KUALA LUMPUR: After being criticised for attacking the prime minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad hit back at his detractors saying that he only disagreed with Datuk Seri Najib Razak and not Umno.

“I am still an Umno member. My disagreement is with the leader, not with the party. I criticised the leader, not the party. It is simply because I want to see the party win.

“It will not win if Najib is the leader,” Dr Mahathir wrote on his blog chedet.cc yesterday.

Malaysia’s longest-serving prime minister has been chastised by Umno leaders and supporters for his open attacks against Najib.

Dr Mahathir defended his call for Najib to resign, saying that the latter was partly instrumental in asking for Abdullah to step down.

“As for the comment that it is unfair for me to ask Najib to step down as he was elected through democratic process, I would like to [say] Tun Abdullah was also elected but Najib was partly instrumental in asking him to step down.”

Najib, Dr Mahathir said, was worse than Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, the fifth Prime Minister who he helped bring down and replaced with Najib.

“I had great hopes when Najib took over from Abdullah. But he did even worse than Abdullah, losing more badly in Selangor where he was the head of Umno. There are so many scandals surrounding him now. His popularity is now even lower than when he led the BN in 2013. In a number of constituencies the margins of victory for Barisan Nasional (BN) are very narrow. Sabah and Sarawak are now no longer safe, no longer BN’s fixed deposits. Is it too absurd to predict defeat for the BN in 2018?” he wrote.

On April 2, he listed down in his blog posting various allegations against Najib. These included the murder of Mongolian citizen Altantuya Shaariibuu and the claims made by one of her convicted murderers, former police commando Sirul Azhar Umar, who was a former bodyguard of Najib.

Noting Sirul’s claim that he had been “under orders” to kill Altantuya, Dr Mahathir said such an allegation ought to be investigated.

He also delved into the problems surrounding 1MDB.

Dr Mahathir then questioned the source of funds for Najib’s stepson Riza Aziz to purchase luxury properties in New York through businessman Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low.

He also mentioned the new private jet purchased for Najib, describing it as a “waste” since the government already had other jets.

He wrote that those accusations remained unanswered. — The Malaysian Insider

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on April 8, 2015.