foreign workers and huge remittances of money as these workers send money home.

It does not seem likely that either Mahathir or Anwar will revert to the previous form and revert to policies that promote racial exclusiveness and discriminates against non-Malays.

Equally, justice and fairness should be our national credo. Poverty should be eradicated wherever it lies. No matter what the race of the poor.

Vent: Mustapa may be "clean", "nice" and "humble" and more. But the sticking point is this - why did he take so long to leave Umno?

Obviously, he didn't think it was floundering or impossible to salvage. And how long did it take Bersatu if Mahathir is to be believed to observe "his stand (on issues)" and agree "that he is qualified to be a Bersatu member”?

Pretty quickly, I think. because it is patently clear that Bersatu wants to swell its ranks, especially its politburo.

StrainingGnats, SwallowCamels: "It is my view that Umno's current direction is no longer in line with the political principles that I have always held on to... after self-reflection and deep thought, I have taken the decision to resign (from) Umno after more than 40 years of serving the party,” said Mustapa.

May I ask if you would have still undergone self-reflection and deep thought and disagreed with Umno's direction had Umno/BN won GE14 in May, and you were still a member of the supreme council and a cabinet minister?

Would you still have arrived at your present conclusion that Umno's direction is not in sync with your political aspirations? Would your "decision" still be to "resign" from your supreme council position in a victorious Umno and join the vanquished Bersatu/Harapan? What would be the point then?

But there would still be a point because Umno's direction is not a newly-charted course, suddenly lurching in such an opposite direction that you would not have perceived before.

No, Umno's direction had changed since nine years ago when Najib Razak became PM. And, yes, even before Najib's premiership. Umno's direction did not only recently and suddenly change after the electoral defeat on May 9.

Are you not jumping ship only at this point because of political convenience and not political conviction? The key is your timing.

Saifuddin Abdullah, our foreign minister, resigned long before there was any perceived chance of an opposition victory in GE14. Forty years on, the same sinking ship is more than long enough to self-reflect.

Your present direction speaks ill of you, no? If you were blind and only now do you truly see, would not the honourable decision be to announce your remorse, renounce your part, resign from all positions and retire fully to self-reflect?

Instead, you have merely re-attached yourself to power. Cold calculation, yes. Self-reflection, not so much. If your application is nakedly both self-serving and self-preserving, one wonders if it is wise at all for Bersatu and, in effect Harapan, to have embraced you?

Hope Today: This opens the door for perhaps Umno 2.0, which I imagine is not what voters want. Expect more to defect and join Bersatu as a way to get back their power. I am really disappointed it happens.

New Horizon: There are good leaders in all political parties and likewise, there are corrupt and useless leaders too. This applies to component parties in Pakatan Harapan and as well as in BN.

Former minister and Umno supreme council member Mustapa Mohamed is one of the better leaders in Umno and if there were no money politics, he could have become Umno president and PM.

For those who criticise Bersatu in accepting Mustapa, remember that some poor-quality members from Umno have been allowed to join Bersatu previously.

If Mustapa had chosen to join DAP or PKR instead, some of the present critics would say it is a good catch.

The Wakandan: Bersatu must employ utmost discernment in accepting former Umno MPs because not all of them are genuine or even clean.

It is obvious that some do not have any principle but simply to jump into the winning boat for convenience. That's to say, they do not want the struggle in the opposition.

And then there are those who want to save their own skin perhaps hoping that in joining Bersatu they would not be probed of their corruption and wrongdoing. These should not be taken in just for the sake to make the number because eventually, they would be to Bersatu own danger and risk.

These are the political frogs and therefore without credibility and loyalty. Bersatu should not worry about numbers. They are an equal member of the Harapan coalition as mutually agreed from the beginning.

The political journey of the party is still a long way to go. They can always increase the number of their MPs come next election where they should contest the seats they contested in GE14. By then, most voters would be convinced that Umno is not a party that can fight for their interest anymore.

New Horizon: There are good leaders in all political parties and likewise, there are corrupt and useless leaders too. This applies to component parties in Pakatan Harapan and as well as in BN.

Mustapa is one of the better leaders in Umno and if there were no money politics, he could have become Umno president and PM.

For those who criticise Bersatu in accepting Mustapa, remember that some poor-quality members from Umno have been allowed to join Bersatu previously.

If Mustapa had chosen to join DAP or PKR instead, some of the present critics would say it is a good catch.

Caripasal: Bersatu is now officially Umno 2.0. Mahathir has betrayed the Harapan supporters. He accepted most of the former Umno corrupt politicians.

Bersatu is indeed a racist party. If Tok Pa is indeed clean, ask MACC to investigate him and his family thoroughly.

We want DAP and PKR to openly tell us if they support Bersatu accepting Umno leaders into Harapan. Mahathir must resign as PM.

BuatApa?: The remaking of Bersatu into Umno is well-grooved now. Pretty soon Amanah might be swayed by the same, and so will the Malay-arm of PKR. DAP will have lots to (re)consider in the years ahead.

Ipoh Pp: We will be back to square one. Most Umno MPs will join up with Bersatu. Mahathir will once again become the supreme leader as all Umno assets and wealth will be taken over by Bersatu.

Anwar will be checkmated once again. Azmin Ali will be PM after Mahathir leaves. Harapan will break up and DAP will be out in the cold.

The whole bumi agenda will return and the non-Malays will be back to being second-class citizens. Nothing will change. Our only hope is migration.

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