Umno Party Election - Ali Rustam Is Out

Ali Rustam bersalah dan dilarang daripada bertanding...so he is out! That is the announcement made by the Umno Disciplinary board chairman, Tengku Ahmad Rithaudeen today. So who is Ali Rustam? I don't really see what he has done for the country or state until he is appointed Melaka's CM and in the current Umno VP rank. He is also one of the contestant for the deputy president post in next week's Umno party poll. The 4th floor guy, Khairy Jamaluddin is also among the 15 guilty party members, but he got away with a "stern" warning. The most unpleasant surprise would be the alleged most corrupted person in Selangor was cleared of any wrong doing.

My opinion on the above sandiwara.

First of all, there is a invisible force trying to uproot Abdullah influence within Umno. Ali Rustam who is belongs to Abdullah camp and he is out now. Look at Khairy Jamaluddin, even though he is not barred from running for the youth chief post, he is technically finished because he is not clean enough compared to Khir Toyo, who is cleared by Umno's disciplinary committee. Umno is trying to make sure Mukriz's contender is clean so that Mukriz can win the post with his head up. This is in a way to compliment Najib's efforts in building a clean team so as to shed some negative perception by public on Najib. Another Umno member from Pak Lah's camp, the Tourism Minister, Datuk Azalina Othman is also perceived as finished in view of her being investigated by MACC.

Secondly, this Umno party election is indeed a party posts allocation event rather than a genuine party poll. There is no contest for the top post and the contest for the No 2 is also seems to be unlikely. The arrangement is to give Muhyiddin Yassin green light to take over the deputy president post. Mat Taib's chances is even slimmer, in view of his dirty background. He is also known to be Abdullah's staunch supporter.

Thirdly, money politics is so rampant in Umno, do we believe that only the 15 of them guilty of vote buying? Is Najib clean (at least from money politic)in the first place?

Will Abdullah just sit there and wait for things to happen? Could there be some more explosive evidence in Altantuya's case that implicates Najib? Let us see what happen in a week or two.