Malaysians haven’t heard from him in a long while, but colourful former MIC president and Works Minister S Samy Vellu popped back up on the country’s political radar yesterday by offering his two cents on the cold war between PM Najib Razak and Malaysia’s longest-serving premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Chiding his long-time BN partner and boss, Samy Vellu said Mahathir, as an elder statesman, should know that Najib, whom Mahathir has been consistently dogging with questions, would always be open to speak with his predecessor.
“If I were to take the phone and call Najib now, saying that I need to see him at 6 pm, he will definitely say yes and ask me to come right away…that’s Najib,” he told press after the launch of the Nepal Earthquake Fund in PJ, as quoted by Astro Awani.
Samy Vellu added that the current state of affairs between Najib and Mahathir would be better resolved through private discussions, as public spats between BN leaders would weaken the political coalition and ruling Malay-Muslim party UMNO in particular, and lower the morale of rank-and-file members.
Of late, Mahathir has taken to openly questioning the efficiency of Najib’s administration, and urged the PM to come clean on a range of controversies dogging him, including troubled sovereign development fund 1MDB, the Altantuya Sharibuu murder case, and the source of Najib’s reportedly vast personal wealth.
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