This week, to mark the 40th anniversary of May 13 1969, we speak with Hassan Muthalib, who was a witness to the violent racial clashes in the heart of Kuala Lumpur on that fateful day, as well as the difficult days that followed.  Watch the interview here – http://www.facebook.com/l/;http://popteevee.popfolio.net/default.aspx?e=79

In 1969, Hassan was a 23-year old bachelor and aspiring filmmaker living in Kampung Baru. His experiences of May 13 are also presented in his photographs below – made available to the public for the first time.

Hassan Muthalib is a self-taught artist, designer, animator, film director & writer. He is responsible for many of the most-loved animations on Malaysian television, including the infamous Sang Kancil cartoon.

In commemoration of the 40th anniversary of May-13 incident, my office will hold a public forum entitled “From May 13 to 1Malaysia – The Future of Malaysian Nation Building” on 13th May 2009 (Wednesday), 8.00pm in Civic Hall, MBPJ, Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

Bearing in mind the nation’s difficult past, the objective of this forum is to enable a group of Malaysians from different background and of different era to explore together a Malaysian future that will become our common destiny.

Invited speakers include YB Lim Kit Siang (DAP MP for Ipoh Timur), YB Nizar Jamaluddin (PAS MP for Bukit Gantang), YB Khalid Abd. Samad (PAS MP for Shah Alam), K. Ragunath (Chairman of Malaysian Bar Council), Chan Nyan Hoi (Retired Judge of Court Of Appeal), Associate Professor Dr. Azmi bin Sharom (Lecturer of UM Faculty of Law), Tricia Yeoh Su-Wern (Research Officer of Selangor Menteri Besar’s Office).

Each panelist will be given 10 minutes to lay out her/his ideal Malaysia future, and the audience will have opportunity to voice their own versions of “1Malaysia”. The forum will end with each panelist given 10 minutes to wind up her/his speech.

Light refreshment will be prepared. All are welcomed to attend this forum.

They say those who forget history are doomed to repeat its mistakes. In light of the recent sabre-rattling by those in Umno and the warning by the Armed Forces Chief, Malaysia Today feels compelled to republish an old article by Raja Petra Kamarudin that was published in Harakah on 24 September 1999.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

The move to push Tunku Abdul Rahman aside had started. They needed something to trigger off some form of resentment against the government. They needed the Malays to rise, and what better platform to exploit than a racial platform?

Prior to that, 11 Chinese prisoners were sentenced to death for killing a Malay prison warden in Pudu Jail. This was subsequently turned into a Malay-Chinese issue.

The Malays wanted the 11 Chinese punished. The Chinese wanted their death sentence commuted. And demonstrations were held in the Chinese dominated areas around Kuala Lumpur to pressure the government to pardon the 11. In one large demonstration outside Pudu Jail, the riot police had to be called in the break up the demonstration with teargas. That was my first experience with teargas, and I was only 19 then.

The government had no choice but to back down, thereby angering the Malays.

In another incident, some Chinese demonstrated in front of the United States Information Service (USIS) office and one demonstrator was shot dead by a panicking Malay policeman — interpreted as another Malay-Chinese thing.

The Chinese wanted a funeral procession but the police would not grant them permission as they knew it would attract a huge crowd and the funeral would be turned into a demonstration instead. Tun Razak, however, told the police to grant them permission and ordered the police off the streets. The resulting “giant” parade built up tensions further.

The May 1969 General Elections were held soon after and the Alliance Party won only 40% of the votes resulting in it losing its two-thirds majority in Parliament. It also lost a couple of states to the opposition plus its two-thirds majority in others.

The opposition parties held “victory parades” which turned into a mud-slinging and name-calling session. The Malays were now really angry and decided to hold a victory parade of their own. Dato Harun, the then Chief Minister of Selangor, was given the task of managing this “event”.

On May 13, the entire cabinet withdrew to Frazers Hill while the Malays prepared for trouble. People in the top echelon of the government and commerce were tipped off to get out of town or go home early and, by 3.00pm, the city was quite deserted of the elite except for the unknowing rakyat.

That same evening, racial riots exploded. Parliament was dissolved, thereby saving the Alliance government that no longer had a majority in Parliament, and power was transferred to Deputy Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak under the National Operations Council (NOC).

The Tunku was now powerless.

Mahathir then increased his attacks on the Tunku using race as his platform. He also called for MCA’s expulsion from the Alliance to “punish” the Chinese. Instead, Dr Mahathir was expelled from Umno as the Utusan Malaysia newspaper report of 6 June 1969 reveals:

They say those who forget history are doomed to repeat its mistakes. In light of the recent sabre-rattling by those in Umno and the warning by the Armed Forces Chief, Malaysia Today feels compelled to republish an old article by Raja Petra Kamarudin that was published in Harakah on 24 September 1999.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

UMNO is at it again! They are going round the country saying that keADILan and PAS have allowed the National Mosque to be used by non-Muslims to attack Muslims. UMNO politicians and Pusat Islam officials have likened the non-Muslims to “unclean” people because of their pork-eating and liquor-drinking; so they should not have been allowed into the mosque.

Maybe these narrow-minded people have not noticed the daily busloads of foreign tourists visiting the National Mosque as part of their itinerary? Have these foreign (non-Muslim) tourists been screened whether they eat pork or drink liquor before being allowed into the mosque? I bet not!

UMNO adopted this very dangerous strategy once, 30 years ago, back in 1969, which resulted in the infamous May 13 racial riots. Now they are doing it again. It was a very narrow-minded and short-sighted strategy then. It still is now — maybe even more so now seeing that we have entered the borderless cyber age and are about to enter a new millennium.

Race and religion should no longer be used to separate Malaysians in the divide-and-rule policy of the Barisan Nasional government. The Malays, Chinese and Indians must protest strongly and reject this outdated racial politics that is extremely dangerous and can disrupt the peace and stability of this multi-racial, multi-religious country of ours. UMNO is saying one thing to the Malays, and the opposite to the non-Malays. This is the height of hypocrisy.
Do any of you know the REAL story behind May 13 — how is started, why it was started, and who started it? If not, then let me take you down memory lane.

Contrary to what the (local) history books try to tell us, May 13 was NOT about Malay and Chinese rivalry. It may have eventually ended that way, but that definitely was not how it started out. May 13 was basically a Malay political struggle with racialism used as a camouflage.

To understand May 13, we need to go back to the pre-Merdeka days to see how independence was achieved and how the first leaders of independent Malaya were groomed to take over running the country.

The British knew that, one day, they would have to grant independence to Malaya. India, Indonesia, the Philippines, and many countries around this region had already gained independence from their colonial masters. In 1946, the independence movement in Malaya had also started, giving birth to the first Malay political party, UMNO. It was a matter of time before the British would have to give in to the demands of the Malays.

The British thought that the best way to grant independence to Malaya, yet still have some control over their old colony, would be to groom the leaders who would take over and educate them the British way so that they would soon become more English than the Englishman.

In the mid 1940s, the British doors were thrown open to the Malays and the first batch of Malays was brought over to England to receive an English education. These were mostly the sons of the elite and royalty — Tengku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak, and many more future leaders of Malaya. Tengku Rahman was definitely given special treatment by the British to the extent he was the only student in Cambridge history ever allowed to own a car on campus (everyone else rode bicycles). He drove a MG sports car and spent his years enjoying the lifestyle of the rich and famous.

Eventually these young graduates of an English education were brought back to Malaya and given government posts as part of their training to one day take over the reins of power. As an example Tengku became a District Officer in Kedah, a post normally reserved for the “white man”.

Needless to say, these English educated Malays enjoyed all the trappings of England including cricket, rugby, tea-at-four, brandy-after-dinner, and so on, not to mention a day at the dog races.

Eventually, Merdeka was won and, in 1957, the local Malays took over running the government. But it was merely a changing of the skin colour. The management style remained the same. It was Merdeka without losing the English influence. In fact, as mentioned earlier, the Malays of this era tended to be more English than even the Englishmen.

It was now twelve years after Merdeka and the “young Turks” in UMNO were getting restless and wanted a change of leadership. These young Turks such as Hussein Onn and Dr Mahathir Mohamad had no sentimental attachments to the British, as they were educated in India and Singapore respectively. They were also angry that Tengku Abdul Rahman surrounded himself with Chinese businessman.
Mahathir made this point very clear in his letter to the Tengku which goes as follows:

“You have become so powerful, both by virtue of your office and by popular acclaim, that UMNO has become subservient to you. UMNO is being held together, not because the members share your ideas on politics, but through a system of patronage and disguised coercion based on Government rather than party authority.

A feeling of power normally grips those who wield patronage, a feeling that they can mould and shape people and opinions any way they please. The leaders of UMNO, the senior partners of the Alliance Government, have succumbed to this disease and, believing that they no longer need to heed the opinions of their supporters, they disregard them at every turn.

Laws have been hurriedly passed without prior consultation with the representatives who have had to “sell” these laws to the people. Tax innovations have been made and discarded with complete disregard for the disrupting effect on the public. In the main, Parliamentary sittings are regarded as a pleasant formality which afford members an opportunity to be heard and quoted, but which have absolutely no effect on the course of the Government. The sittings are a concession to a superfluous democratic practice. Off and on, this strength is used to change the constitution. The manner, the frequency, and the trivial reasons for altering the constitution have reduced this supreme law of the nation to a useless scrap of paper.

Your Ministers and the Cabinet are vested with this decision-making authority. It is obvious that only the most capable and experienced should be made Ministers and be in the Cabinet. But independent Malaysia has chosen to treat membership of the Cabinet as a reward for loyalty to party chiefs and acceptability to the Prime Minister. Once appointed, no amount of dereliction of duty could affect the position of a Minister. On the other hand, even if the Minister performs well, failure to remain on good terms with the Prime Minister means removal from the Ministry.

Your Government of mediocre people is bereft of ideas, is unable to understand the limits of their authority, and is generally unable to rule. All the while, however, your Government is busy on devices to perpetuate itself. These devices are so transparent and so lacking in subtlety that they achieve just the opposite effect.

May I remind you, Merdeka has brought power and wealth to the new Malay elite. Politics is found to be the panacea. It provides a shortcut to everything. It makes possible the attainment of positions of immense power. These Malays are in a position to acquire riches.

At first, this might seem grossly unfair. These few Malays – for they are still only a very few – have waxed riches not because of themselves, but because of the policy of a Government supported by a huge majority of poor Malays. It would seem that the efforts of the poor Malays have gone to enrich a select few of their own people. The poor Malays themselves have not gained one iota. With the existence of the few rich Malays, at least the poor Malays can say that their fate is not entirely to serve the rich non-Malays. From their point of view of racial ego, and this ego is still strong, the unseemly existence of Malay tycoons is essential.

The various races in Malaysia are differentiated not merely by ethnic origin, but also by many other characteristics. These characteristics are important. How these characteristics develop is another matter, but when races compete in a given field, these characteristics play an extremely important role. The Jews, for example are not merely hook-nosed, but understand money instinctively.

The possession of these characteristics means little until different races come into contact with each other. Jewish stinginess and financial wizardry gained them the commercial control of Europe and provoked an anti-Semitism, which waxed and waned throughout Europe through the ages.

The first thing that comes to mind is that the vast majority of Malays are feudalistic and wish to remain so. A revolution, which starts off by preaching the destruction of the established monarchical order, will therefore fail. It will not win the support of the majority of orthodox Malays. In any case, the monarch has done no real harm to the Malays or to anyone else. The maintenance of the system is no doubt costly, but being separated from power, the ruler cannot constitute a tyranny. Besides, a Malaysia without rulers would mean the complete eclipse of the Malays. It is the rulers who have in the past furnished and continued to present the Malay character of Malaysia. Remove them, and the last vestige of traditional Malaysia would disappear. It is essential therefore that the monarchy remains.

To take on an adversary when it seems to be beyond one’s capacity is courageous. To calculate and assess one’s chances first is to exhibit cowardice. Time and again this inability or unwillingness to measure the odds against them has led to defeat and disaster for the Malays. The courageous or brave Malay is usually foolhardy, and because he is likely to do things without thinking of the consequences, the average Malay treats him with fear and respect. The ordinary man knows that it is not worthwhile to incur his displeasure and that it is safer to let him have his own way. The ordinary man therefore represents the other extreme when principle is easily set aside for the sake of safety.

Even feudalism can be beneficial if it facilitates changes. The political Rajas of today can, therefore, institute change if they themselves are willing to change. Such a change would spread rapidly. If the indications are that there should be a change in the value system and ethical code, then the leaders can lead the way with the certainty that they will be followed by the masses. In a feudal society, if the leaders fail, then there is little hope for the masses.”

The following statement is a factual account of the above-mentioned event given to me by the late Tunku Abdul Rahman (first Prime Minister of Malaysia) during an interview at his residence in Penang in 1972. I requested to discuss the above incident and was surprised when the appointment was given within three days.

His Secretary, a Chinese gentleman, allotted me one hour and advised me not to go into too much detail as this would tire the Tunku unnecessarily. In fact, the interview lasted three and a half hours. Because of the very surprising details provided to me, I think it would be best to report in a first-hand manner based on my notes written immediately after the interview.

“It was clear to me as well as the police that in the highly charged political atmosphere after the police were forced to kill a Chinese political party worker on May 4th, 1969, something was bound to happen to threaten law and order because of the resentment towards the Government by the KL Chinese on the eve of the general election. This was confirmed at this man’s funeral on the 9th May when the government faced the most hostile crowd it had ever seen.

Therefore, when the opposition parties applied for a police permit for a procession to celebrate their success in the results of the general election, I was adamant against it because the police were convinced that this would lead to trouble. I informed Tun Razak about this and he seemed to agree.

Now, without my knowledge and actually “behind my back”, there were certain political leaders in high positions who were working to force me to step down as a PM. I don’t want to go into details but if they had come to me and said so I would gladly have retired gracefully.

Unfortunately, they were apparently scheming and trying to decide on the best way to force me to resign. The occasion came when the question of the police permit was to be approved.

Tun Razak and Harun Idris, the MB of the state of Selangor, now felt that permission should be given, knowing fully well that there was a likelihood of trouble. I suppose they felt that when this happened they could then demand my resignation.

To this day I find it very hard to believe that Razak, whom I had known for so many years, would agree to work against me in this way. Actually he was in my house, as I was preparing to return to Kedah, and I overhead him speaking to Harun over the phone saying that he would be willing to approve the permit when I left. I really could not believe what I was hearing and preferred to think it was about some other permit.  In any case, as the Deputy Prime Minister, in my absence from KL, he would be the Acting PM and would override my objection.

Accordingly, when I was in my home in Kedah, I heard over the radio that the permit had been approved.

It seems as though the expected trouble was anticipated and planned for by Harun and his UMNO Youth. After the humiliating insults hurled by the non-Malays, especially the Chinese, and after the seeming loss of Malay political power to them, they were clearly ready for some retaliatory action.

After meeting in large numbers at Harun’s official residence in Jalan Raja Muda near Kampong Bahru, and hearing inflammatory speeches by Harun and other leaders, they prepared themselves by tying ribbon strips on their foreheads and set out to kill Chinese. The first hapless victims were two of them in a van opposite Harun’s house who were innocently watching the large gathering. Little did they know that they would be killed on the spot.

The rest is history. I am sorry but I must end this discussion now because it really pains me as the Father of Merdeka to have to relive those terrible moments. I have often wondered why God made me live long enough to have witnessed my beloved Malays and Chinese citizens killing each other.”

This was a conspiracy at the highest level and nothing short of a power struggle, with the ‘Young Turks’ then forming the pressure group. To achieve their ends, they very cleverly used race to make the Malays rise and push the Tengku aside.

Today, they are doing it again. This is dangerous politics. It may backfire and, instead, it may make the Malays rise against the non-Malays, like what happened in 1969 — a fire raging out of control with no fire extinguisher in sight.

We must never allow our country to be turned into a racial battlefield again. Let politics be issues concerning policies, civil rights, good governance and justice. Let us not allow anyone to bring race and religion into our politics lest we suffer the fate of many countries around us where mass murders of entire families are made in the name of ‘bangsa’ and ‘agama’.

They say those who forget history are doomed to repeat its mistakes. In light of the recent sabre-rattling by those in Umno and the warning by the Armed Forces Chief, Malaysia Today feels compelled to republish an old article by Raja Petra Kamarudin that was published in Harakah on 24 September 1999.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

This is Part One of an article I wrote almost nine years ago, which was published in Harakah, the official media organ of the Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS). History is not something that should remain buried. History is something that should be a lesson to all or us so that we do not repeat the mistakes made by those before us.

In 1968, Umno fanned racial sentiments in a bid to ‘unite’ the Malays under its banner. Umno realised that the Malays were abandoning it in droves and it needed an issue to reunite the Malays. Further to that, the Prime Minister was being blamed for what Umno perceived as a loss of Malay support and the Young Turks in Umno wanted to also use this issue to pressure the Prime Minister into resigning.

Twenty years later, in 1988, Umno again went into turmoil with the emergence of Team A and Team B, which eventually split into Umno Baru and Semangat 46. Again, just like twenty years before that, the Malays had become disillusioned with the Umno leadership and there was a danger that Umno would suffer the same fate it did in 1969 if the general election was called.

The Umno leadership very cleverly got the Umno Youth and MCA Youth leaders to raise racial issues and bring the country to the brink of another ‘May 13’. This was when that infamous gathering at the TPCA padang in Kampong Baru was held and when Najib Tun Razak, the Umno Youth Leader, raised the keris and threatened to bathe it in Chinese blood.

Of course, this second ‘May 13’ never happened. What did happen instead was that Operasi Lalang was launched and more than 100 opposition leaders and activists were detained under the Internal Security Act. Najib and the MCA Youth Leader, Lee Kim Sai, however, were spared detention, although they were the two main players in the whole episode.

The ploy did not quite succeed though. In the 1990 general election, half the Malays swung to the opposition and Umno lost most of the Malay heartland to Semangat 46 and PAS.

Twenty years on and history is, again, being repeated. It appears like every twenty years Umno takes the country to the brink of a race riot in its effort to ‘unite’ the Malays and to ensure that it does not lose Malay support. And the 8 March 2008 general election, as well as the recent Permatang Pauh by-election, is proof that Umno has lost Malay support.

“The current situation is a repeat of 1969,” said Umno in its brainstorming session held at the Umno headquarters to conduct a post-mortem of the election results. “Therefore, a 1969 ‘solution’ will also be required.”

This is very dangerous talk indeed. And Umno has been doing nothing but talking dangerously since March 2008, as evident in the recent episode in Penang. Maybe the culprit has since been punished. Yesterday, Umno’s Supreme Council decided to suspend Ahmad Ismail for a period of three years. But the damage has already been done and the suspension can’t turn back the clock. Racial sentiments have already been fanned and Malaysia, again, is being pushed to the brink of a race riot.

Malays, Chinese and Indians need to know how May 13 started. They must be made aware of what May 13 was really all about. They must be made to realise that the current sabre-rattling is nothing but the same ploy that Umno used back in 1968 and 1988 whenever it felt that it was losing Malay support. May 13 was not about race although it is being touted as so. May 13 was about ‘reuniting’ the Malays and about ousting the Prime Minister from office.

To forget history would be to repeat its mistakes. Let us not be taken in by Umno’s shadow-play (wayang kulit). They know they are rapidly losing power and they want to retain power through foul means by raising the spectre of May 13. Malaysians need to be matured and clever enough to reject this ploy. Umno can try, but whether it can succeed will all depend on whether we get suckered into this very dangerous race game.

Let me take you down memory lane and recap what I wrote nine years ago so that we may learn from this dark history and not repeat what went wrong. As follows is what I wrote in Harakah on 24 September 1999.

Rahmah Ghazali (Malaysiakini)

Gerakan Wanita today issued a strong call for Bukit Bendera Umno division chief Ahmad Ismail to be sacked from his party for his spate of racist rants.

Women’s wing chief Tan Lian Hoe said Umno president Abdullah Ahmad Badawi should have Ahmad detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) for playing up racial issues.

She said Ahmad’s ongoing attacks against the Chinese community are a threat to national security and expressed fears that this could lead to racial riots, similar to those of May 13, 1969.

Gerakan members, she said, are disappointed and angry with the actions of certain supporters of Ahmad. Yesterday, they had torn a photo of Gerakan acting president Koh Tsu Koon at the Penang Umno headquarters.

“How would Umno members nationwide react if a photo of their president was torn in that manner?” she asked.

If there are personal conflicts between Koh and Ahmad, the matter should be resolved behind closed doors and “not openly in front of the press”, she said.

“We should also not compromise with a person who is irresponsible and disrespectful, and (who is) trying to disrupt harmony in this country.”

Tan made her comments at a hastily-arranged press conference this morning at Gerakan headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.

Yesterday Ahmad continued his verbal assault against Koh by blaming him for playing up the issue, and calling for Barisan Nasional to kick Gerakan out of the ruling coalition.

Ahmad also issued a warning to the Chinese community against raising issues about Malays.

pak lah abdullah ahmad badawi putrajaya malaysiaIn an immediate reaction, Abdullah had lashed out at Ahmad last night, summoning him for an urgent meeting in Putrajaya this afternoon.

Asked if Gerakan’s call to detain Ahmad under the ISA contradicts the party’s firm stance against the draconian law, Tan hesitantly replied that it could still be used to safeguard  national security.

“In order to ease the strain among the grassroots, the ISA is still relevant for the time being,” said Tan, adding that the prime minister should take stern action against Ahmad.

Visible anger

Surrounded by Gerakan committee members during the press conference, Tan said that Ahmad’s alleged racial slurs could have an impact in other quarters.

“If he stops the nonsense – the racist remarks – immediately, surely we will not press for (use of the) ISA. If he does, I’m sure not only Gerakan, (but also) the NGOs and other parties will be affected,” said Tan.

She further criticised Penang Umno for standing by Ahmad despite his allegedly racist remarks.

“Their support is inappropriate as this only fans the anger of other races, although we have a good relationship with other Umno divisions,” said Tan.

gerakan wanita pc on ahmad ismail bukit bendera koh tsu koon tear down photo stunt 090908 pcDespite visible anger among Gerakan Wanita members during the 15-minute press conference, Tan said the party would accept an apology from Ahmad if he is sincere about it.

“If he is honest (enough) to apologise, then we would accept it. However, we will not force him to apologise because that would not (demonstrate) his sincerity.”

Asked if this matter would in any way influence Gerakan to pull out of BN, Tan replied “For now, that is out of the question, but we will make our decision later.”

Last night, at an emergency meeting, the Gerakan Penang liaison committee decided to sever ties with Umno Penang. However, the minority Chinese community was advised not to organise protests over the matter.

G. MANIMARAN (mStar Online)

PETALING JAYA: Umno memerlukan pemimpin baru? Bekas Presidennya, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad perlu kembali ke Umno?

Ia antara beberapa isu yang ditimbulkan oleg bekas Menteri Besar Selangor, Dr. Mohd. Khir Toyo dalam blognya hari ini.

“UMNO memerlukan pemimpin baru bagi memberi nafas baru kepada parti dan juga rakyat. Bagi saya antara pemimpin dan parti, parti perlu lebih penting. Namun sanggupkah kita di bawah ini bersama melakukan perubahan?” kata Dr. Khir.

Kata beliau, “suka atau tidak, saya berpandangan peralihan kuasa perlu disegerakan. “

Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi dan timbalannya, Datuk Seri Mohd. Najib Tun Razak mempersetujui pelan peralihan kuasa Jun 2010.

Jelas Dr. Khir, Umno perlu diutamakan manakala keresahan rakyat perlu diredakan dengan pembaharuan dijalankan dengan segera.

Krisis yang bermula dalam Umno kini telah merebak dalam Barisan Nasional (BN), kata beliau dan menambah, “saya bimbang ledakan ini tidak dapat ditampung dengan kekuatan yang ada sama ada dalam Umno mahupun dalam BN.”

Abdullah merupakan Presiden Umno dan Pengerusi BN.

Sambil menggariskan nama empat pemimpin dalam tulisannya itu, Dr. Khir berkata, beliau berharap agar Dr. Mahathir menggunakan pengalaman beliau selama 22 tahun menjadi Perdana Menteri, terlibat sendiri dengan peristiwa 13 Mei dan melibatkan diri sama pada krisis kepimpinan yang ada pada hari ini memainkan peranan yang lebih jelas untuk menyelamatkan parti dan juga negara.

“Saya berharap Tun Dr. Mahathir akan kembali kepada UMNO bagi membantu pemulihan parti.

“Saya bimbang jika kita lewat melakukan sesuatu, peristiwa rakyat berada di jalan akan berulang dan ia akan mengeruhkan lagi keadaan,” katanya.

Dr. Mahathir keluar Umno Mei lalu.

Tambah Dr. Khir, beliau berharap pucuk pimpinan sedar dan mengambil langkah yang lebih berani dalam memastikan parti akan terus kukuh, negara akan dapat diselamatkan dari ketidakstabilan politik.