I am surprised by the outburst of the Umno vice president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin in Kota Kinabalu yesterday, excoriating former Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Zaid Ibrahim, for attending an opposition function, accusing Zaid of “disloyalty to Umno” and demanding an explanation from Zaid or to face disciplinary reprisals!
I am very disappointed because Muhyiddin is the Minister for International Trade and Industry as well as the favourite in the contest for Umno Deputy President and therefore Deputy Prime Minister-designate next March – and should be an example of inclusive thinking and greater openness and tolerance instead of being very exclusive, intolerant and petty-minded in a country we want to market to the world as Instant Asia!
It is a major setback for the Bangsa Malaysia concept as it illustrates the sad fact that exclusive, intolerant and petty-mindedness have displaced inclusive thinking and greater openness and tolerance in the mind-set of Umno leaders 51 years after Merdeka!
Is “loyalty to Umno” so brittle and fragile that it must be invoked against any Umno member for attending an opposition function?
I attended the official opening of the new Umno Building at Putra World Trade Centre, Kuala Lumpur in the eighties. Was my “loyalty to DAP” ever in doubt for attending an Umno function? Continue reading “Muhyiddin’s ultimatum to Zaid – rise of exclusive, intolerant and petty-mindedness in Umno leadership”