Why Mahathir is the wrong person to lead the opposition

Do you think the Chinese in Sarawak do not know that soon after the 2013 general election Mahathir whacked Najib and said he had given too much face to the Chinese and was wasting his time with the Chinese when he should have instead focused on the Malays who are the true supporters of Umno?

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Over the last two days quite a few people have given their post-Sarawak state election analysis. And some of these people are the same people who had earlier predicted doom for Barisan Nasional. Anyway, as a comparison, this was what I wrote on 3rd May 2016, four days before the election:

With just three-and-a-half more days of campaigning to go before roughly one million Sarawakians go to the ballot box to decide who they want as the government for the next five years (or whether they even want to deny the ruling party its two-thirds majority in the Sarawak State Assembly), you can see that the fight is already over.

In an earlier article I said that the opposition should aim for 15-16 seats. To aim for 42 seats (which is what it would need to take over the state), or even just 28 seats to deny Barisan Nasional its two-thirds majority in the Sarawak State Assembly, may be a pie in the sky. My wife, Marina, read that article and scoffed. She said she would not want to give the opposition more than ten seats and she thinks I am being too generous in giving them 15-16 seats.

Well, let’s see this weekend who wins the bet. I have the nagging feeling, however, that the result may be something in between those two figures and this is based purely on the feedback I am getting regarding the issues (or lack of issues) being raised during the election campaign.

Basically, the opposition is not able to take personal swipes at Chief Minister Adenan Satem. And the opposition strategy has always been to play on the hate factor. (READ MORE HERE)

So that was it. My wife, Marina, was spot on when she said she would not give the opposition more than ten seats (and that I was being too generous in giving them 15-16 seats). I wonder how much Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s political advisers are being paid. Maybe Najib should employ Marina instead.

I mean Marina did tell me back in 1990 that Anwar Ibrahim was never going to become the Prime Minister. “Make sure you note that in your diary,” Marina told me with her finger wagging in my face. “This is the highest Anwar is going to go. After this he is going to fall and his political career is going to end. He is never going to become the Prime Minister. Write that in your diary.”

And the uncanny thing is Marina did not tell just me this. She told many other people as well. And, true enough, eight years later Anwar fell and as much as he fought to try to get back into Umno he failed and had to content himself with staying in the opposition.

So Marina has been right more than once before. I will get her views on Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar once we know what is going to happen and let us see whether she can maintain her perfect record of correctly forecasting the future.

Anyway, Anwar did not want to become the opposition leader. He wanted to become the Umno Prime Minister. And even after he was sacked from Umno (and jailed) in 1998 he still fought tooth and nail to try to get back into Umno.

Only when Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi brought this matter to the Umno supreme council and it was rejected by the supreme council members did Anwar finally resign himself to the fact that he will have to make good in the opposition if he wants to still be involved in politics.

So Anwar’s heart was not really with the opposition. It was with Umno because he knows that if he wants to become the Prime Minister then it has to be through Umno. As the opposition leader he is never going to become the Prime Minister.

And Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad knew this as well. Mahathir knew that Anwar has to be kept out of Umno forever. Mahathir knew that Anwar was trying very hard to get back into Umno and that he was working through Abdullah Badawi to try to do that. And Mahathir made sure that Abdullah Badawi knew that if he allowed Anwar back into Umno then his (Abdullah Badawi’s) head was going to end up on a spike.

And that is why Anwar makes a very bad opposition leader. Basically his heart is not with the opposition. Anwar just wants to use the opposition to hurt Umno and Barisan Nasional so that they would give up and then invite him back into Umno. After all, did Mahathir not admit back in 2004 that he brought Anwar into Umno in 1982 to prevent him from going to PAS, which would have been a problem for Umno if that happened?

And now we have Mahathir who has taken over from Anwar as the opposition leader. But is Mahathir’s heart really with the opposition or is he (like Anwar before him) just using the opposition to hurt Umno and Barisan Nasional so that Umno will give up and give in to his demands just to get him off their backs?

Yes, Mahathir says he wants to fight for reforms so that Malaysia can be saved. Well, then read what Mahathir said in his Blog about the recently concluded Sarawak state elections:

“Najib has no reason to be happy. What the Sarawak BN achieved is to weaken the authority of the central government which Najib leads. He is now going to be even more dependent on the support of Sarawak than before. Already, he has given in to all Sarawak’s demand. Now more than ever Najib will have to pander to the demands of Sarawak. In fact, Najib has been doing just that. Anything that Sarawak asks for, Sarawak will get. The cry of Sarawak for the Sarawakians has become louder.”

So there you have it. Mahathir wants Sarawak (and that would mean Sabah as well) to remain as one of the junior states of Malaysia. He does not want Sarawak to be at par with Malaya but to be at par with Perlis. He does not want Sarawak for Sarawakians. He does not want autonomy for Sarawak. He wants more federal control over Sarawak. And for sure he does not want to give Sarawak 20% oil royalty.

So, Mahathir wants reforms. Mahathir wants to save Malaysia. And Mahathir wants Sarawak and Sabah to be colonised by West Malaysia.

Now do you know why Sarawakians gave 72 of the 82 seats to Barisan Nasional? Barisan Nasional Sarawak comprises of Sarawak-based parties. The other four parties (DAP, PKR, Amanah and PAS) are federal-based parties. And three of the four federal-based opposition parties are working with Mahathir who wants Sarawak to remain a colony of Malaya and to not be allowed autonomy.

What was that again? Sarawak is a jungle state and Sarawakians are all stupid? Yeah, right, and that was why Sarawakians support their Chief Minister Adenan Satem who is fighting for Sarawakians and do not support DAP, PKR and Amanah who are aligned to Mahathir.

As long as Mahathir is leading the opposition expect the opposition to continue to do badly. Do you think the Chinese in Sarawak do not access the Internet? Do you think the Chinese in Sarawak do not know that soon after the 2013 general election Mahathir whacked Najib and said he had given too much face to the Chinese and was wasting his time with the Chinese when he should have instead focused on the Malays who are the true supporters of Umno?

As what some non-DAP Chinese told me, “We may not talk too much but come the general election we will demonstrate how we feel through the ballot box.” And that was exactly what happened on 7th May 2016 in Sarawak. And if the opposition wants their fortunes reversed then it had better dump Mahathir as soon as possible. If not get ready to be decimated in Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar.