To Dr Mahathir life is just about money

By MT Webmaster Last updated Jan 26, 2016

So you see, from the very beginning the only thing that Dr Mahathir thinks of is money. He opposed Tunku Abdul Rahman because of money — because the Tunku allowed the Chinese to get rich. He created Umno Baru because of money — to transfer Umno’s billions to the new party. He opposed Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi because of money. Now he opposes Najib also because of money.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said he is not going to stop attacking Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak. He is still bent on ousting Najib. One thing that he never tells us, though, is who will replace Najib as the new Prime Minister in the event he is successfully ousted.

Many people have gone to meet Dr Mahathir to discuss the matter of ousting Najib. Some go to meet Dr Mahathir out of sheer curiosity while others want to know more before deciding whether to join the Anti-Najib Campaign (ANC) or not. But when it comes to that very crucial question of who will replace Najib if he is ousted, Dr Mahathir remains silent or murmurs something inaudible or just replies, “Anyone can replace Najib.”

Why not just say ‘Ahmad Zahid Hamidi shall replace Najib’ since he is already the Deputy Prime Minister? Or say ‘Muhyiddin Yassin’ since he is still the Umno Deputy President although he is a Si Kitol? Or name one of the other two Umno Vice Presidents instead?

But, no, Najib’s successor is to remain a secret. That person’s name will only be revealed if and when Najib is ousted and not before that. It is going to be a surprise. Focus on ousting Najib first and then after that succeeds we will discuss who shall be the new Prime Minister.

Dr Mahathir says that what he is doing (or is trying to do) is for the good of the country. And Najib, according to Dr Mahathir, is not good for the country. So Najib needs to be ousted. Well, if Najib is not good for the country and hence he needs to be replaced, then who is his replacement going to be who is going to be good for the country?

Dr Mahathir wants Najib ousted for the good of the country. So that means Najib’s replacement has to be someone who is better and is good for the country. If you have already figured out that Najib is not good for the country then you would also have figured out who the new Prime Minister should be who is good for the country.

I mean it is like opening the plane door 25,000 feet in the air and throwing out the pilot without a parachute because in your opinion he cannot fly the plane properly. So, who should take over flying the plane? The co-pilot? The navigator? The chief-engineer? Hmm…err…anyone can fly the plane. Oh, you mean the stewardess? Hmm…err…we can decide all that later after we jettison the pilot.

If you are really concerned about the country you would do more than just plot to depose the prime minister. You would be farsighted enough to ponder on what happens after you depose the prime minister. Deposing a prime minister is so easy. You can even do that with a bullet between the eyes. It is the aftermath to that action that decides the future of the country. Is it going to be a bloodless coup or a bloody coup? Is Dr Mahathir prepared to give us his guarantee that no lives are going to be lost?

We are talking about a high-stakes game of politics here. Lives have been lost for an even lesser move than ousting a prime minister. You can start the fire but you never know how fierce that fire is going to burn. And you never know whether you can put out that fire before it burns out of control. No need to talk about May 13. Even the Kelantan riots and emergency of 1977 is a good enough example. And that only involved a Menteri Besar, mind you, not yet a Prime Minister, like in 1969.

Anyway, can you see that the reasons listed as to why Najib must be ousted is all about money? It is because RM42 billion of 1MDB’s money has disappeared into thin air, said M42. It is because Najib stole RM2.6 billion of 1MDB’s money. Money, money, money! That is the one and only reason that Najib must be ousted.

To Dr Mahathir, life is just about money. He cried during the Umno general assembly because, according to him, the Malays would not change. When asked during an interview after he retired what his greatest regret in 22 years as Prime Minister is, he replied that his greatest regret is he could not change the Malays.

“Why can’t the Malays be more like the Chinese?” Dr Mahathir sighed and lamented. He then added that the Chinese are pragmatic whereas the Malays are too feudalistic.

When Dr Mahathir took over as Prime Minister in 1981 he summoned the members of the Malay and Chinese Chambers of Commerce for a meeting at the Equatorial Hotel in Kuala Lumpur and told everyone that the New Economic Policy (NEP) would end in 1990 as scheduled. Hence we would all need to brace ourselves for doomsday less than a decade to come.

Okay, so the NEP was going to end in 1990. Okay, so we had nine years or so to prepare for that. That was okay as far as we were concerned. But what are the details?

Does that mean Article 153 in the Constitution would also be repealed? Does that mean Umno would now admit non-Malays as members of the party? Does that mean ITM would now be open to all races and would no longer be exclusive to Malays only? Does that mean a Chinese can (and would) become the new Prime Minister of Malaysia? Does that mean the state constitutions would be amended to allow non-Malays to become the Menteri Besar, just like non-Malays can become the Chief Minister? Would Malay Reservation land be abolished and non-Malays can now buy all land in Malaysia? What about the position of Islam and the National Language? What about the position of the Raja-Raja Melayu?

Or does it just mean Malays would no longer enjoy a discount on houses while everything else remains the same?

Just like saying that Najib must be ousted without giving us any details of what happens thereafter, Dr Mahathir also said that the NEP must be abolished without giving us any details of what happens thereafter.

And then, when 1990 came, the government did not know what to do. Say they do abolish the NEP, like what Dr Mahathir promised nine years earlier, what happens thereafter? No idea. So what they did instead is they kept the NEP and announced that it is no longer called the New Economic Policy but is called the National Economic Policy.

Okay, we got that. The New Economic Policy has been abolished and it has been replaced with the National Economic Policy. So it is ‘NEP Baru’, just like ‘Umno Baru’ two years before that. Umno Baru is still the same party but with a new name and the same old acronym. So what is the NEP Baru? Well, NEP Baru is also the same thing with a new name but with the same acronym.

But why still name the new party as ‘Umno’? Why not use another name? The answer is simple. It is all about money. If they do not use the same name ‘Umno’ then the old Umno’s billions in assets, investments and cash cannot be transferred to the new party. So ‘Umno Baru’ was created because of money and for no other reason. If not they could have called it ‘Parti Kebangsaan Melayu Bersatu’ instead — PKMB.

Why not say that you oppose Najib because Malaysia’s standard of education has declined? Why not say you oppose Najib because of the mess regarding Islam? Why not say you oppose Najib because of the mess regarding immigrants? Why not say you oppose Najib because of the high crime rate? Why not say you oppose Najib because of the high cost of healthcare? Why not say you oppose Najib because of the serious social problems facing the Malay community? Why not say you oppose Najib because of the high cost and low standards of living?

Well, the answer is simple. That is because all the cancer that Malaysia suffers from today is the result of the policies of the previous administration(s). Remember that Dr Mahathir launched Wawasan 2020? Well, Wawasan 2020 means that Malaysia is supposed to reach a developed-nation status around five years from now.

If by 2020 Malaysia is supposed to reach developed-nation status, as what Dr Mahathir planned, then the basic salaries of Malaysians should be at least RM40-50 an hour, or about RM8,000-10,000 a month. That would be basic pay based on minimum wage suitable to a fully-developed nation. Are the government and the mostly non-Malay employers prepared to pay this basic salary? They refuse to even pay a basic salary of RM1,500 a month or RM7 an hour.

As a fully developed nation by 2020 this is what Malaysians should be earning. Then no one will complain that it is difficult to survive. You would not even need BR1M and you can abolish the GST because every single Malaysian would be paying at least 20% income tax deducted at source. What a wonderful place Malaysia would be.

But then Dr Mahathir’s Wawasan 2020 is just about money where capitalists get richer and the workers get poorer. It does not address the living standards or quality of life of the rakyat. It does not address the social problems or problems related to education, race, religion, healthcare, etc.

And this is why Malaysia is facing so many problems. It is because all the ideas and plans are half-baked. The privatisation of MAS, Perwaja, privatisation of the highways, privatisation of water treatment, privatisation of electricity generation, playing the money market, cornering the tin market, and so much more were all half-baked ideas. And the Malaysian taxpayers are paying for all those follies.

And now yet another half-baked idea! Throw Najib out of the plane 25,000 feet in the air without a parachute and let one of the passengers take over flying the plane. Is that old man fooking mad or what?

As what Karpal Singh said about Anwar Ibrahim, “Anwar Ibrahim has created enough trouble for the country. Anwar Ibrahim harus bertaubat. I wonder if he is a fit leader for Pakatan Rakyat. I think Pakatan Rakyat requires another leader, a good leader. Not a leader who believes in immorality to the point of accepting crossovers.”

Yes, and was not Anwar Dr Mahathir’s running mate and did he not collaborate with the old man to damage all the important institutions that the present government now has to grapple with? Karpal should have said ‘Dr Mahathir dan Anwar Ibrahim, yada, yada yada…”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQV2UYiAswQ

Raja Petra Kamarudin RPK