The Mahathir Legacy (part 2)

By MT Webmaster Last updated Mar 20, 2016

But Mahathir is only giving an appearance that he wants Najib ousted. That may have been the original plan back in 2014. However, that is no longer the plan because that would benefit Zahid rather than Mukhriz. The new plan is for Najib to be placed under severe threat and extreme pressure so that he would go crawling to Mahathir to make peace.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

When we compare Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s legacy to that of his nemesis, Lee Kuan Yew, what do we see? And why, in the first place, does Mahathir even regard Kuan Yew as his nemesis and Singapore as that ‘little red dot’?

When Mahathir first took office as Malaysia’s Prime Minister in 1981 he chided a senior government officer who suggested that Malaysia adopt some of Singapore’s policies. “Don’t ever mention Singapore,” Mahathir said. “Don’t you know we are at war with Singapore?”

Yes, that is what Mahathir thinks of Singapore. And that was why he cursed Tunku Abdul Rahman for ‘giving away Malay land’ to the Chinese. If Mahathir were allowed to handle the 1965 crisis, he would have detained Kuan Yew under the Internal Security Act and would have sent the Malay Regiment into Singapore to ‘restore order’.

Many people talk about the 1969 race riots, a.k.a. ‘May 13’, in Malaysia. But no one wants to mention the 1964 race riots in Singapore, which was basically the Singapore Chinese demonstrating their unhappiness about being part of Malaysia, which was formed a year before that.

Anyway, that is another story for another time. The bottom line is, after the Malaysia-Singapore split, Malaysia did not perform as good as Singapore. At one time Singapore and Malaysia shared an airline company, Malaysia Singapore Airlines (MSA). Then it split into two: Singapore Airlines and Malaysian Airlines.

In the three months up to December 2015, Singapore Airlines saw an increase of 35% in net profit to RM816 million, compared to a net profit of RM600 million for the same quarter the year before that. Malaysian Airlines is struggling just to not go bankrupt.

At one time Malaysia and Singapore shared one currency. Today, you need three Ringgit to buy one Singapore Dollar. And the list can go on and on. The only thing better about Malaysia is you can chew chewing gum in Malaysia while in Singapore you can’t.

So there are many things to be jealous about when it comes to Singapore. And something that makes Mahathir even more jealous is regarding how Kuan Yew had an iron grip on Singapore and could plan and decide the leadership succession — and which those who came after him followed to the letter.

As they say, Kuan Yew is probably the only Prime Minister in the world who can still run the country from the grave while Mahathir cannot even do that when he is still alive and not yet in his grave. And that is certainly something to be really jealous about.

Kuan Yew was the Prime Minister of Singapore for 31 years from 3rd June 1959 to 28th November 1990. After Kuan Yew stepped down as Prime Minister in 1990, his successor, Goh Chok Tong, appointed him a Senior Minister. Kuan Yew held this post for 14 years until 2004. So, effectively, Kuan Yew still more or less had a say on how the country is run.

When Kuan Yew’s elder son, Lee Hsien Loong, took over as Singapore’s third prime minister in 2004, Kuan Yew assumed the advisory post of Minister Mentor until he left the Cabinet seven years later in 2011.

So, effectively, Kuan Yew still walked in the corridors of power for 21 years after he retired. In total, Kuan Yew held ministerial positions in the Singapore government for 56 years. He continued to serve his Tanjong Pagar constituency for nearly 60 years as an elected Member of Parliament until his death in 2015.

Mahathir just cannot accept the fact that Kuan Yew has outdone him (and that Singapore has outdone Malaysia). Kuan Yew successfully built his legacy, which includes a country or island state that is admired by the whole world. What is Mahathir’s legacy?

Those who write about Mahathir only talk about his failures and financial disasters. No one talks about his successes. Are these the only ‘monuments’ that Mahathir is going to be remember by? Is there not even one success they can mention amongst those twenty or thirty failures?

We have the KLIA, KLCC, Langkawi, and so on. Do these not count? Unfortunately those are only brick and cement. And in the bigger scheme of things those do not count. Legacies must be more than just buildings and monuments. And Kuan Yew’s legacy is not about the buildings he left behind but the leadership that would guide Singapore through the stormy waters and beyond.

And that legacy is his son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who has been leading Singapore for the last 12 years since 2004.

When Kuan Yew retired in 1990, he appointed Goh Chok Tong as the new Prime Minister, who in turn appointed Hsien Loong as his Deputy. The message was very clear. Chok Tong was going to be the interim Prime Minister who was going to ‘groom’ and prepare Hsien Loong to take over later. And that was what happened.

Taking a leaf out of Kuan Yew’s playbook, Mahathir also handed power to an interim Prime Minister, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, on 1st November 2003, who would then make way for Mukhriz Mahathir to take over after that. Chok Tong, Singapore’s interim Prime Minister, ruled for 14 years. Mahathir would have allowed Abdullah to rule for 17 years up to 2020 before he needs to make way for Mukhriz to take over.

But then, after agreeing to this succession plan, and after taking over on 1st November 2003, Abdullah reneged on the deal. And that was what Mahathir meant in 2006 when he said that Abdullah broke his promises.

This was what we wrote in the previous article, The Mahathir Legacy (part 1):

Mahathir’s legacy is simple. He would hand power to Abdullah in November 2003. Mukhriz would become the Umno Youth Deputy the following year. In 2009 Mukhriz would become the Umno Youth Leader. In 2013 Mukhriz would become one of the Umno Vice Presidents. In 2016 (now postponed to 2018) Mukhriz would become the Umno Deputy President. And by 2020 Mukhriz would become the Umno President and in that same move would become the new Prime Minister of Malaysia.

But that did not happen. Instead, Abdullah’s son-in-law, Khairy Jamaluddin, went up. Mukhriz did not become the Umno deputy youth leader in 2004 and the youth leader in 2009. He also did not become an Umno vice president in 2013. And this year, when the Umno party elections were supposed to be held, Mukhriz was supposed to be the Umno deputy president and subsequently the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia.

It was actually quite a surprise that Mukhriz failed to win one of the three Umno vice president’s seats in 2013. Traditionally, one of the Menteri Besar would win an Umno vice president’s seat, although that is not the rule. But that can only happen once all the Menteri Besar endorses that candidate as the ‘wakil Menteri Besar’. And for this to happen the Prime Minister can play a very crucial roll. Najib, however, did not, so Mukhriz lost. And that, as far as Dr Mahathir was concerned, meant that Najib was now living on borrowed time.

If Mukhriz had won a vice president’s seat in 2013, and then the deputy’s post in 2016, that would mean in four years or so from now, by 2020, Mukhriz would be poised to take over as the new Prime Minister of Malaysia. That, however, no longer looks possible. Both Abdullah and Najib have failed to deliver what they promised, that Mukhriz would be Prime Minister by 2020. And that was why Abdullah had to go and Najib also now needs to go.

Abdullah needed to be ousted so that Khairy could be killed off. Mahathir believed that the only reason Khairy is successful is because he is the son-in-law of the Prime Minister. So, if Abdullah is no longer the Prime Minister, then Khairy is finished. And that would open the way for Mukhriz to go up instead.

And, back in 2013, Mahathir also realised that if Mukhriz was going to have any chance of becoming Prime Minister then Najib needs to be ousted as well. And Muhyiddin Yassin agreed that if he took over from Najib he would be Malaysia’s ‘Goh Chok Tong’ and then in six or seven-years time he would hand the country to Mukhriz.

And that was when the Anti-Najib Campaign (ANC) was launched in late 2014. The issue was not 1MDB or, later, the RM2.6 billion donation. It was about removing Najib and replacing him with a ‘Goh Chok Tong’ who would make way for Mukhriz to take over as Prime Minister in 2020.

Instead, Najib killed Mahathir’s ‘Goh Chok Tong’ and replaced him with Ahmad Zahid Hamidi. And Zahid is not about to become Mahathir’s ‘Goh Chok Tong’ if and when he takes over as Prime Minister. And Zahid is also not about to stab Najib in the back and take over as Prime Minister before it is time for him to take over.

So Zahid has Najib’s back covered. And as his reward he will most likely be taking over as Prime Minister when Najib is ready to call it a day. And this means only one thing: the window of opportunity for Mukhriz has more or less closed for good — unless both Najib and Zahid can be ousted in one go.

When Abdullah failed to deliver his promise regarding Mukhriz, Mahathir attacked him. When it appeared like Abdullah would not fall, Mahathir resigned from Umno and worked with the opposition to sabotage the 2008 general election.

Mahathir got Matthias Chang to meet the Chinese leaders, many who were MCA life members, and told them to vote opposition. Umno-Barisan Nasional needs to be punished, Matthias said, and the only way to do that is to vote opposition.

During a press conference in Alor Setar, Kedah, Mahathir repeated that call and told Malaysians to not vote Umno-Barisan Nasional but to vote opposition instead so that Umno-Barisan Nasional can be punished. That worked and Umno-Barisan Nasional performed very badly, as the 2008 general election results has proven. And that was the catalyst that Mahathir used to oust Abdullah.

The whole of 2015 was about ousting Najib so that a Malaysian ‘Goh Chok Tong’ can take over as Prime Minister. That plan is no longer on the table. The plan for Mukhriz to become the Umno Youth number two in 2004 and then the Umno Youth number one in 2009 and then one of the Umno Vice Presidents in 2013 is now a no-go.

So that means the plan for Mukhriz to be the Umno Deputy President in 2016 (now postponed to 2018), and subsequently the Deputy Prime Minister as well, is also a long shot. If Mukhriz is ever going to be the Prime Minister in 2020 it has to be based on a new and fast track plan, not the old ‘climb up one step at a time’ plan that was mooted 14 years ago in 2002.

The original ‘career progression’ plan was actually quite brilliant if not for one thing. And that one thing is that Khairy decided to enter the race and Abdullah did not order his son-in-law to back off. Even then Mukhriz still had a chance of winning until Khir Toyo also entered the race and turned it into a three-corner contest.

If it were a straight fight between Khairy and Mukhriz then Mukhriz would have won. But in a three-corner fight it was tough going for Mukhriz because he and Khir were both fishing in the same pond. Hence a three-corner fight worked in Khairy’s favour.

And this infuriated Mahathir. He was so angry that he set his dogs on Khir, a.k.a. the MACC. And this was why Khir ended up in jail (not because he is corrupt — because if it was then 90% of the politicians from both sides of the political divide would now be in jail) but because he sabotaged Mukhriz’s chances of becoming the next Prime Minister.

Actually, Mahathir got Samsuddin Majulia to set Khir up. So Khir was basically stabbed in the back and sold out by his own people. But then that is what happens to you when you are an obstacle to Mukhriz becoming the next Prime Minister, like what Najib is beginning to realise.

Mahathir, however, now knows that ousting Najib is no longer going to guarantee that Mukhriz is going to be the next Prime Minister because that would just allow Zahid to take over earlier than planned. The only way Mukhriz can become the next Prime Minister would be to kick out Zahid and replace him with Mukhriz. Then, in 2020, Najib can retire and Mukhriz can take over.

That is the new fast track game plan that has replaced the old ‘one step at a time’ plan. And for that to happen Najib has to be pressured into replacing Zahid with Mukhriz. And this must happen before the party election in 2018. If not then the window would have closed forever.

And that was why Mahathir resigned from Umno on 29th February 2016 and launched his Save Malaysia campaign with the signing of the Citizens’ Declaration on 4th March 2016. Mahathir knows he can no longer topple Najib from inside Umno. So he has to now do that from outside Umno.

And that peace treaty would involve replacing Zahid with Mukhriz and this must be done before the 2018 party election but after the 2018 general election when Mukhriz can contest a parliament seat (to qualify to become the Deputy Prime Minister and later the Prime Minister in 2020).

So, is this really a Save Malaysia campaign? Is it really about a Citizens’ Declaration? If you really believe that then you must also believe that Santa lives in the North Pole with all his elves.

No, this is about Mahathir’s legacy. And if Kuan Yew can do it then why can’t Mahathir also do it? Do you think Mahathir really cares about Malaysians or about the country? Mahathir, like Joseph Stalin of Russia, would not mind burning the whole country and allow millions of his citizens to die just so that he wins the battle. And if you do not know this then you are too stupid to be talking about politics. And Mahathir would do anything, including sabotaging Umno-Barisan Nasional in the coming general election, to make sure that his legacy of his son becoming Prime Minister succeeds.

Raja Petra Kamarudin RPK