Mahathir suffers from inferiority complex

Mahathir still does not understand that you need many generations of roots to join the ranks of the Malay elite. People like Tun Musa Hitam, Tun Ghafar Baba and Anwar Ibrahim all became deputy prime ministers. Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah a.k.a. Ku Li did not. But Ku Li commands a “higher position” in Malay society than the three ex-DPMS because, unfortunately, it is birth and not political positions that Malays look at.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

To understand why Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad acts the way he does, you need to first understand his background.

The Malays, in particular in the Merdeka era, were (and still are) very parochial and feudalistic. Non-Malays may interpret this as racism but it is no different from the English, Welsh, Scots or Irish. For example, the Scots look down on the English and the English look down on the Welsh, and so on. And walk into a Manchester pub wearing a Liverpool F.C. jersey and see what happens to you (especially now).

The Malays are a proud race. They are proud of their birth, history, heritage, language, customs, traditions, religion, and much more. That is why when you criticise anything Malay, Malays treat it as a personal insult and may even resort to physical retaliation to defend the honour and dignity of their race.

But is that not so for most people? Chinese, Indians, and those from whatever race they may be, would defend their honour and dignity, even if they need to resort to physical retaliation, if they feel it is under attack. That would be the normal response by those who have honour and dignity.

The feudalistic nature of the Malays makes it difficult for “outsiders” to penetrate Malay society and be accepted as “one of us” (this is one of Mahathir’s criticism of the Malays). You need to be Melayu tulin (pure-breed) to be regarded as Malay. Converts to Islam are regarded as mualaf, a sort of second-class Muslim. Today it is not so bad as converts are called “saudara baru” or “new comrades”. Nevertheless, they still remind you that you are an “outsider” or “newcomer”.

Umno was the creation of the Malay elite and the Istana ruling class

I suppose an Englishman who marries an Irish woman should still be English and not Irish. And a Pakistani who marries an English woman would still be treated as a Pakistani and not as an Englishman. And this is the same dilemma that Mahathir faced, especially in the pre-Merdeka British Malaya era.

Mahathir was treated as Indian and not Malay even though he had a Malay mother because, to the Malays, it is your father and not your mother that matters. That is why Malay males may marry non-Malay females but Malay females who marry non-Malay males will be looked down upon (especially if the male is non-Muslim).

For example, many members of royalty and the Malay elite married (and still do) non-Malay women, sometimes white women. That is considered normal. But if a Malay woman wants to marry a white man, she would need to live outside Malaysia (I know a number who have).

To make it worse, respect, in those days, was given to the ruling class. And the ruling class would be the Istana and Umno. And in the pre-Merdeka era, the Istana and Umno ruling class were one and the same. In fact, the pioneers of Umno were from the Istana class and Umno was founded in the Sultan of Johor’s Istana.

The Mamak “dilemma” of the Merdeka era: they were neither Indian nor Malay

So, for a man like Mahathir, and in that era, he would be regarded as a second-class Malay. If Mahathir had confided in his friends that one day he was going to become the prime minister of Malaysia, they would have got him committed into Tanjung Rambutan or Tampoi. Mahathir is not from the royal family or elite class. He is not even a “proper” Malay. How could he be so crazy as to imagine that the Malays would accept him as one of them, let alone as their leader?

Mahathir’s first task was to get himself accepted as a Malay. Only then can he work on getting himself accepted as a leader of the Malays. So Mahathir married into an illustrious Selangor Malay family as a backdoor into the Malay elite class.

Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali’s siblings are Ismail Mohd Ali, Razali Mohd Ali, Jaafar Mohd Ali, Saleha Mohd Ali, Abdul Aziz Mohd Ali and General Hashim Mohd Ali, all well-known personalities in Malay society. Most Malays know Ismail, Razali, Jaafar (Jeff), Aziz and Gen Hashim. Saleha was Onn Jaafar’s (the founder of Umno) private secretary and one of the first Malay women to study in the UK (London School of Economics).

Marrying into the illustrious Ali family of Selangor gave Mahathir a backdoor entry into the elite class

The Ali family of Selangor had elite or “star” status. Hence Mahathir was able to “tompang glamour”, as the Malays would say. (In fact, today, one of the Ali family members sits in the Selangor Royal Council that acts as adviser to His Highness the Sultan of Selangor). But Mahathir never forgot how he was treated while studying in Singapore. In fact, the Singapore Chinese are worse and they treated Mahathir not only as a second-class citizen but as an outcast (because he was mixed-breed or chapalang, which Chinese look down upon).

Finally, against all odds, Mahathir made it and in 1981 he became Malaysia’s fourth Prime Minister. In 2003, 22 years later, he retired. But Mahathir’s ambitions did not end there. That was only phase one. Phase two was to create a ruling family, a dynasty. Only if you have a dynasty would your family be regarded as one of the elite or ruling class.

So, for 15 months from mid-2002 to October 2003, Mahathir sat in conference with Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi a.k.a. Pak Lah. Every detail regarding what Pak Lah would do once he becomes PM5 on 1st November 2003 was discussed and agreed.

Mahathir feared Ismail Ali and when he was the Governor of Bank Negara the Prime Minister and Finance Minister had no “power” over the central bank

Amongst many of those “agreements” were that Najib Tun Razak would become Pak Lah’s deputy and Khairy Jamaluddin would be pushed aside to make way for Mukhriz to come up and eventually become the deputy prime minister when Najib takes over as prime minister.

But when Pak Lah took over on 1st November 2003, he refused to appoint Najib as his deputy. Pak Lah wanted Muhyiddin Yassin. So, for 66 days from 1st November 2003 till 6th January 2004, Malaysia had no deputy prime minister. Then, on 6th January 2004, Mahathir got so fed up he announced that Najib was Malaysia’s new deputy prime minister. The following day, on 7th January 2004, Pak Lah had no choice but to appoint Najib as the new deputy prime minister.

Then, instead of removing Khairy, Pak Lah appointed him as the “Special Officer” to the Prime Minister, hence blocking Mukhriz from rising up the ranks of the Umno Youth Movement. In the 2008 general election, Pak Lah allowed Khairy to contest the Rembau parliament seat (which he won), which was why in the following year he managed to beat Mukhriz in the contest for Umno Youth Leader.

Pak Lah’s “betrayal” cost him his job and on 3rd April 2009 Mahathir replaced him with Najib, again on the same terms. But Najib, too, “betrayed” Mahathir and Mukhriz lost the party contests yet again.

Mukhriz is supposed to perpetuate the Mahathir dynasty and bring it into the ranks of the Malay elite and ruling class

Both Pak Lah and Najib were obstacles to Mahathir’s plan to create a dynasty so that his family can join the ranks of the Malay elite. Mahathir knows you can never be listed amongst the Malay elite unless you are from a dynasty. So it is crucial that Mahathir creates this political dynasty or else he would have achieved nothing and will be forgotten in time.

Making sure that his son “inherits” the prime minister’s seat is an obsession with Mahathir. When Pak Lah and Najib failed him, he decided to take back the post of prime minister and do the job himself. As they say, if you want the job done well, then do it yourself. But he needs a “Goh Chok Tong”, if you know what I mean, to make his dynasty a reality. But thus far none of his “Goh Chok Tongs” worked out as well as Lee Kuan Yew’s “Goh Chok Tong”.

And this is Mahathir’s dilemma. So now Mahathir has just one last shot at creating his dynasty. PM8 Muhyiddin Yassin will not do it. So PM9 must do it instead. But Mahathir has to make sure PM9 does not disappoint him like PM5, PM6 and PM8.

Mahathir still does not understand that you need many generations of roots to join the ranks of the Malay elite. People like Tun Musa Hitam, Tun Ghafar Baba and Anwar Ibrahim all became deputy prime ministers. Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah a.k.a. Ku Li did not. But Ku Li commands a “higher position” in Malay society than the three ex-DPMS because, unfortunately, it is birth and not political positions that Malays look at.