Tariq Ismail said PPBM chairman Dr Mahathir Mohamad was already rectifying his past mistakes through his actions.
“The current Umno leadership must do that too. Belittling a statesman, their mentor, in place of finding solutions, is a sign of weakness,” he told FMT.
Last year, Mahathir made an open apology for pushing through a law 22 years ago that removed the need for the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to give final approval before any enactment passed by Parliament becomes law.
He admitted that it was the amendment made to the Federal Constitution in 1994 which had enabled the National Security Council Act (NSC) to come into force, even without the Agong’s assent.
Article 66 (4A) of the Federal Constitution provides that in the event that the Agong refuses or delays assent, a bill will become law 30 days after it is presented to the king.
Mahathir also admitted that he was a “dictator” during his 22-year rule and was partly at fault for pushing Najib Razak to become prime minister.
In addition to admitting his mistakes, Mahathir made peace with his former arch nemesis, Anwar Ibrahim, and has been giving talks nationwide on ways to strengthen the country’s institutions and economy.
Tariq, the grandson of former deputy prime minister Ismail Abdul Rahman, was responding to a statement by Najib, who is Umno president, who said the country would not be able to prosper if it was left in the hands of a “man from the past”.
Najib, during his winding-up speech on the last day of the 2017 Umno general assembly on Saturday, said this in what appeared to be a swipe at past failures of the former prime minister and current opposition leader, Mahathir.
Tariq advised the current Umno leadership to look at Darwin’s theory of evolution to know the country’s direction.
He said democracy, like all species, evolved, and evolution was all about moving forward with healthy competition.
“Healthy competition means that in a democracy, progress is brought forth when the leadership is challenged.
“Challenges do not mean rebellion. Challenges bring out the best in all of us.”
But for Umno, Tariq said, the present scenario was that those who had the ability to lead the people would be suppressed and kept from climbing the political ladder.
Due to this, he said, there was no future within Umno.
“If the present leadership does not look into the mirror and evolve, there will be no future.”
He said this was because Umno seemed to be constantly looking into the rear-view mirror and forgetting the need to move the country forward.
He added that Umno’s defence seemed to be “blindsided, cheap shots”, which showed that it was afraid of the challenge posed by Pakatan Harapan.
Tariq further challenged Umno to bring back Malaysian businessman Low Taek Jho, popularly known as Jho Low, so that Malaysians could put to rest the issue of the 1MDB state investment fund.
On Saturday, the Umno general assembly unanimously passed a motion for the top two posts in the party not to be contested in the next party election.