AFTER two years each in PAS and PKR, Muhammad Muhammad Taib has gone back to Umno to repeat the party line that only it can bring progress to the Malays. 

The Malays will be left behind economically and politically if the opposition Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition wins the next election as Umno is the only party capable of saving them, the former Selangor menteri besar told The Malaysian Insight.

Muhammad, who had rejoined Umno last month, said the Selangor government was the perfect example of an administration that had done nothing for the Malays.

“What is your agenda to help the Malays? I created Shah Alam, a Malay town. What is his plan? What is his plan to solve the problem of urban poverty?” he said, in reference to current Selangor Menteri Besar Mohamed Azmin Ali.

“There are so many urban Malays who are unemployed now. Urban poverty, it used to be rural poverty.”

He claimed that six Malays in Selangor became billionaires during his tenure as menteri besar, but said not even one Malay businessman had replicated that level of success since the opposition took over the state.

“Six billionaires! We’re not even counting the millionaires,” he said.

Muhammad, who is popularly known as Mat Taib, repeated his call to Malays not to “kill the goose that lays the golden eggs”, in reference to Umno as the party that would bring them wealth and prosperity.

Describing the opposition coalition as “a total mess”, he said PH was too fractured with infighting to be able to properly care for the Malays.

“I don’t see an alternative to Umno,” said Muhammad.

“If we move to the opposition, the Malay leadership will be dispersed.”

The following are excerpts of his interview with The Malaysian Insight.

Q: What is your response to the criticisms levelled against you when you returned to Umno? Some called you a “frog”.

Mat Taib:  I think they (his critics) have become… how do you put it? Do we want to say mad? Maybe not. They are drunk.

They are drunk, unable to see clearly with their eyes. They are filled with emotion.

So, they speak with emotion. They are almost at the level of being senile. They can’t see things objectively!

Q: Some have brought up your old cases.

Mat Taib: Those are stupid people. Fight me with the issues I’m bringing up. Why do they want to dig up (the past)? They don’t have issues?

Q: Aren’t they responding to the issues you’ve brought up?

Mat Taib: Hah! No issues, none of them have issues. Why not dig from the time he was six months old? If that’s what we base it on, ‘you are not matured!’

You’re not on the same level as me. If that really is you, you really have no class. You’re senile. You’re senile. Not at the level that I am speaking at.

Fight me on what I’m saying now. The issues that I am bringing up – fight that. Not something that happened 20 years ago.

Q: If you are offered to stand in the 14th general election, would you?

Mat Taib: I’ve already said it. I had already been offered to stand for PKR at Hulu Selangor (parliamentary seat)

There are rumours that say I will stand, if I wanted to, I would have waited (in PKR). I have no intention of standing for elections.

I think this country is safer if politically, it is controlled by Malays. The Chinese take care of business. The Malays let them take care of the business, and then we take care of this country together, the Chinese can progress to the fullest.

The Indians can also follow in the progress. The Malays can also enter professional industries, enter business, but we must never let go of the political power.

Q: But back in May 2015, after you left PAS, in a forum entitled ‘Finding Malaysia’s New Leader’, you said you left PAS because the party was not interested in representing other races. Why would return to a single-race party like Umno?

Mat Taib: My response would be, look at Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s statements when he was speaking at PAS events in 1969. You look at his speeches when he was Umno president.

You look at Dr Mahathir’s speeches since he became Bersatu chairman. Left, up, down, right and left. So, if Dr Mahathir is like this, Muhyiddin Yassin is also like that. Anwar Ibrahim was something before, now he is different.

Why you pick on me? Why you pick on me? It’s true I was not satisfied then. There were issues I was not satisfied with. But I think those issues need to be corrected at a deeper level.

What’s important is that the power cannot be given away. The power must be strongly defended by the Malays. The power, the political power.

Just like Bersatu now. When it is on the ground, it doesn’t have the machinery. The villages, there is no machinery. How is it going to campaign when it doesn’t have any machinery.

There has never been anything like Umno on that side. Like the Republicans and Democrats in America. Not yet, we’re not at that level yet. Until we are at that level, Umno must be given the power.

Here, right now, Umno is solid. Over there, Malays have Bersatu, Amanah, PKR, PAS… fractured!

Q: When you left Umno, nobody followed you. When you left PAS and entered PKR, nobody followed. Now that you have returned to Umno, you have also failed to bring anybody with you. You appear to be losing influence. What added value can you bring to Umno?

Mat Taib: For me, influence or not is not important. I have issues I want to address to the Malays. And anyway, I didn’t ask anyone to join me.

I don’t believe in having a team of supporters. I don’t believe that. I believe in issues. Issues will stand up. Even if you have a thousand people but no issues, so what?

Let me be alone, but I have issues to bring up. If you want a fight, talk about issues, don’t talk about people. If its people, with money, you can fill a stadium with people.

We base on the issue. Is it correct that Malays must control the politics in this country? Is it true that others cannot interfere? Others stay in their own fields, don’t try and get involved.

Q: While you were in PKR, were you asked for advice on matters relating to the Malays, especially in Selangor?

Mat Taib: The set up is not there. The meeting is full of Malays, non-Malays. You want to talk about Malays? In it, all the top leadership. How do we discuss the Malay agenda?

Does Sivarasa Rasiah want that? To talk about the Malays? Tian Chua, Wong Chen, do they want to talk about Malays? It’s the wrong place. Wrong place to speak. Where can we speak about the Malays?

Malays are “murdering” each other in PKR. How can they talk about taking care of the Malays?

I don’t think it’s possible. That’s why I returned. Take care of the power. Sure, there are weaknesses. There are weaknesses. But I look at these weaknesses, they are the same as before.

If we look at these weaknesses, one by one, I think it amounts to hundreds of billions. Hundreds of billions gone. Including the (Bank Negara Malaysia) forex (scandal), PKFZ, Perwaja… if we count them all, it’s in the billions. Hundreds of billions.

So. don’t dare bring it up!  – October 6, 2017.