Written by Wong Choon Mei, PoliticsNow Malaysia
KUALA LUMPUR (politicsnowmy.blogspot.com) - News that legendary ex-premier Mahathir Mohamad has been admitted again to hospital has been brushed aside by most Malaysians, with the majority believing the 99-year-old is in no real danger and will 'live forever'.
"I think he's strong enough to pull through," Tian Chua told PoliticsNow Malayisa.
Tian is a former MP, who was among those who got jailed during Mahathir's rule for protesting the lack of social justice and democracy during the former strongman's height of power.
Yet the latest trip to the IJN hospital for a lung infection may well turn into a final journey for Malaysia's grand old man. Such are the vagaries of life and who has ever managed to defeat Father Time?
Of course, many cynics in the country's increasingly toxic political landscape mutter about how the old man would never 'leave' - not while his sons are under probe for corruption by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who undeniably has an axe to grind with his former boss who sacked him from all government and political posts for sodomy in 1997, sent him to languish in jail for years and shrouded his family with shame and disgrace.
"Whatever rights or wrongs he did, Mahathir is still one of the greatest leaders of the Global South and the third world," said Tian.
"If Anwar wants to show he too can be a statesman, he should visit Mahathir. Whether Mahathir will even want to see Anwar is a different question - it is an issue of due respect."
RECONCILIATION?
Indeed, perhaps only the most naive would foresee reconciliation between the two men, now the most bitter of enemies although it didn't begin that way. It was Mahathir who personally brought Anwar, who at that time was somewhat of a religious zealot championing the rights of poor Malay villagers, into politics and then promoting him all the way to Deputy Prime Minister.
However as the saying goes, when the cat is away the mice will begin to play. After years of understudy and gradually rising with Mahathir's support to become the deputy president of Umno, then the most powerful and mighty political party in the country, Anwar and his lieutenants there, including current Deputy Prime Minister Zahid Hamidi and the infamous Najib Razak, the first-ever PM to be jailed for massive corruption, began to seriously annoy Mahathir with perceived attempts to overthrow him and grab power.
Thus began Anwar's downfall and decades in political wilderness, while Mahathir went on to retire before returning to make his mark on the country a second time in 2018, when he shocked everyone by agreeing to lead Anwar's Pakatan Harapan coalition to defeat Najib and Umno in a most stunning victory.
It was an uneasy truce and as always, things that are too good to be true do not last long. Pundits say Mahathir agreed to reconcile then because Najib and Umno were too powerful for him to defeat with his newly-formed party Bersatu.
As for Anwar, he was again in jail and again for sodomy against another victim - this time he thrown behind bars by his own former ally Najib. So what could Anwar say but yes or stay in jail and rot a few years more.
ANWAR, MAHATHIR - SIMILAR POLITICS OF REVENGE, POWER ABUSE & GAGGING THE PEOPLE?
Call it volatile, toxic, insincere or simply unprincipled, the wheels have turned again in Malaysia's main power game. Zahid and the jailed Najib, who are both still in Umno, have ganged up again behind Anwar to fend off another former Mahathir protege Muhyiddin Yassin, who leads Bersatu, Hadi Awang, the president of largest Malay party Pas and now the most powerful too, as well as Mahathir, his sons and former adviser Daim Zainuddin.
In Malaysia, it appears that fighting and contesting in elections is not for the chance to change and reform the country's governance or to shape its future. Instead, the main goal is to become and stay PM so that personal projects and vested interests can be manifested.
If in the past Mahathir was accused of the politics of vengeance, perhaps Anwar now the PMX or 10th PM, has shown an even greater revengeful streak. Instead of putting in place the reforms he had repeatedly promised while in the Opposition, Anwar and his PKR party have reneged on these and not batted an eyelid!
"Of course there is unhappiness with Anwar administration. The feeling is he hasn't done anything much except cut down on freedom of speech. No one can criticize him these days without the enforcement authorities coming to harass them. True or not, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission is seen as his personal army and used to frighten opposition leaders into silence," a pundit who asked not to be named told PoliticsNow Malaysia.
"There is hardly any opposition or dissent in the country these days but not because the people are happy but because they are too frightened or cautious to speak. So what is the difference with the Mahathir or Najib regime?"
"At least under Najib, Malaysia experienced its greatest and best economic growth. Under Mahathir, the grouse was that he was the most 'evil' dictator - but now when you look back and compare with the current Anwar regime, is there more personal freedom now? Is there less hypocrisy? How about abuse of power like using the MACC and police as political tools? Does anyone seriously think corruption has stopped under the Anwar regime?"
ONLY HISTORY CAN TELL IF MAHATHIR DOOMED OR RAISED THE MALAYS
Against such public soul searching, the sentiment for Mahathir's legacy if and when he finally calls it a day is unlikely to be overly negative. Even the most ultra supporters of the Anwar administration who regularly warned nothing could be more dangerous than to ever trust Mahathir have pie on their faces now. After all, is it really safer to trust Anwar and his Pakatan Harapan coalition which includes the Chinese-dominated DAP?
Malaysians, regardless of race, are likely to feel a little sorry when Mahathir finally calls it a day in the future - no matter whether it is because they truly miss him or if they miss the outrageous things he will say in the name of garnering political support for himself, no matter how racist or inhumane the comments or issues that leave his 'extra-size' mouth.
Non-Malays whom Mahathir regularly used as a battering ram to win favor with the Malays will never forget the suffering he inflicted on them and their families, who for generations until even now are forced to find education and employment opportunities overseas, such as in Singapore, due to the lopsided racial quotas he slapped on when he was in power.
Malays will remember, perhaps only fleetingly, his racially affirmative socio-economic and education policies that benefited them tremendously. Even though many agree these policies also masked massive corruption for those in power, with the elite benefitting the greatest by far, most ordinary Malays are still grateful for the crumbs they have received. After all, the leaders who followed Mahathir including Abdullah Badawi, Najib, Muhyiddin Yassin, Ismail Sabri and now Anwar have not been able to do any better at all.
Some have also said that Mahathir's pro-Malay policies have actually weakened not only the country but the Malays themselves. By spurning meritocracy and incubating a handout and crutch mentality into a near full-fledged culture, they believe Mahathir has actually doomed the Malays - much like what the Europeans and British did to China when they exported opium grown in their colonies into the country to weaken the people there during the 18th and 19th centuries.
"The thing then and now is that people want instant gratification and they are grateful to the leaders who give them relief now even if it's inequitable and contain extremely harmful or even fatal long-term effects. For Mahathir, only time and history will tell if his legacy was actually a renaissance or a killer-blow for the Malays," said the pundit.
"But I agree he was one of the greatest leaders of his time, just like Lee Kuan Yew was. He did a lot to bring Malaysia out of poverty. He didn't have Kuan Yew's strength of conviction or the extra flourish or vision to turn Malaysia into a real dynamo like Singapore has become today but Mahathir held his own and will be remembered more positively than Anwar ever could or even Najib."
Written by Wong Choon Mei, PoliticsNow Malaysia
https://politicsnowmy.blogspot.com/
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