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.