Tears, tributes for Mahathir at last congress
Tears, tributes for Mahathir at last congress
Agencies, Kuala Lumpur
Top leaders of Malaysia's ruling party on Saturday paid emotional
tributes to Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who was appearing
before its general assembly for the last time before he steps
down later this year after 22 years in power.
In speeches featuring specially composed poems and sung
Islamic prayers, members of the United Malays National
Organization's supreme council praised Mahathir for transforming
Malaysia since he took power in 1981.
Mahathir, 77, was visibly close to tears several times during
the speeches, which were delivered before a rapt crowd of more
than 2,200 delegates inside the conference hall in Kuala Lumpur.
Thousands of ordinary members gathered in front of giant
television screens outside, the Associated Press reported.
Mahathir was due to officially close UMNO's general assembly
with a speech later Saturday.
"Only God knows how big is Dr. Mahathir's contribution to the
Malays," said Muhammad Taib, an UMNO vice president.
Education Minister Musa Mohamad, another supreme council
member, told Mahathir: "Your contribution to raising Malaysia's
standing in the world will be remembered for generations to
come."
Mahathir's scheduled retirement in October was the underlying
theme of this year's assembly, the party's forum to discuss
policy and party issues, which began Thursday.
Mahathir has dominated UMNO -- which has formed the core of
every coalition government in this mostly moderate Muslim
Southeast Asian country since its independence from Britain in
1957 -- for two decades.
Officials of the party gave out copies of U.S. industrialist
Henry Ford's anti-Semitic book The International Jew to delegates
at the meeting on Saturday, Reuters reported.
Delegates at the conference were handed free copies of an
abridged version of Ford's book, translated into Bahasa Malay and
published in Johannesburg.
The book, first published in the 1920s, also contained the
"Protocols of the Elders of Zion" -- originally published in
Russia in the early 20th century and used down the decades to
peddle theories of an international Jewish conspiracy.