The Grand Old Master - Mahathir of Malaysia

The Grand Old Master - Mahathir of Malaysia

Malaysia is living in its own world away from global trends and developments. In fact Malaysia is further sliding down the political, economic and social ladder right into the abyss of regression.

May 9 saw a change of government from the incumbent Barisan National to the loosely  formed Pakatan Harapan made up of DAP, PKR, Amanah and Bersatu.  For the first time in Malaysian political history, the Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad Hamid from the weakest party, Bersatu which only has 13 members in Parliament. Anwar Ibrahim’s  PKR and Lim Kit Siang’s DAP have over 40 seats each.

It is a known secret that Mahathir has been in the forefront of imbibing in the minds of the Malay that DAP Isa Chinese based party which is the enemy of the Malays and Muslims.  Two years ago, he made up with DAP and joined the Pakatan Harapan.

Mahathir too was responsible for destroying Anwar’s political career and throwing Anwar’s family into political and personal wilderness for almost 20 years before he made up with them - again for political convenience.

No one in Malaysia believes that PKR nor DAP truly accepts him as they have been his biggest critic for many decades. He has been condemned for corruption, destruction of the judiciary, fermenting the racist mindset of the Malays and turning them into government crutches depending citizens and failing to develop a United Malaysia.

Today, Mahathir is in a dilemma of his own - torn between the objectives of Pakatan Harapan government and his own old ways of doing things. 

The fact is, the Malaysian government of today is weak and inefficient because the current ministers are mostly new and inexperienced - with a 25 year boy being made the Sports Minister.

No local business is moving and Mahathir himself has admitted that many of the elections promises made cannot be fulfilled “because they didn’t expect to win the elections”.  Many existing supply and services contracts with the government have been terminated creating massive loss and unemployment.  This has equally frightened foreign investments.

Mahathir is surrounded by “key advisers” who are as old and outdated as he is.  His own party, Bersatu has weak and poor youth talent while PKR and DAP is overflowing with youth talents. This alone makes Mahathir just old and no longer grand nor a master.

Anwar Ibrahim is slated to become the next prime minister and this has created various political intrigues and factional fights between Anwar’s PKR and Mahathir’s Bersatu.  Mahathir’s boys are not keen on Anwar as Anwar’s people do not trust that Mahathir understands any reform agenda.

Mahathir’s grip over his own party is also in question. While Mahathir in United Nations spoke about ratifying human rights treaty, back in Malaysia his own Youth Wing headed by Syed Saddiq opposed it.  Syed Saddiq has once again questioned Mahathir’s appointment of cabinet members by demanding for the resignation of Waythamoorthy, the Minster of Unity over some temple issue.

Mahathir’s attempt to increase the strength of his small party by enlisting members of Parliament from UMNO has also drawn flak from within and outside Pakatan Harapan coalition. There is an understandable fear in the country that bringing UMNO leaders into the fold of Pakatan Harapan is back to business as usual as has been for the past decades with its racial and religious politicking dividing the nation.

My own prediction is that Mahathir will not last the end of 2019 and Bersatu will just disappear like all other UMNO splinter parties.

The fate of Malaysia will only change when Anwar takes over for a while and then hands it over to the next generation of leaders more relevant  for this century. At least PKR has new and talented potential leaders.

Shauki Hassan Raffique

Malaysia.