Tun Dr. Mahathir, the sourpuss with a huge chip on his shoulder

Umar Mukhtar

One would imagine that having had the chance to rule country for 22 years and who was the one mainly responsible to shape it, now retired and filthy rich with his family, at 90 years old ex-prime minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad would just sit in his rocking chair, reminiscing, and watch the growth of his ‘baby’ and let history judge his legacy. The trouble is, he suspects that judgement won’t be kind.

But he says that he feels compelled to speak out against his successors out of his sense of duty to fellow Malaysians. He expects you to believe that and if you do, you will believe that pigs can fly, and Santa Claus is coming to town. His unfinished endeavours, he had hoped to continue from behind the throne. Now, his plans are wrecked mainly because his manoeuvres in the selection of successors were flawed. It had attracted mediocrities. 

He was comfortable with his ex-deputy Anwar Ibrahim, who was too impatient to wait for his turn and was unceremoniously sacked, because the former saw flashes of himself in the latter, and more importantly how loyal Anwar was and how he was enthusiastically nodding to and facilitating Mahathir’s egoistic excesses ranging from the foreign exchange debacle, to the London Metal Exchange naive blunders, to the country’s pitiful untimely move to heavy industries, and Mahathir’s draconian suppression of internal democratic dissent, to cite just a few.

Mahathir had no innovative ideas, only expending the country’s coffers to build and build and build hardware with no corresponding software. His Multimedia Super Corridor is now just a glamorous new village and his multimedia ambitions proved hollow. The bridges in his mind are crooked, his expressways were just excuses for highwaymen to rob the people dry. His privatisation were mere ‘piratisation’ for his cronies costing billions to the people. His religious forays were self-serving and created problems which we inherit today.

A backward-looking education system which does not create self-confident young Malaysians, an immigration philosophy that does not take into account that a developing country needed talent and not mindless labour, a socio-political system that finds it too cumbersome to balance the country’s historical encumbrances with respect for hard work and fair play, are some of Mahathir’s  bullshit nation-building legacies.

SO WHAT IS SO GREAT ABOUT MAHATHIR’S RULE? The modernisation of Malaysia? Hardware or infrastructure development? People development? Nation-building? During that period of world economic growth and the gushing of oil to finance grandiose projects, even ex-DPM Ghaffar Baba could have done that with his left hand. And he was not even a university graduate. Mahathir failed miserably at nation-building; the real hallmark of great leaders. BERSIH, CEKAP DAN AMANAH, my foot! He divided and rule. He was just a pathetic megalomaniac.

Admittedly, Mahathir did not lead a flamboyant lifestyle. It was because he was a miser with his own money. It is not an indication of his incorruptibility. Those who believe it is are the same naive ones who address him as ‘ayahanda’, who are probably feudal enough to believe that Mahathir deserves whatever he wants. There are some like that now on the other side. See how it begets. So, Mahathir’s people should not be feigning surprise at the ‘mystery’ of the strong stubborn support of leaders turning rogue.

His proposed Council Of Elders reveals his continuing ambition to not really retire but to rule by proxy. His successors and proposed successors all rejected the stupid idea. And he dared think that they owe him enough, by his indirect anointment of them, to agree to do his bidding. His excuse was that PMs need supervision. Who supervised him when he was PM? Is there any country in the world practising this self-serving crap of an idea?

So his chosen successors may have fooked-up big time. We will sort it out. No thanks to Mahathir for building a political structure that was No. 1-centric. It is not a hard act to follow. The only difference is during his time people were not quite aware of his fook-ups. Now with the internet, the social media has no mercy for Kerala-type bullshit or forked tongue double-speak. If Mahathir was so much loved, why is it so difficult now for him to work his magic?

It is about time that somebody, his family, his close friends told him that the people have seen his pathetic flagging balls and limp dick and his forked tongue. The incumbent PM might fall but it will not be because of Mahathir’s urging. In fact it will be to the contrary; it’s the fear of creating another Frankenstein like Mahathir who thinks he is the only man for the job. Of course, he has followers; people who refuse to look at the horizon with the confidence that God blessed the righteous.

These assholes want to turn back the clock in order to worship the biggest asshole of them all. No chance baby!