Mahathir recent blogs on the internet as well as his tirades against the west continue unabated, showing his bitterness and frustration of what is happening in his Malaysia. For a man of his age, he is surely alert and seems to crave the attention he lost since leaving the corridors of powers. Many, including me have thought that after helping to destroy and remove Abdullah Badawi, the man will gracefully retreat to his moral high ground to enjoy the serenity in his twilight years. But this is not to be. Perhaps politician just cannot fade away quietly.
Instead, he lost no time rejoining UMNO and becoming more vocal. As most of the main Medias shun him, it did not stop him from ranting and spewing venomous rhetoric in his blogs and over interviews. On the contrary, he has on many occasions gone ballistic and vitriolic on the blog. He used the blog shrewdly to manipulate public sentiment as well as to elevate his popularity and justify his relevance. Of course his chorus of gullible and diehard fans keep singing his praises and echo his idiosyncrasies. His trademark sarcasms have been generously used to belittle his foes as well as those who overshadowed him like LKY.
While the country is marred by controversies one after another, the race and religious bickering are spiralling out of control; he had chosen to remain oblivious to the country needs for national unity and racial harmony. In such turbulent time, any noble statesman would have step out spontaneously, using their status and credibility to heal and unite the nation. On the ‘Allah’ issue, he seems to sit on the fence. It is obvious he is playing safe as he did not wish to offend his own UMNO and Malay conservatives.
Mahathir seems to have agendas of his own. But one recent blogs he tries to ignite the water agreement with Singapore as well as the calling LKY a Little Emperor of Modern Middle Kingdom. It failed to excite the public. Now he writes that sands being smuggled to Singapore and blame some government officials. Does he have an ulterior motive to stir up some emotions, so that this emotion can be exploited? Apparently, the blog was timely as we noticed the subsequent arrest of high government officials which belong to the opposition party. Is he planning to discredit PKR or Singapore bashing to divert attention in time of trouble. Or is he just demonstrating his prowess and nationalistic credentials?
His latest claim that the 9/11 terrorist attack was staged by the US government to give it justification to attack Iraq was astounding. It is even more bizarre for him to argue that if USA can produce “Avatar”, the 9/11 conspiracy is possible. But why an educated doctor would want to make such stupendous claim? Surely he must have a motive. Is he picking on the Jews to divert attentions? Is he seeing something we don’t? Maybe he needs to spew something so idiosyncratic to catch the world attention. Of course he can hoodwink some of his targeted audience, but this time round, many would just dismiss this tirade. His country folks are no more gullible or illiterate.
So far, Mahathir has squarely blamed outsiders and opposition parties for Malaysia woes. Mahathir scathing attack on Badawi has tone down a few notches but still occasionally insinuate him. His trademark mode is to blame everybody except himself. As the country get deeper into economic and social malaise, blaming other may not be sufficient to save the day. The present government will have no choice but to assign some blame to the predecessors including Mahathir.
Many quarters are speculating that Mahathir will eventually be blamed for the rampant corruption in government, as well as the big companies controlled by UMNO members and associates. The unabashed cronyism and the shameless handout mentality among the Malay masses are also attributed to the 22 years of” Mahathirism”. This was done in the name of affirmation action to assist the economically weak Malays. Tengku Razaleigh has pointedly commented that the oil money was a curse to Malaysia and was wastefully squandered by the government or not spend diligently. Of course we know who headed Petronas and the Government. Former WSJ journalist wrote in his biography of Mahathir that this man squandered away 100 billion ringgits. For sure, more skeletons will fall out of the closets when the social and economic situations deteriorate further in Malaysia.
Mahathir has grand vision to build a stable of Malays billionaires to take on the tycoons like Lim Goh Tong, Robert Kwok, Kwek Leng Chan and many non-Malays entrepreneurs. So through UMNO and his friend Daim, he supported and nurtured Halim Saad of PLUS, of N/S Highway, Tajuddin of MAS and a few Malays. It looked promising at first, but when the Asian Financial crisis hit, all this Mahathir propped millionaires crumbled like a house of cards. In the end, he blamed Soros for his failure and castigated his deputy Anwar for wanting to accept IMF support. During Mahathir reign, Bank Negara lost billion or ringgit in money speculation. Billions were also spend to bail up failed bumiputra banks.
Another of Mahathir endeavour was to uplift the status of Malays. His conviction to social engineering of a new breed o Malays that is equal, if not better than the Chinese was simplistic and naive at best. With quota and privilege for Malays to be admitted to university with grade below mediocre, it basically kill the spirit to compete and strive. At such young age, if this spirit is not inculcated, it is no surprise such competitive spirit will be absent when one grows up and faces the world. In the business world, affirmative action also guarantees many businesses for Malays. Thus a crutch mentality is created from cradle to grave. Companies are required to employ 30% bumiputras. Many redundant vacancies are created in the civil services just to hire Malays. These people will never understand the meaning of productivity.
No one doubts the difficulties of governing a multi racial and multi religious country. Mahathir autocratic style did allow him to govern Malaysia effectively. But his use of divide and rule tactics to manage the Chinese and Indian parties further polarises the nations. Racial issues are further aggravated. He had the chance to transform Malaysia into a truly multi racial harmonious country but he was prejudice against non-Malays. Playing the race card is his winning strokes for many years. Putting fears into the Malays and constantly bashing the west was very endearing to the Malays. He never endorsed the concept of Malaysian identity. 22 years is long enough to do this bit of nation building. Today Malaysia’s woes could have been avoided if Mahathir had done the right thing.
On education, he championed the use of Bahasa Malay. Today, it is just difficult to overturn education policies without alienating the Malays. This he has regretted as many Malaysians are not very marketable due to the language handicap. The education quota system also drove away substantial number of non-Malays overseas. Many of the best and bright talented young non-Malays are lured away with lucrative scholarship and never return. This brain drain has far reaching economic impact on Malaysian economy in the future. Surely a man of Mahathir calibre recognises the folly of this education policy but he does not have the political courage to overturn his own creation without upsetting his Malay constituency.
Mahathir sacking of the once highly respected and independent high court judges death a blow to the judiciary system. Today the judges’ appointments are based on alignment to the right political parties. Many court decisions are questionable and the public has lost faith in the judiciary system.
In some way, Mahathir must be given credit to his ability to rally Malaysia of all walks of life. He was able to make Malaysia feel proud to be a Malaysian. His smartly use of “Malaysia Boleh” and Vision 2020 were prime examples. He builds the tallest building; sent Malay into space, sail around the world and climb Mt. Everest. He built airport, seaport and improve the country infrastructures. These are some to the highlights. Unfortunately, the slogan “Malaysia Boleh” has now become the butt of the jokes and describes anything outrageous and scandalous.
In my opinion, Mahathir greatest failure was his inability to groom and nurture the next generation of leaders during his 22 years in office. It is really hard to explain; he sacked 3 deputy Prime Ministers and went on to destroyed the fourth that he anointed as his successor. Any wise leaders must groom someone to takeover. Look at China; it is now grooming the 4th generation leaders. Nelson Mandela has a team of leaders to take over him when he stood down. Some speculated that Mahathir inherent fear of being ousted prevented him from nurturing leaders to take over his mantle. If this is true, then this must exemplify his deep insecurity and suspicion of others.
It is highly possible, BN may lose the next election and that will be Mahathir biggest nightmare. So far, no one has yet to dig into Mahathir 22 year’s legacy. His policies and many failings will eventually surface and the public will understand that the problem Malaysia faces today is the outcome of Mahathir’s legacy. If PKR forms the next government, then Mahathir failures will be magnified and his legacy will be diminished. I would not hesitate to guess that Mahathir will get the same blame medicine he has prescribed to so many.
Being a consummated politician, Mahathir has honed the skill of blaming others and is a master in the art of deception and diversion. I notice he has been intentionally courting controversies and constantly seeking attention. All these are done with purpose and there must be a motive. Perhaps he is expecting the worst and realise the blame game may ended up with him being the ultimate victim.
For 22 long years, he has tirelessly built and ran a country, it is only natural for him to worry how history will judge him, as he clearly knows that history is written by winner. What if the winner is Anwar Ibrahim? And he has too many detractors and enemies. That’s why his engine is firing on all cylinders, flooding Malaysians with all kind of theatrics to keep them busy. Very shrewdly, he is dictating the subjects, denying his adversaries any chance to scrutinise him. For him to have the upper hand, he must continue to speak out before the wind change tack.
All that I wrote are my wild imagination.
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