As they play the final curtain

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Raja Petra Kamarudin

malaysiatoday - [...] “If Najib wants to take over he must do it before the end of May,” said one Umno veteran who would rather remain anonymous. “Najib must make his move on Pak Lah by next week. If Najib waits and does not do it next week he might as well just forget it because most likely by June Umno will be out of power anyway.”

This Umno veteran appears quite confident in what he is saying. He drops a few names of well-known and powerful Umno warlords to demonstrate that he procures his information from those who walk in the corridors of power. “Incidentally,” he told me, “Rosmah has asked me to speak to you to see whether I can persuade you to remove your latest article from your website.”

“What did you tell her?” I asked him.

“I told Rosmah that I don’t know you that well,” he replied, laughing.

“What if I don’t remove it?” I asked.

“Then be prepared for another police report against you. You prepared for that?”

I began to suspect that my lunch meeting with this Umno warlord was more than just to exchange notes on the ongoing power struggle in Umno. He also wanted to see whether he can kowtim me, and the issue is my latest article concerning Rosmah phoning the Sultan and scolding him about my article linking her and Najib to the Altantuya murder.

“Even Tengku Adnan is in trouble,” the Umno warlord added. “They want to get Mahathir so they are gunning for Tengku Adnan. Imagine Umno’s Secretary-General is also not safe. They don’t mind sacrificing Tengku Adnan just to get the old man. You think they won’t go all out to get you also?”>> selanjutnya