Muhyiddin is grossly mistaken to think people have short memory

Former deputy prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin is going to find out that what he had said in the past, and what he is saying now, are going to be picked up and the contradictions between ‘then and now’ will be very glaring.

Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Dr Salleh Said Keruak said if Muhyiddin thought people would forget what he had said before and the contradictions to what he said currently, then he was grossly mistaken.

He noted that the trouble with the age of the internet or the era of the social media was that people remembered what you had said even decades ago - and even if they could not remember, they could always research and find out.

"So, you must not only be careful with what you say, but you must also remember what you had said in the past.

"US Presidential candidate Donald Trump found this out the hard way and now has to apologise for what he had said in the past, and which is now hurting his Campaign," Salleh said in his latest blog posting today.

Republican Party presidential candidate Trump apologised today for crude and aggressively sexual remarks about women which he made in 2005, following ashocking video released by The Washington Post yesterday.

Of course, Salleh said, the people would understand what Muhyiddin had said before was in his capacity as an UMNO leader, while what he is saying now was as an enemy of UMNO.

For example, he added, in just a few months, former Kedah menteri besar Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir had changed his tune from saying that whatever he was trying to do was for the love of Umno and today, he was saying that whatever he was trying to do was to make sure that UMNO was buried for good.

"No doubt Mukhriz is trying to justify his actions like what the Malays would say, "menegakkan benang basah" (to right a wrong).

"But then, if Mukhriz had not been sacked from UMNO, would he have changed his tune? So, this means it has nothing to do with party loyalty but just about personal interests," he said.

Salleh said Muhyiddin, too, was more concerned with his own political needs than about the country.

"In the past, he (Muhyiddin) said he was Malay first, and everything else second.

"Now, he says that PAS should work with DAP to help destroy UMNO. Muhyiddin also says that without the help of DAP, PAS would not win many seats," he added.

Salleh asked how Muhyiddin could expect PAS and DAP to sleep in the same bed again when the issue that caused the divorce in the first place, was still outstanding.

"Is Muhyiddin saying that PAS should drop the Syariah Courts Act amendment bill or is he saying that DAP should accept it? It has to be one or the other for PAS and DAP to get back together," he said -- BERNAMA