The Mahathir Dilemma

I have said before, and I am going to say it again - the reason why I hate Umno for what it is today is because of one man, Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

It was when Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (Pak Lah) was prime minister. He was criticised by the former prime minister, who himself had to step down after facing a lot of pressure from all quarters to resign.

When he saw Pak Lah bringing Barisan Nasional to the next level beyond his own ability to achieve in his 22 years’ tenure as prime minister, he could not stop whacking Pak Lah.

The first time that I saw the wickedness in this old troublemaker was during Tunku Abdul Rahman's time.

The good name of Umno, which was the result of Tunku’s good work, had gradually turned into a four-letter word with Mahathir’s daily venom spewed out against Pak Lah. It was similar to all the fitnah that I saw being done against Pakatan leader Anwar Ibrahim.

Now the maverick is at it again on his so-called chosen one. When he was whacking Pak Lah, he said Najib Abdul Razak was a better candidate to be prime minister.

Now, he is singing a different tune. Although most of us agree that Najib is not worth his salt as a leader with his kangkung comments and RM1 chicken, I do not agree that the ex-PM should start his tirade on another prime minister.

While I beg to differ with Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein who said that Najib had done what Barack Obama or Vladimir Putin could not do. I believe the Russian separatists did not even know who Najib was. But just to spite Obama and the rest of the world, they chose to give in to someone of lesser importance. At least, I know that both Obama and Putin did not pick up a chicken and said that he could still find chicken sold at RM1 a bird!

The response given by the Russian separatists comes to me as no surprise since we have read that Moscow taking on the black box would not help to save their credibility given that the whole world would not have believed in their own analysis.

This was not necessarily an achievement by Najib. We Malaysians are not stupid. I did not want to voice this out until Hishammuddin used the same illustration to boost his cousin. If Najib is so good, we should be sending him to Gaza and Israel, and also to the other war zones. Besides, we also need to improve our country’s image in countries like Mongolia and Singapore.

Not seeing eye-to-eye with successors

After all, with which of his successor can he see things eye-to-eye? If he could not see things eye-to-eye with former Singapore prime minister Goh Chok Tong over his crooked bridge, Australia’s former prime minister, Paul Keating, who called him a recalcitrant, and United States of America’s former vice-president Al Gore, who walked out on him, how can Mahathir ever work with anyone?

Locally, Musa Hitam, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, and Anwar Ibrahim - all of them have lots of things to say about Mahathir.

In one of the articles that I read, Mahathir was reported as saying, “I am not like any other Malays.” He said that Malays do not usually criticise their leaders, but they would talk bad things behind their back.

Mahathir will not be stopped. He will continue on with his tirades until the Umno general assembly in November. Then, out of the blue, he will resign from Umno. We all know the game played by this 87-year-old maverick.

Along with this will be all the support given to him by a small group of his diehard supporters. That’s the standard strategy game that they are playing. When he quits, people in Umno will buy into his ‘dilemma’. It will then become the Mahathir Dilemma, and sympathy for the old man will drive them to throw out Najib.

So, keep your ears open and stay tuned.


STEPHEN NG is a chemist by training. He dealt with printing ink, paint and emulsion polymer for 15 years before becoming a freelance writer.

-mk