Mahathir stabbed Hussein Onn in the back and betrayed Razak

If Malaysia's third prime minister Hussein Onn, who was also Najib’s uncle, had not selected Mahathir as his Deputy Prime Minister, Malaysia would have had a different history. Hussein erroneously thought that since Mahathir was a lone ranger in politics and did not have any grassroots support, he would not be a challenge to him. Mahathir, however, being the wily Keralan that he was, managed to outmaneuver Hussein out of office in what’s seen today as virtually a coup d’etat.

This was how Mahathir repaid Abdul Razak, Najib’s father and Hussein’s brother-in-law, who brought him back to Umno after having being sacked by Tunku Abdul Rahman for being one of the three arch villains behind the May 13 race riots. The other two arch villains were Razak himself and then Selangor Menteri Besar Harun Idris who prevailed on the former to re-admit Mahathir into Umno.

The issue that Mahathir used against Hussein was the allegation that the latter’s wife was virtually running Petronas from her house. The Dap mysteriously received, now believed to be from Mahathir, documents in the post on the allegation and on Exxon allegedly stealing Malaysian oil on the high seas unknown to Petronas. Then Dap secretary-general Lim Kit Siang ended up in Court as a result of the documents as Exxon fought back with a legal suit.

The story, as it goes further, is that Mahathir had Hussein’s office completely cleared out when the Prime Minister was subsequently in London for medical attention.

He also reportedly spread rumours, in hinting at the allegations on Petronas/Exxon, that Hussein had a “terrible heart condition” and would be stepping down as Prime Minister upon his return “for health reasons”. Mahathir’s regime was a time of great rumor-mongering and all of which subsequently turned out to be true since they originated from the man himself.

It was Dap, albeit inadvertently, who helped put Mahathir in the Prime Minister’s chair.

Now, Najib has the opportunity to settle scores on behalf of Hussein, his father and Tunku and embark on a real purge of Umno and BN members he shouldn’t field as candidates. But will he rise to the occasion or is the latest MACC ploy just to negotiate better exit terms for himself and Rosmah? --malaysia-chronicle