What's Good for Business.

If we study Dr Mahathir, he has made repeated mistakes in offering a successor. This means in UMNO there is no succession plan.At least from his time onwards.

Everyone of his number 2 will be kicked out for one reason or another. Musa Hitam who was once touted as Mahathir’s double- I wonder if people still remembered the 2-M administration- he left citing irreconcilable differences. What he meant was Mahathir was too autocratic.

Then came in Ghafar Baba- who left almost forgotten, also whispered for doing so at Mahathir’s manoeuvrings. Mahathir was besotted with Anwar then.

Until today, the memorial Tun Ghafar remains on a giant billboard but not in actual presence. 

Anwar Ibrahim was the other casualty. He was replaced by Pak Lah- generally accepted as the most incompetent PM.

Finally we are saddled with the current PM- a man chosen by Mahathir on account on his being Tun Razak’s progeny. Now, our current PM is being described as the most incompetent and the most hated PM in our history.

That proves your bloodline and progeny are not relevant in succeeding as leader.

Dr Mahathir can point out the bad qualities of a successor but he is hopeless when it comes to identifying the successor. That is the main reason while we allow him to point out deficiencies of any current leader, he must abstain from choosing one. 

If he now chooses Muhyidin for instance- there is a higher probability, Muhyidin will fall short off the mark. So don’t choose Muhyidin.and Muhyidin knows Mahathir's endorsement is no manna from heaven.

That is the reason why Muhyidin is playing hide and seek. There has been no open endorsement on Muhyidin’s replacing Najib and so Muhyidin hasn’t rushed out openly. 

But Muhyidn has committed the sin to show that he is aligned to Mahathir's thinking. Fatal mistake. Najib’s people do not trust Muhyidin despite making all those farcical kiss and make up in public shows.

Muhyidin knows this and his people, though eager to see the boss takes over are restrained.

Mahathir’s so called endorsement on Muhyidin is in the form of some vague reference to the equally non-committal idea of according to UMNO hierarchy system- the number 2 is the one to replace the number 1 if the latter is incapacitated in any way. 

Not only unclear but that has been the convention all the time and it failed every time because Mahathir endorsed the wrong candidate using the wrong means. The means, which is reliance on the UMNO tradition , must change precisely because it failed all the time.

To UMNO, that means choosing a leader who isn’t from the conventional line up. If there is a person more qualified than the number two, that person ought to be accepted.

Isn’t it a curious thing- that for the 1^st time in our history, the opposition is endorsing someone from UMNO to become the PM? They should be asking and insisting that someone from their own circle to become PM.

People can say that’s because the opposition has no one of stature to become PM yet. That may be true, but the truer and more practical reason is, we all want a leader needed by Malaysia.

The opposition is keener to have a national leader committed to the idea of inclusive politics rather than a person, enmeshed in partisan politics. We want a leader that’s good for the business of this country.

The business of this country is to be a country founded on democratic means, upholding the rule of law. The country must remain structured by the institutions that support the existence of a democratic Malaysia as such. 

The leader we need is a person unflinchingly committed to these principles. The opposition conducts itself responsibly and commits itself to what’s good for Malaysia.