Press reports quote current UMNO “President” Zahid as denying that ex Minister Hishammudin, a close relative of Najib, spoke recently in favour of retaining Dr. Mahathir as Prime Minister for a full term rather than the projected hand over to Anwar Ibrahim.

This denial, public as it was, offers an interesting sidelight on current UMNO dissension. With Najib in danger of becoming a permanent resident at Sg. Buloh, and Zahid himself in the queue for the same destination, some UMNO activists, Hishamuddin among them, are jockeying for position in a rapidly collapsing UMNO.

The proverb “fools rush in where angels fear to tread” seems to apply here with vanity overcoming the last remnants of good sense. Why would anyone want to take over UMNO which is on the point of official burial? To sell on to PAS perhaps?  But the latter seems to be more intent on Islamising Malaysia and in the accumulation of this world’s goodies than deals with a collapsing UMNO They possibly feel that all they have to do is to wait for the fruit to drop from the tr