Pak Lah remains bitter with Muhyiddin - malaysiakini

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 1 — One of Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s infuriating habits is his tendency to forgive and forget, charge his supporters.

Political enemies are given a free pass too readily; those who ignored him when he was in political wilderness in the early 1990s such as Penang’s Datuk Ahmad Ismail have been defended publicly and even embraced as allies; and his critics have been invited to have dinner with him at his Jalan Bellamy home.

Perhaps one day Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin will fit snugly into the “forgive and forget category”. But not just yet.

They meet at the weekly Cabinet and Umno supreme council meetings and bump into each other in Parliament when the House is in session but there has been next to zero personal contact between the two men over the past few months.

The reason: Abdullah still cannot get past the cheerleading role that the Minister of International Trade and Industry played in whipping up ground sentiment in Umno against him after the March 8 elections and the alliance he forged with former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in the campaign to force the PM out of office early.

Abdullah has so far not entertained requests from Muhyiddin for a four-eyes meeting, concerned that it could be misconstrued by party members as endorsement of the latter’s push for the deputy president position in Umno.

Muhyiddin is being challenged by Malacca Chief Minister Datuk Ali Rustam and Rural Development Minister Tan Sri Muhammad Muhammad Taib, two politicians who have shown some measure of loyalty to the prime minister when he was being hammered for his weak leadership and role in the electoral debacle for Barisan Nasional.

Ironically, Abdullah always considered Muhyiddin one of his closest friends in government. And though he picked Datuk Seri Najib Razak as his deputy over Muhyiddin, he appointed the Johor politician to senior portfolios in the Cabinet, first as the Agriculture Minister and then as the Minister of International Trade and Industry.

He was surprised when word filtered back to him that Muhyiddin had used a Federal Territory Umno meeting in May to openly question his fitness to lead Umno and the country.

During that meeting, Muhyiddin said: “Pak Lah is my friend, but can he manage the current situation? He's a good man, but the situation has changed. I am being sincere… We need to change, so that we don't go down and down.”

Still, he refused to believe that Muhyiddin had teamed up with others including his nemesis Dr Mahathir to force him to hand over power to Najib sooner than the 2010 transition date. But slowly he began to see a trend of Muhyiddin getting more vocal and adopting some of the arguments which had been put in the public domain by Dr Mahathir.

He was grated when Muhyiddin began distancing himself from the 2010 transition plan despite endorsing the supreme council decision. During this time, Abdullah was encouraged by some Cabinet ministers and senior government officials to drop Muhyiddin from the Cabinet.

He declined to do so, either because he did not want to make Muhyiddin a martyr in Umno or because he did not want to open up another battlefront.

Following Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s stunning victory in Permatang Pauh in August, Muhyiddin increased his pressure on Abdullah to step down. By then also, more senior Umno politicians had become restless and concerned about the future of Umno should Abdullah remain in power till mid 2010.

Abdullah himself sensed that his grip on power was weakening and moved to protect his turf by offering Najib the powerful Finance portfolio.

The end came swiftly when several members of the supreme council, including Wanita Umno chief Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz, urged Abdullah not to defend the party presidency, saying that he had lost the ground.

Following this rebuff, Abdullah announced that he would step down after the party assembly in March. He believed that the groundswell against him had been manufactured by Muhyiddin and gang.
A senior party official told The Malaysian Insider: “I believe that one day Pak Lah will be able to forgive Muhyiddin but there is still bitterness over the betrayal, especially how he teamed up with Dr Mahathir.’’

On the flip side, Muhyiddin’s supporters argue that he was spot on in pushing for a quicker transition of power, noting that Umno seems to be more united now that the succession issue has been settled. Government lawmakers are more assured in Parliament and talk of cross overs has died down.

Also, they point out that though Muhyiddin was hoisted as the poster boy of the “force Abdullah out’’ movement, there were many senior Umno politicians who were saying in private what the Johor politician was willing to say on record.

Muhyiddin’s advocates say that he wants to meet Abdullah to clear the air and rebuild a friendship that was once solid.

That day of rapprochement could happen but ties between the two men will never be the same. Too much has happened between March 8 and now. -- TMI