Mahathir needs to create the perception of winning

Mahathir really has nothing much to use against Najib other than 1MDB. That is why he is playing the perception game and is creating the perception that Najib is under attack all over the world because of 1MDB. In the end nothing is going to happen. However, as long as this perception can last till the next general election that is all that matters.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

I remember back in the 1970s when my Chinese business partner from Sungai Besar told me that it is important to create the perception of success. I was dealing with mainly Chinese companies who supplied me engines, machinery, fishing nets, motorcycles, and so on. And being Malay I needed to work doubly hard to prove myself — compared to Chinese businessmen who did not have the Bumiputera ‘stigma’ to overcome.

Is it not ironical that being Malay we were at a disadvantage and we had to run faster just to keep up and not yet even to overtake our Chinese competitors? Yes, while the Chinese see our Bumiputera status as an advantage, it was actually the other way around.

My Chinese business partner was named Chia. And the Chia network is pretty powerful. So all he needed to do was to work through his Chia network and he could easily get supplies and credit. I was not only not a Chia but not a Chinese as well. So I needed a Chia to recommend me if I wanted to win the confidence of the Chinese network.

That was when, 40 years ago, I learned the importance and power of networking and about clansmen in the Chinese business world. I could not even get an appointment to meet the number one of any organisation unless someone like Chia opened the door for me. Chia used to joke that while other Malays do Ali Baba business, I was doing Baba Ali business. I was using the Chinese as my front.

Whatever it may be, I paid 100% dividends for Chia’s small RM30,000 investment in my company as a sort of ‘consultancy fee’, which was about the cost of a Mercedes Benz back in the early 1970s. And that was the car I bought in the 1970s, a second hand Mercedes.

Chia told me that the Fiat I was driving did not give the right image when I met the Chinese suppliers. It did not give the perception of success. So I bought my first Mercedes and although second hand it had registration number TC848 — which to the Chinese is good because it means prosperity and still prospering after death; or the prosperity goes on for many generations and continues after you are dead.

That TC848 number plate alone gave the perception that I am wise and know the ways of the world and know the ‘right’ thing to do. It is amusing that the registration number I used on my car gave the ‘right perception’ about me.

Now, what is the purpose of this old story? Simple, it is to demonstrate that the perception game is very important. It is important in business and it is important in politics. That is why companies will not allow their top people to fly economy lest it gives a bad impression about the company’s financial strength.

And Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad of all people knows this. In fact, when he was Prime Minister for 22 years he understood the perception game and played it to the hilt. He wanted Malaysia to go into shipbuilding, steel manufacturing, the motorcar industry, and so on, to give an impression that Malaysia has ‘arrived’. You cannot claim to be a successful nation unless you are in these industries that other successful countries are in.

All this may cost the nation billions and in the end it may just be money down the drain. But that is a price Malaysia has to pay to create this perception of success. Some say Mahathir is a bad businessman or economist. Actually he is a very clever spin-doctor. Until today, the simple-minded people still say that Mahathir was the greatest Prime Minister Malaysia ever had because he gave the country development and prosperity.

Langkawi, Putrajaya, Cyberjaya, the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, the Kuala Lumpur Twin Towers, the Sepang International Circuit, and many more, are part of this perception game that Mahathir played when he was Prime Minister. These are monuments of his ‘success’.

In fact, he wanted the Crooked Bridge built so that he can create the perception that he took on Singapore and won, just like he took on the UK, US, Australia, etc., and won. The perception of winning is very crucial to Mahathir even though at the end of the day you may ask what precisely did he win.

Mahathir wants to create the perception that he is just like Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore. Kuan Yew, Mahathir’s nemesis, retired as Singapore’s Prime Minister in 1990 but continued to decide what happens in that island-state for more than 20 years after he left office and almost until the day he died.

Mahathir left office in 2003. So he has to still decide what happens in Malaysia until way past 2020 (or until 2025 if he can stay alive until then) if he wants to ‘not lose’ to Kuan Yew. And that was why from 2002 to 2003 Mahathir told Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi how he should run the country when he takes over on 1st November 2003. And when Abdullah did not do not what Mahathir told him to do, in June 2006 Mahathir made his move to oust the Prime Minister.

Then, when Najib Tun Razak took over as Prime Minister on 3rd April 2009, Mahathir also told him how to run the country. However, Najib, just like Abdullah before him, refused to listen. Mahathir grumbled that when he started harassing Najib and kept telling him what to do, the Prime Minister ignored him and refused to talk to him for six months. And that was when Mahathir decided that Najib has to go, said Mahathir.

Of course, Mahathir left out the part that one of those things that Najib ‘refused to listen’ was concerning helping Mukhriz win an Umno Vice President’s seat. Mahathir blames Najib for not helping Mukhriz by asking Hishammuddin Hussein to stay out of the race and allow Mukhriz a walkover.

Anyway, Mahathir wants a puppet Prime Minister and neither Abdullah nor Najib agreed to become his puppet. When Abdullah refused to listen he removed him as Prime Minister. But Mahathir discovered that removing Najib is not as simple as removing Abdullah.

So Mahathir is now forming his own party where he can appoint his proxy to run that party. So now he will face no more problems of the party president refusing to become his puppet because Muhyiddin Yassin is his ever-ready puppet.

Mahathir found out that holding Abdullah, and now Najib, by the balls was impossible because he did not have any files on them. Muhyiddin, however, has a file as long as your arm that goes back to the days when he was the Menteri Besar of Johor. Then we have his sex scandal with Nika Gee to add to that. So it is very easy to hold Muhyiddin by the balls and make him do what you want him to do — but not so easy to do that with Najib unless you can fabricate something such as 1MDB.

So there you are. If the party president refuses to become your puppet then start your own party and appoint your own puppet as the President. And Mahathir, of all people, should know how to do this because he did it once before in 1988 when he formed Umno Baru to get rid of all his enemies from Team B.

Again, however, Mahathir is playing the perception game. He is positioning his new party as a Malay party mainly because he wants to create the perception that this party is the replacement to Umno. Umno Baru managed to replace Umno (Lama) because he closed down the old Umno and also called his new party Umno (which created the perception that the new Umno is the same old Umno). But now we have two ‘Umnos’. So that makes it more important that Mahathir’s party, Pribumi, is perceived as a Malay party.

The class action suit that Mahathir told Matthias Chang and Husam Musa to file in the US is also part of this perception game, as was the 20th July 2016 announcement by the US Department of Justice and the US Attorney General. It is to create the perception that the end is near and that Najib is not going to survive the next general election.

This was what Bakri Musa wrote:

“Lawsuits are complex and expensive, both to initiate and defend. As for costs, we are looking at high six figures or even millions. That’s US dollars, not devalued ringgit. I do not know about Chang, but I am certain that Husam does not have the kind of resources to engage the high-powered law firms of Louis F Burke PC of New York and Ajamie, LLP of Houston. I do not know their arrangements.”

“Lawyers however, have as much to do with justice as doctors to health. Lawsuits in particular have even less; they are but business decisions to law firms. Victory is settlement in their favour without having to go through an expensive and uncertain trial.”

Yes, if they decide to go all the way with this it is going to run into the tens of millions of US$. If the other side contests the action then it may cost far more than that if you lose the case. Class action suits seldom benefit the claimant and it is the lawyers who benefit the most. Furthermore, the claimant must prove he or she has personally been injured by the action of the defendant.

Nevertheless, the outcome (meaning success) of all these actions is not as important as the perception that Mahathir can create. He wants to create the perception that Najib is under siege or under attack from many quarters. Mahathir just needs to keep this perception going until 2018 at the very latest — or over the next 18 months or so (in the event the next general election is called early). And then it really does not matter what happens in the end.

What about the other side of that perception? Mahathir has never been able to work with anyone and has always clashed with people close to him. Mahathir has sacked four people who used to be his number two: Tun Musa Hitam, Tun Ghafar Baba, Anwar Ibrahim, and Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Mahathir has clashed with every Prime Minister since Merdeka except Tun Razak Hussein who died in office. Mahathir has clashed with the Judiciary and the Monarchy because he resented the fact he had to share power with the other institutions.

Mahathir has jailed almost every opposition leader since he took office and no one was spared. Mahathir just cannot get along with anybody. And we are yet to see how the seat negotiations with DAP, PAS, PKR and PAN are going to end up — or will Pribumi agree to be at par with PPP, PSM and PRM?

If Mahathir’s party does not contest at least 80 Parliament seats and 200 state seats in the next general election then it cannot be regarded as a major player. The perception that will be created is that Pribumi is just a splinter or mosquito party. But then who are the ones who are going to sacrifice their seats for Mahathir’s new Pribumi party? Even PKR and DAP quarrel over seats. And is PAN going to contest lesser seats than PAS if they want to create the perception that PAN is replacing PAS?

And the biggest perception game of all is regarding Mahathir creating the perception that 1MDB lost RM42 billion and maybe even RM50 billion. And to perpetuate this perception they are doing all sorts of things all over the world, plus they sabotaged the IPO and blocked loans to 1MDB. And this perception is important because that is the only thing Mahathir has to use against Najib. And if the 1MDB perception game collapses then Mahathir is dead in the water because he really has nothing else to use to bring Najib down.

In 2008, Mahathir made the Barisan Nasional Chinese abandon the government to give the perception that Abdullah had lost support. In 2013, when the Chinese still did not support Barisan Nasional, Mahathir accused Najib of ignoring the Malays and of pampering the Chinese who did not support the government.

In 2018, Mahathir is going to say that the new opposition coalition headed by his Pribumi has now emerged to replace Barisan Nasional because it is better, bigger, more powerful, more committed, more honest, corruption-free, believes in justice, guarantees human rights, subscribes to civil liberties, will treat all Malaysians equal, does not discriminate, and has the blessings of Allah, and is going to bring back RM50 billion of 1MDB’s money from the US.