Why Mahathir is to blame for weak Malay leadership today

Christopher Fernandez, The Ant Daily

In comparison with advanced and developed countries around the world, Malaysia is a relatively young nation with a bulk Malay population from which emerge the top leaders to govern ever since Merdeka in 1957.

It is also during the pre-Merdeka era where Malay leadership was probably at the height of its prowess and able, along with Chinese and Indian community leaders, to wrought independence from the British led by none other than Tunku Abdul Rahman.

Tunku Abdul Rahman

The Tunku is arguably Malaysia’s greatest ever prime minister. It was his astute statesmanship that managed to free the nation from the clutches of the British and he had to thank the support of other Malay leaders for this.

Malay leaders of that era were a formidable lot but after the Tunku was evicted from the chair of prime minister following the May 13, 1969 race riots, Malay leadership began its dismal descent into a weak and poor form of leadership.

Beginning to set the rot on Malay leadership was the entry of Tun Abdul Razak, an ultra Malay chauvinist who set in motion and sowed the seeds of keeping the Malay community weak and inferior through the implementation of the hastily-conceived New Economic Policy or NEP.

This affirmative action program for the Malays ran for 30 years from 1970-2000 and only served to establish the minority elite in this country rather than equitably distribute wealth. What Razak set in motion his successor Hussein Onn kept going for some years before being replaced by Mahathir Mohamad.

The brunt or the real reason why Malay leaders are weak now is due to the fact that Mahathir swung into action immediately to begin his dictatorship. His autocratic style of leadership is to be blamed until today for the root causes of many of the nation’s ills.

By silencing dissent and brooking no objections to his way and style of leadership, Mahathir effectively killed off instead of nurturing aspiring leaders by using the Internal Security Act as his most favoured weapon.

Mahathir was all business and thought only and focused on economic growth. He was a one-man show all the way that had a tunnel vision and could not see beyond economic growth and prosperity and other issues that was equally or more important that needed to be addressed.

Evidence can be unearthed during the tenure of Mahathir’s prime ministership and his four deputies that shows that he was against anyone in disagreement with him and hence stifled Malay leaders from being nurtured.

It begins with the “Two M’s” era or Musa Hitam as the deputy of Mahathir Mohamad and it did not take long before the trail-blazing leaders could not see eye-to-eye which led to the departure of Musa although much was achieved during their time.

Ghafar Baba

Ghafar Baba was the replacement for Musa and many Umno leaders of that era believe that the only reason why Mahathir chose Ghafar was because he was seen as a “yes man” in contrast to Musa Hitam who had ideas of his own and expressed them.

Although Ghafar was meek and submissive in his ways to Mahathir, he, as well, fell out of favour after some years and Mahathir personally hand-picked Anwar Ibrahim to groom him as a successor.

Mahathir had queer ideas of leadership and felt threatened even though no one was out to evict him as prime minister.

But his paranoia became real as the Asian financial crisis which he set in motion saw him having to oust or sack Anwar.

This was a painful decision but his warped up approach to giving way to leaders and his blunt ways in which he went about the business of governance virtually ensured that no one else had a chance to display their leadership skills, not even the Chinese and Indians. 

By the time he had finished off Anwar through a political conspiracy and appointed Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as the prime minister after Abdullah served as his deputy to Mahathir’s satisfaction it came about that the Malay leaders were void of any real practical skills in leadership.

During Pak Lah’s tenure as prime minister, it began well and to the approval of Mahathir with a landslide victory at GE11 in 2004 and all looked well until Pak Lah began to show that he had no real ideas of leadership and began to lose control of the reins of power.

After the GE12 in 2008, Pak Lah was expectedly asked to and forced to step down by Mahathir and other Umno leaders over the disastrous showing of Barisan Nasional in the elections which witnessed a political tsunami as they lost the two-third majority in Parliament.

Mahathir strongly favoured Najib to replace Pak Lah and just witness how they are now going for each other which just goes to show that Mahathir has this phobic idea that only he and his ways of governance suits this country.

This is why Mahathir is to be blamed for the weak Malay leadership in this country now though Tunku and those of the pre-Merdeka era provided solid nurturing to leaders at that time. Sadly, there was no such thing ever since Mahathir came to power.

Malay leadership has not only become weak because of the way Mahathir governed this country, the Malay community itself is starting to crack and fissure as the onslaught of globalisation comes upon us no thanks to the way and manner of Mahathir’s governance.

If the future looks bleak for this nation now, the blame has to be shouldered by Mahathir’s defiance and obstinacy, his shallow thinking that only brought about temporal success in some development and economic growth but now leaves us facing an uncertain future in the hands of incapable Malay leaders.