Tears, tributes for Mahathir at last congress<\/p>\n
Agencies, Kuala Lumpur<\/p>\n
Top leaders of Malaysia's ruling party on Saturday paid emotional
\ntributes to Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who was appearing
\nbefore its general assembly for the last time before he steps
\ndown later this year after 22 years in power.<\/p>\n
In speeches featuring specially composed poems and sung
\nIslamic prayers, members of the United Malays National
\nOrganization's supreme council praised Mahathir for transforming
\nMalaysia since he took power in 1981.<\/p>\n
Mahathir, 77, was visibly close to tears several times during
\nthe speeches, which were delivered before a rapt crowd of more
\nthan 2,200 delegates inside the conference hall in Kuala Lumpur.<\/p>\n
Thousands of ordinary members gathered in front of giant
\ntelevision screens outside, the Associated Press reported.<\/p>\n
Mahathir was due to officially close UMNO's general assembly
\nwith a speech later Saturday.<\/p>\n
\"Only God knows how big is Dr. Mahathir's contribution to the
\nMalays,\" said Muhammad Taib, an UMNO vice president.<\/p>\n
Education Minister Musa Mohamad, another supreme council
\nmember, told Mahathir: \"Your contribution to raising Malaysia's
\nstanding in the world will be remembered for generations to
\ncome.\"<\/p>\n
Mahathir's scheduled retirement in October was the underlying
\ntheme of this year's assembly, the party's forum to discuss
\npolicy and party issues, which began Thursday.<\/p>\n
Mahathir has dominated UMNO -- which has formed the core of
\nevery coalition government in this mostly moderate Muslim
\nSoutheast Asian country since its independence from Britain in
\n1957 -- for two decades.<\/p>\n
Officials of the party gave out copies of U.S. industrialist
\nHenry Ford's anti-Semitic book The International Jew to delegates
\nat the meeting on Saturday, Reuters reported.<\/p>\n
Delegates at the conference were handed free copies of an
\nabridged version of Ford's book, translated into Bahasa Malay and
\npublished in Johannesburg.<\/p>\n
The book, first published in the 1920s, also contained the
\n\"Protocols of the Elders of Zion\" -- originally published in
\nRussia in the early 20th century and used down the decades to
\npeddle theories of an international Jewish conspiracy.<\/p>",
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