Musa Hitam my first failure, says Dr Mahathir
“Then I appointed all those who were not loyal to me as ministers in my cabinet. One of them, Tun Abdullah, eventually was named my successor as prime minister. Far from choosing only loyalists, I chose those disloyal to me.”
*TMI) – Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has declared his former ally, Tun Musa Hitam, as his “first failure” after the former deputy prime minister said recently the country’s longest-serving prime minister could be the reason Vision 2020 would not be achieved.
“My first failure was Tun Musa Hitam himself. He could not wait for me to retire. So he resigned after five years being with me as my deputy, in a government his boys called the MM government.
“He believed the Umno Supreme Council would throw me out and appoint him as president. The council decided to persuade him to return as DPM and deputy president. He came back as deputy president,” Dr Mahathir said in his popular Chedet.cc site.
Musa at a talk last Saturday had said Dr Mahathir was both the creator and destroyer of Vision 2020.
Musa, the deputy prime minister from 1981 to 1986, said Dr Mahathir had undone the dream when he chose to remove potential leaders and train followers instead.
“Those followers ended up taking over the leadership of the country after he left office,” he added.
“It is ironic that Dr Mahathir’s vision is now certain to fail because of Dr Mahathir himself.
“Brilliant as he was, he forgot that in order to succeed, he needed to train leaders at all levels, but most importantly, political leaders.
“His personal leadership record shows that he did away with all potential leaders and retained and trained followers. It is mostly these trained followers who had taken over the leadership of the country,” Musa was quoted as saying in news reports.
