Change?
KTemoc Konsiders
I know some of you in recent times don’t like, nay, in fact hate RPK when once you had adored him, wakakaka.
You said he has changed but isn’t that his right of freedom of expression and free association, what more when he was down and out (and incarcerated), no one came to his immediate rescue.
So indeed, why should RPK continue to seppuku-rise himself. He is completely at liberty to choose who he wants to support, slaughter and syiok-kan (wakakaka) in his posts.
Of course we can disagree with him because that’s our choice, and I personally have at times disagree and at times agree with him, such is political life everywhere. But we can be civilised about it, can’t we? I hope you’ll change in this regard, wakakaka.
Anyway, his latest post is MAHATHIR HAS OUTLIVED HIS GOODWILL in which he discussed ‘goodwill’ and contrasted Mahathir’s lack of grace and also lack of senior statesmanship qualities with others like Barack Obama and AAB. In a couple of paragraphs, RPK wrote:
Today, Mahathir no longer has any goodwill left. Even the good he may have done in his first ten years as Prime Minister in the 1980s is forgotten. What many remember are just the bad parts of his 22 years reign. And this was the period he decided to resign from Umno (last year), and form his new party (PPBM or Pribumi), and take over as the de facto Opposition Leader, and try to bring all the opposition parties under one roof (Pakatan Harapan) and so on.
Ten years ago in 2006 this may have worked. Back in 2006, when he decided to take on Abdullah, Mahathir’s goodwill was tremendous. In fact, it was so tremendous that when he told the Chinese, even those from Barisan Nasional, to vote opposition in 2008 they did (Mahathir’s Chinese Tsunami). And that was why five states and 82 parliament seats fell to the opposition. Mahathir now realises that what he did in 2006 and 2008 can no longer work today. But what Mahathir does not seem to realise is it no longer works because he no longer possesses the required goodwill to make it work.
I recall that time when even PAS deemed him as a ‘national treasure’, probably because he was whacking AAB and UMNO, wakakaka. And it needs to be noted that at that time, RPK arranged for some of the venues for Mahathir’s roadshows against AAB, wakakaka again.
I dare say BN lost its 2/3 majority in 2008 because of Mahathir’s campaign against AAB and UMNO, despite AAB winning a landslide election just one term ago (2004).
I am not sure whether to term Mahathir’s vengeful rage in his anti-AAB anti-UMNO campaign as ‘scorch-earth’ tactics or ‘dog in a manger’ attitude or just bloody vindictiveness. I am more inclined towards the last, to wit, ‘vindictiveness’.
Yes, Mahathir tends to be ‘personal’, and I suppose I would not be surprised to hear him say a la Vietnam War prose, “I have to destroy UMNO to save it!”, wakakaka.
Perhaps I ought to give my personal impression of him, which I did at RPK’s blog.
Many like moi did NOT like but at one respected Mahathir. We carried that respect for him even after he retired.
It could be said he f**f-ed up a lot but he also achieved quite a lot, though much earlier (due to much goodwill for him then) we tended to remember his good points more than his bad ones, many and far more devastating as the latter have been (eg. virtual destruction of the independence of the judiciary, senate, and other hallowed institutions, and numerous financial follies).
Today we are less gracious and have began to question the role of oil in his performances. In other words, as a PM, maybe without the help of oil he would not be considered great at all. And now, memories of his failures start to stack up mightily against memories of his achievements.
We have changed as some of you have accused RPK of doing. It’s a process called re-evaluation, re-view and reconsider, wakakaka. You see, we are re-thinking lah. But I suppose you prefer such words as ‘turncoat’, makan dedak, and whatever makes you syiok.
