Yes it’s true, Dr Mahathir is more powerful than ever
(TMI) – POWER is when the sultans toss protocol aside to pay you a visit.
Power is when even your political adversary seeks your advice on how to turn around the fortunes of the political party you have just defeated.
Power is when senior judges at the Palace of Justice suddenly sound like judges at your re-emergence.
Hard as it may be to imagine, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad 2.0 may actually be more powerful and influential than Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad 1.0.
At least, that is the perception.
If Dr Mahathir of 1981-2003 derived his power from ruthlessness and single-mindedness of ambition, Dr Mahathir of 2018- has the all of the above, and more.
Today, he enjoys the solid backing of a cabinet and the Pakatan Harapan government who want what he wants. He does not need to cajole them. It is their reform agenda that he has embraced and they love it.
Today, he has an army of grateful Malaysians who feel empowered and liberated by the fall of Najib Razak and Barisan Nasional.
Dr Mahathir enjoyed periods of popularity in his first tour as the PM but this is different. Now he has prayer warriors and keyboard warriors. Now, the people’s agenda is his agenda, not the other way around.
That means he pretty much has a free hand to achieve the people’s agenda. This bond between Dr Mahathir and the masses also means that anyone who obstructs him is immediately ticked as an enemy; an enemy of the will of Malaysians expressed on May 9.
The Malay rulers who visited him during the standoff between Agong and Dr Mahathir over the appointment of Attorney-General Tommy Thomas understood this.
They wanted to make it clear that many of the sultans did not support the Palace’s decision to delay the appointment of the new A-G.
To be sure, the sultans are not fans of Dr Mahathir.
But they understand that this Dr Mahathir is even more formidable than the one who took them on twice and humiliated them just as many times.
This Dr Mahathir does not need to whip Malaysians into a frenzy over the excesses of the country’s elite the way he did in the 1980s and 1992.
No need to manufacture any groundswell, because the tide of fury at the excesses of the rich, famous and connected was on full show on May 9.
That groundswell is on tap – and it can be tapped anytime by Dr Mahathir.
Dr Mahathir 1.0 was clinical and ruthless but often he was a one-man army trying to re-shape the country.
Dr Mahathir 2.0 is still clinical and ruthless but now he is empowered by an army of Malaysians who want him to live as long as possible to continue as the PM beyond his two-year-term.
Anyone who has designs on challenging Dr Mahathir’s authority should understand this.
