How do we move on from Mahathir’s Malaysia?

Susan Ooi

As we enter another year of Pakatan Harapan, it has been increasingly obvious for all the talk of Malaysia Baru – we are still in Mahathir’s Malaysia.

Accusations of a deep state by the current government highlight how the separation of powers between executive, legislature and judiciary have become indistinct.

There is no discounting that for many Malaysians of voting age today, it is next to impossible to imagine a Malaysia without seeing some aspect of the old man. To his credit, much of Malaysia’s golden years in the late 20th century were no doubt to his strongman persona that was fuelled by his singular focus of reshaping the country in his image.

But the political instability that we see today won’t just end with his transition of power towards whatever successor that he sees fit. In fact, the very quagmire that Mahathir and the country finds itself in is a prison of Mahathir’s own making.

In his pursuit of his “imagined” Malaysia, Mahathir had turned UMNO and the component parties of Barisan Nasional into a powerful patronage machine – a literal “one-stop shop for handouts and favours”. In order to push whatever “reforms” he saw necessary he crippled every single institution that was supposed to serve as a check and balance to an overreaching executive.

He often sacrificed integrity to secure obedience–and when he couldn’t hand an institution to a loyalist, he would bypass them altogether.

The check and balances established by our founding fathers were dismantled by the same individual who holds power today and ironically it seems that he’s trying to “reform” it in Malaysia Baru in the same manner.

Now it will take time to reform the fundamental flaws our constitutional system in Malaysia  that Mahathir created in his first term, but should we trust him alone to fix the system that he broke? On top of the long list of items on the reform agenda?

These include the agenda to correct the national economy and finances and the monumental task to clean up the mess of 1MDB, FGV, Felcra, TH, LTAT and many other mega scale scandals that have bled the nation dry.

Last but not least, there is the need to work out a greater understanding and consensus with royalty on the rule of law and system of constitutional monarchy as the foundation to our democracy.

If we are really to move towards Malaysia Baru, then it will perhaps require a rethink of how what kind of check and balances are required in an objective manner – and that means ignoring the narratives that were prevalent in the Mahathir era.

There perhaps is no clearer example than the criticism that has been heaped upon the Regent of Johor’s comments on the recent performance of the Pakatan Harapan government.

Instead of strawmaning the points posited by TMJ, which if coming from your everyday Malaysian, is an entirely uncontroversial comment–we should see this as a path forward on how the executive Malaysia Baru will function and will be accountable to the greater will of the country.

In times of extreme polarity, we need to rebuild entities that can serve as guardians of the constitution. If Pakatan Harapan is unwilling to do it themselves, we should look at every available option.