Mahathir in Pakatan – a Monkey’s Paw wish?
KTemoc Konsiders
The story of ‘The Monkey’s Paw’ as obtained from Wikipedia:
The short story involves Mr. and Mrs. White and their adult son, Herbert.
Sergeant-Major Morris, a friend who served with the British Army in India, introduces them to a mummified monkey’s paw.
An old fakir (Indian bomoh) placed a spell on the paw, that it would grant three wishes. The wishes are granted but always with hellish consequences as punishment for tampering with fate.
Morris, having had a horrific experience using the paw, throws the monkey’s paw into the fire but Mr. White retrieves it. Before leaving, Morris warns Mr. White that if he does use the paw, then it will be on his own head.
At Herbert’s suggestion, Mr. White flippantly wishes for £200, which will enable him to make the final mortgage payment for his house, even though he believes he has everything he wants.
The next day his son Herbert leaves for work at a local factory. Later that day, word comes to the White home that Herbert has been killed in a terrible machinery accident. Although the employer denies responsibility for the incident, the firm has decided to make a goodwill payment to the family of the deceased. The payment, of £200, exactly matches the amount Herbert suggested his father should wish for.
Ten days after their son’s death and a week after the funeral, Mrs. White, almost mad with grief, asks her husband to use the paw to wish Herbert back to life. Reluctantly, he does so.
Shortly afterwards there is a knock at the door. As Mrs. White fumbles at the locks in an attempt to open the door, Mr. White, who had to identify his son’s mutilated body, and who knows the corpse has been buried for more than a week, realizes that the thing outside is not the son he knew and loved.
He makes his third wish.
The knocking suddenly stops. Mrs. White opens the door to find no one is there.Hence we get the cryptic saying “Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it.”
What has been unsaid, and which has probably puzzled many people about the meaning of above saying through the years have been “… and find that you really don’t want it.”
Back in Malaysia, Pakatan Harapan thought it hit the political jackpot when Mahathir left UMNO and then joined them with his new party called Pribumi, its name bluntly telling ‘nons’ that while they can vote for it, they can’t join it as lesser beings, to wit, non-bumiputeras.
He was Pakatan’s wish come true.
Pakatan leaders believe they could use Mahathir as the vanguard that’s much needed to break into the Malay Heartland, hitherto the stronghold of UMNO (and to some extent, PAS), and to secure the Heartland’s support that is necessary if Pakatan wants to take Putrajaya.
But Mahathir came with lots of ‘baggage’ such as Forex, MAS, Memali, Maminco, BMF, Perwaja, Ops Lalang, the Anwar Ibrahim debacle, etc etc etc.
According to Berita Daily’s Pakatan Harapan embracing the wrong ‘poster boy’? Mahathir’s two most horrid ‘baggage’ have been Memali and Ops Lalang, which respective draconian cruelty apparently still upset many Malaysians.
The extracts from this article (you can read the entire lot yourself in above link) that I have selected are as follows:
The former premier’s chequered history having led the country with an iron fist, which saw him persecuting his detractors, is today his comeuppance, despite Mahathir’s persistent denials of having abused his power over the two decades that he ruled the country.
Of the many transgressions synonymous with Mahathir, two continue to haunt Malaysians – the Memali massacre and the ruthless Operasi Lalang, both of which he refuses to be held accountable for.
