The Mahathir Legacy (part 3)
When you meet Mukhriz you can detect that he is not really a politician and is not really interested in the job. You get the impression it is his father, Mahathir, who wants him to become a politician while he himself would rather do something else and enjoy his life of opulence.
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Raja Petra Kamarudin
I remember almost 30 years ago back in 1987 when our main criticism against Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah was that he was acting too much like an Anak Raja. Of course, he is an Anak Raja, there is no denying that. But then in politics you must be seen as a peoples’ person and not as an elite person, or what Malays would orang Orang Bangsawan.
The first Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman was an Anak Raja. The second Prime Minister, Tun Abdul Razak Hussein, current Prime Minister Najib’s father, was not an Anak Raja but he was an Orang Istana. In English that would be called a courtier.
The third Prime Minister, Tun Hussein Onn, was also an Orang Istana. In fact, his father, Onn Jaafar, was well respected by the Japanese during the Japanese occupation of Malaya that they gave him a military uniform to wear and was allowed to walk around with a Katana around his waist (what we call a Samurai sword).
The Japanese had this great respect for royalty and courtiers (in fact, they treated their Emperor as a God) and that is why the Royal Family and those associated with the Palace were given a special position under the Japanese Imperial Sun.
You have to understand the Japanese culture of the pre-1940s. The Samurai were above the normal rakyat but below the Shoguns and Emperors. They could just chop off your head if they did not like your hairstyle. Hence even the Malay ‘Samurai’ were treated the same way.
So this was basically the status of the first three Prime Ministers of Malaya-Malaysia.
Then came the fourth Prime Minister in 1981, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. And he was not an Anak Raja or Orang Istana. He was the first Prime Minister from the Orang Kebanyakan or proletariat. And this new Shogun, Mahathir, resented the fact that he was number two to the Emperor (the Agong), even though the Agong did not really have any political power but was a mere puppet on the throne (just like the Japanese Emperor since the days of the Shogunate).
So Mahathir decided to put the Agong in his place (just like what the Japanese Shoguns of the old days did to their Emperors who lived in constant fear of being assassinated by their Shoguns). The new Prime Minister is from the rakyat and no longer from the Istana. And Umno loved the new arrangement of peoples’ power and not power of the Palace.
In that sense that was Mahathir’s ‘success’. He ‘educated’ Umno into adopting the new culture that leaders must come from the rakyat and not from the Istana. And when Tengku Razaleigh tried to take on Mahathir six years later he failed to convince Umno that he is a rakyat’s man and not an Orang Istana. And that was why I started this piece by saying that “our main criticism against Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah was that he was acting too much like an Anak Raja.”
However, while Mahathir may have succeeded in educating Umno into adopting a new culture of leaders must come from the rakyat, he failed to also educate his own son, Mukhriz, that this is how leaders must act. And Mukhriz went around acting like he was bourgeois and not proletariat.
In fact, bourgeois is still not really that bad. But when Mukhriz acted like he was from the elite class, that more or less guaranteed that Mukhriz would go no further than how far his father could push him. And there is a limit to how far you can go by riding on your father’s coat tails.
Thirty years ago Tengku Razaleigh hoped that his ‘status’ could make him Prime Minister (he still does, in fact). But that would have worked with the old Umno. With the new Umno, (as Tunku Abdul Rahman said, “Mahathir’s Umno”) that no longer carries you very far. And Mahathir should have taught his own son this golden rule of how to succeed in Umno.
In that sense this is what separates Khairy Jamaluddin from Mukhriz Mahathir. In a way it was a blessing in disguise for Khairy that his father-in-law, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, was ousted in 2009. That forced Khairy to no longer try to get ahead on the strength that he is the son-in-law of the Prime Minister. If he wants to make it he needs to do it on his own strength and not on his father-in-law’s coat tails.
After 2009, Khairy needed to reinvent himself. He needed to show Umno Youth that he is Khairy Jamaluddin and not Khairy Badawi. And I would have to confess that I admire Khairy for that although he hates my guts because of ‘The Khairy Chronicles’ that I wrote.
(Khairy blames me for his father-in-law’s ouster. He told me so to my face one evening when we sat smoking cigars together. On reflection he should have thanked me instead because I ‘helped’ him to reinvent himself, although through no choice of his own).
Anyway, I am digressing. The point I wish to make is that Khairy now acted like a rakyat’s man (because he did not have a father-in-law who was Prime Minister) while Mukhriz acted like his father was still the Shogun who the Emperor sitting in Istana Negara feared. And this was why Mukhriz lost the contest for the Umno Youth leadership to Khairy.
Khairy told Umno Youth, “I am Khairy Jamaluddin and I want to be your leader.” Mukhriz told Umno Youth, “I am Mahathir’s son and my father wants me to become your leader.”
In 1950 that would have worked. Post-1980, however, that no longer works. Tengku Razaleigh found that out the hard way (although he is still too stubborn to admit it). And Mukhriz is still too dumb to realise that (because he thinks daddy kasi works better than dedikasi).
Mukhriz expected the leadership post to be served to him on a silver platter. Tengku Razaleigh expected the same thing but even a man of his status did not get it that way. And Tengku Razaleigh is far higher in status than Mukhriz. So if even a man like Tengku Razaleigh cannot make it based on status what makes you think that Mukhriz can?
Khairy worked hard to get his job. He went all over to meet the Umno Youth delegates and campaigned for their support and votes. Mukhriz sat on his throne and expected the Umno Youth delegates to come and mengadap him (pay homage like you would to a Sultan). And that was why Mukhriz lost and Khairy won.
But then when Mukhriz lost Mahathir would not accept the fact that this was his son’s own fault. Instead, he blamed those who he felt did not deliver the post to his son. And that guilty person who failed to make sure that Mukhriz won and Khairy lost is none other than Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak.
I need not recap the events regarding the contest for the Umno Youth Deputy, Umno Youth Leader, and Umno Vice President posts in 2004, 2009 and 2013 respectively. You can read the details in parts 1 and 2 of this series at the links below.
The long and short of it, as far as Mahathir was concerned, is Abdullah failed to deliver the post to Mukhriz in 2004 while Najib failed to deliver the post to Mukhriz in 2009 and 2013. And that was why Abdullah needed to go and that is also why Najib, too, needs to go.
Mukhriz’s failure is being blamed on Abdullah and Najib. Mukhriz is now not going to be the Prime Minister in 2020 because of these two Prime Ministers. It is not the fault of Mukhriz. It is the fault of Abdullah and Najib.
But then Mukhriz did not work for it. He does not, as they say in politics, go down to the ground. He expects ‘the ground’ to come to him, like what a Sultan would expect. And even when they do he cannot remember who they are or what their names are, although he may have met them a number of times in the past.
In that sense Tengku Razaleigh is better. He remembers you and remembers your name and can even talk to you about something that you spoke about ten years ago. He makes you feel special and treats you as if you are always in his heart. Mukhriz is the opposite of all this. And if even this was not enough for Tengku Razaleigh to win how can Mukhriz expect to perform better?
When you meet Mukhriz you can detect that he is not really a politician and is not really interested in the job. You get the impression it is his father, Mahathir, who wants him to become a politician while he himself would rather do something else and enjoy his life of opulence.
Mukhriz would be very successful as a Sultan. He acts like a Sultan. As a politician Mukhriz is a dismal failure. And the faster he admits that his failure is his own doing the better for his family. At least his father can then banish the thought that his son is not going to become Prime Minister in 2020 not because Najib is blocking him from becoming the Prime Minister but because Mukhriz is trying to make it by riding on his father’s name.
Of course, Mahathir’s aim is for Mukhriz to become the Prime Minister so that a dynasty can be created and the Mahathir legacy would be secure. It will also protect the family wealth and business interest. But things do not always work out the way you hope. And this is because the ‘horse’ or kuda tunggang that Mahathir is riding on is not a winner as Mahathir thinks it is. And Mahathir is hoping that it may still prove a winner because the horse carries the Mahathir name. But then can this horse run, never mind what name it carries?
That, in the final analysis, is what it is all about. And the final analysis is Mukhriz is not a winner but a loser. So live with it and move on. You can drag your horse to water but you cannot force it to drink. And your horse Mukhriz is not drinking. And it also cannot trot, let alone run.
