Mahathirism: The Cancer that Plagues the Nation (Part 2)

By MT Webmaster Last updated Nov 19, 2016

Anyway, Mahathir went on to pick Abdullah as his deputy in 1999, believing that Abdullah was a lone ranger who could be subjugated to do his bidding. So, in a sense, Abdullah was to Mahathir what Mahathir was to Hussein. And like Hussein, Mahathir was soon to learn that he had made the biggest mistake of his life.

Raggie Jessy

If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality. It won’t, because you would have chosen the side of the oppressor.

In part 1 (READ HERE), we saw how Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad played both ends against the middle. He had the Chinese and Malays at daggers drawn over Islamic fundamentalism in Malaysia while he stood by the poker table, watching. Mahathir knew the score. He knew the repercussions of saying it as it is. So he had the Chinese and Malays each playing a different tune. And when they met, we had a rhapsody that was not quite Malaysian.

Now, why on earth would Mahathir risk infuriating the Chinese? After all, had it not been for the Chinese, BN would have suffered heavy losses during the 1995 and 1999 General Elections. And Mahathir of all people knew that too damn well.

But Mahathir also knew that it was not he who would drive BN into the 11th General Election. He knew that Abdullah could afford the leverage of his ‘squeaky-clean’ persona to avert attention from the Islamic-state ‘cold-war’ and get the Chinese and Malays to meet halfway on pluralism.

It was a stroke of genius, to be honest. Why bother about Islamic fundamentalism or moderate secularism? Why not focus on the liberalization of Malaysia through pluralism? And who better to pull it off than Abdullah, the messiah who summoned his faithful to ‘work with him and not for him’ towards a land ‘far far away from the clutches of Mahathirism’. But when Abdullah got there, he found that the natives had already anointed Mahathir as their King.

2. The chicken and the egg

Quite recently, I had written a series of articles that made plain and comprehensible why Mahathir wouldn’t tolerate any Prime Minister who offered Khairy Jamaluddin any order of rank within UMNO or the government. But there may just be that much more to Khairy than meets the eye, with much of it chronicled in a book edited by Raja Petra Kamarudin (RPK), widely circulated back in 2006.

Now, Khairy was something of an anomaly. He dropped down straight from heaven and right into Abdullah’s life when the latter was yet the Deputy Prime Minister. Well, that’s not the official version, but you get my drift. Khairy was someone who popped out from nowhere and quickly became a formidable presence within UMNO’s inner coteries.

It was during his stint in Oxford that Khairy was associated with someone by the name of Omar Ong. As a point of interest, Omar’s father, Mustapha Ong, a Mahathirist, was once accused of attempting to bribe a Washington limousine driver, Jamal Amro, into confessing that he had procured boys and women for Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim (read The New York Times report here).

One thing led to another and, before long, Omar found himself sharing a close rapport with Dato’ Seri Hishammuddin Hussein. As a point of interest, Hisham’s somewhat dazzling rise up the echelons had more to do with birthright than it did his charisma. In UMNO, tradition has it that party members would regard the son of a former Prime Minister as a safe bet. Mahathir was the only exception to that rule.

Despite lacking the charisma expected off a statesman, Hisham seemed to be running along at a reasonable pace. But it was Mahathir’s dose of steroids that got Hisham pacing up the echelons faster than his superior, Zahid Hamidi. One version has it that Mahathir felt obligated to Hisham’s father for having picked him as Prime Minister. I, however, see things differently. From where I stand, Mahathir may well have been avoiding Hisham’s shit list.

Not many will agree with me on this, but Mahthir couldn’t afford the son of a man he once outwitted coming at him with sharpened claws. You see, Mahathir knew that it would be Najib over Hisham, if at all. And he knew that Najib and Hisham shared a close rapport by virtue of the fact that they were cousins. So pouring cold water on Hisham’s political ambitions was never an option, but the exception.

In any event, both Omar and Khairy probably saw Hisham as a safe bet and ergo, hitched a ride. Now, the story goes that Hisham was seen to be leaning favourably towards Khairy, who appeared to come out ahead of Omar on the scorecard. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that Omar’s father was, and as yet is, a staunch Mahathirist. Perhaps I’m wrong.

Withal, when Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim was sacked from UMNO and the Cabinet in 1999, Mahathir found himself locked on the horns of a dilemma. It was either Najib or Abdullah for Deputy Prime Minister, though Mahathir eventually picked Abdullah for the job. And there’s an uncanny sense of irony to Mahathir’s decision.

You see, back in the day, Hussein Onn appointed Mahathir as his deputy from among three UMNO vice-presidents, of whom Mahathir was the weakest. His health on the decline, Hussein believed that Mahathir would not pose much of a threat to his leadership, particularly since he lacked a trail of eminence characteristic of those who hogged the higher rungs. That is to say, Mahathir was neither a noble, nor did he share bloodlines with any of UMNO’s commanding superintendents. So in a sense, Mahathir was a lone ranger.

But Hussein was soon to learn how wrong he was. Mahathir began wrecking Hussein’s credibility right from the podium over allegations that linked the latter’s wife to Petronas. Ironically, it was Lim Kit Siang’s pants that caught fire along with Hussein’s when the former took the wraps off an alleged plot involving Exxon, Petronas and by extension, the Malaysian government. Kit Siang seemed to insinuate some measure of wheeling and dealing that involved some 23,000 oil barrels that were being drawn in conspiracy.

So, in a manner of speaking, Kit Siang had his foot on Hussein’s tail. Had Mahathir taken sides with Kit Siang, Hussein’s circles would have accused him of being in cahoots with the opposition. And that’s when Mahathir decided to play both ends against the middle.

Let me put it to you this way; if you were to ask Mahathir if he’s working with the opposition, he’ll tell you a tale about an elephant and a mouse, and how that elephant had its foot on the tail of the mouse. And when you ask him if he’s taken sides with the elephant, he’ll tell you that the mouse wouldn’t appreciate someone who was neutral. So he did the mouse a favour and gave life to rumours about a mouse with an injured tail.

Likewise, when Kit Siang was high on Hussein’s trail over the Exxon/Petronas conspiracy, Mahathir stood by while Hussein busted his ass defending Petronas. And when Hussein was in London seeking medical treatment, Mahathir gave life to rumours alleging that Hussein would be stepping down due to a serious heart condition he suffered from. With that, Mahathir pretty much dealt Hussein a deathblow.

Perhaps now you can appreciate how Mahathir gets away with murder. The Mahathir we know today is seen colluding with the likes of Tan Sri Muhammad Muhd. Taib in an attempt to tug the rug from under Najib’s feet. But when you ask Mahathir if he’s in cahoots with the opposition, he’ll tell you another tale of another elephant. Only this time, he has yet to decide if the mouse is in fact injured.

To be continued…

Mahathirism: The Cancer that Plagues the Nation (Part 1)

Dr Mahathir Mohamad Raggie Jessy