Mahathir’s propensity to rush in where angels fear to tread

By MT Webmaster Last updated Dec 31, 2015

What an ironical turn of events. Dr Mahathir is supposed to be a Machiavellian politician and yet Muhyiddin managed to dupe him. So it looks like Muhyiddin has a streak of Nicole Machiavelli in him, as well, after all. It is most enlightening to see the puppet turning out as the puppet-master in the end and he who everyone thought was the puppet-master getting played good and proper.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

“Fools rush in where angels fear to tread,” said Abraham Lincoln in his speech made at Peoria, Illinois, on 16th October 1854. And this more or less describes Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. And he seems to have a propensity for rushing in where angels fear to tread throughout his career.

In 1969, Dr Mahathir lost his Kota Setar parliamentary seat, which he won in 1964, to Yusof Rawa of PAS (who later became the party president) because he said he does not need Chinese votes to win. So the Chinese taught Dr Mahathir a lesson by voting for PAS.

It is not that the Chinese supported PAS but they wanted to punish Dr Mahathir. And this riled up Dr Mahathir even further who then attacked the Chinese in his 1970 book The Malay Dilemma. And this established Dr Mahathir’s reputation as a racist and Chinese-hater.

In fact, one of the main issues he raised against Tunku Abdul Rahman was that the Prime Minister was a Chinese-lover and therefore should be ousted. The Tunku resigned from office that same year and never forgave Dr Mahathir till the day he died.

Of course, Dr Mahathir went on to become Prime Minister 11 years later but he managed this against the backdrop of Malay nationalism and on the platform of no compromise to the Chinese. However, while that helped boost Dr Mahathir’s political career, it had devastating results on race-relations in Malaysia, which we are still feeling the affects of until today.

However, once he made it to the top job, he worked with the very same Chinese whom he condemned, mainly the Chinese tycoons, to further his economic programs. He did deals with the Chinese tycoons and embarked on various privatisation projects, which were in reality piratisation and a plundering of the nation’s coffers.

Dr Mahathir did not have a good grasp of economics. Even when people like his brother-in-law, Tun Ismail Ali, the most respected Bank Negara governor in Malaysian history — who no one thus far has even come close to — advised him to not venture into certain industries such as ship-building, auto-manufacturing, steel, railway, etc., Dr Mahathir brushed aside this advice and ignored it. He would rather listen to the advise of the tycoons around him who would push for certain projects to be implemented because they had a stake in that project and stood to gain a huge profit.

Proton, as an example, was brought to Dr Mahathir’s table and Tun Ismail warned him that it was going to be a disaster. But Dr Mahathir’s Japanese adviser told him otherwise and convinced the old man that Malaysia cannot claim to be a developed nation unless it is manufacturing cars. And Dr Mahathir wanted Malaysia to be called a developed nation. So he proceeded with the plan against professional advice because he was not concerned about the viability of the project but more about wanting Malaysia to be seen as a developed nation even if it was going to cost the nation billions in losses.

Later, of course, Dr Mahathir realised that the Japanese had duped him and he told a close confidante, now a Tan Sri, “Kita sudah kena tipu dengan Jepun.” But Dr Mahathir would not call it quits because his ego would not allow him to admit his mistake. So now he wants Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak to bail out Proton. The question is not the RM3 billion that Dr Mahathir wants Najib to give Proton but how many more tranches of RM3 billion will Proton be needing to stay afloat.

And this is one bone of contention in the Dr Mahathir-Najib relationship. Dr Mahathir wants to keep sending good money after bad while Najib feels the brakes should be applied. But to not save Proton would be a serious loss of face for Dr Mahathir and there is no way the old man is going to admit that he made a mistake.

Muhyiddin Yassin knew this part of Dr Mahathir’s character very well. The old man would embark on anything that will give an impression he is in control while he knows or cares very little about financials. Whatever he does must be a monument and legacy of his rule. It is about winning and impressions and damn the cost.

So Muhyiddin and his boys fed Dr Mahathir with all sorts of information regarding 1MDB knowing that the issue is too complicated for Dr Mahathir to understand. The only thing Dr Mahathir needs to understand is that 1MDB is a disaster, the country is going down the drain, and there is only one man out of 30 million Malaysians who can save the country and who will go down in history as Malaysia’s saviour — Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Basically, all they need to do is to play on Dr Mahathir’s ego. Malaysia is facing a disaster. The trigger for that disaster is 1MDB. No one can save the country. Only Dr Mahathir can. As for the financial details do not worry your pretty head over the matter because it is too complicated to understand anyway (and you never did care about financials in the past anyway).

As Nicole Machiavelli said in his book Discourses on Livy (Book ll Chapter 22):

How Often the Opinion of Men Are Mistaken in Their Judgements About Important Matters.

Certain situations also arise in which men who have little experience of things are easily deceived, since in such incidents there is much that’s seems so true that it makes men believe their judgements in these matters are accurate.

Machiavelli said it well and that is why he is considered the guru of Machiavellian politics. It is as if Machiavelli had Dr Mahathir in mind when he wrote that because this best describes the man called Dr Mahathir Mohamad. And Muhyiddin knew that Dr Mahathir would never grasp the fundamentals of 1MDB because high finance is beyond the old man’s understanding, as many of his failed projects have proven.

So they fed Dr Mahathir with all the ammunition he would need to attack Najib. But what they fed him was not the truth. However, in war truth does not matter. What matters is winning by any and all means, fair or foul. It is the doctrine of the end justifies the means, which is what Machiavellian politics is all about.

Dr Mahathir now realises he was duped all along and that Muhyiddin had taken him for a ride. However, just like in the Proton case, the damage has already been done and it is too late to turn back the clock. And just like in the case of Proton, Dr Mahathir has to continue with what he started even though he is not going to win in the end.

Dr Mahathir will never admit that he was fooled. He has to give the impression he knows what he is doing even when he does not have a clue. And one thing that he would never do and would rather die is to admit that he had been taken for a ride. And Muhyiddin knew this and that is why he managed to manipulate the old man — because he knew that even when the old man finds out later he would still go forward and would never turn back.

Raja Petra Kamarudin RPK