BREAKING: Mahathir leaves UMNO?
It’s just a rumor at the moment, but if it’s true, it’s big. We’ll bring you the latest as we get the news. Stay tuned….
UPDATE: New Straits Times is confirming the news. Here’s the entirety of their story, which, for obvious reasons, I feel free to reproduce on fair use grounds:
Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad announces today that he is quitting Umno.
He said at a forum in Alor Star that he will only rejoin the party when Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi steps down as Umno president.
Here’s more background on UMNO, and the official party site.
Mahathir’s break with the party — now also confirmed, as this is written, by the IHT — is, one suspects, likely prompted by Prime Minister Badawi’s investigation of judicial corruption during Mahathir’s tenure as PM. Mahathir has been publicly defiant, but he is almost certainly distressed at the probability that he will shortly be indicted for his actions.
UPDATE 2: Also confirmed by The Star Online, which opines that the move is meant to force PM Badawi from office by …. weakening UMNO, it seems. Considering that opposition coalition leader Anwar Ibrahim has threatened a showdown before Malaysia Day in mid-September, this, if true, signifies a desire on Mahathir’s part to see UMNO under Badawi actually deposed from power. Presumably, he could then return as the savior of the party and its fortunes. Of course, this thesis presumes that Mahathir could attract sufficient numbers to walk out with him — and that he wants to hold high office again. Both propositions are dubious.
This site sticks with the thesis that Mahathir wants UMNO out of power so the investigation into judicial corruption ends.
UPDATE 3: And now it is reported that Mahathir quit on a dare. Curiouser and curiouser.
