Mamak Mudah Lupa

 The Straits Times story 21 June 1953

Fourth Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad has been proven time and again that he uses his ‘selective memory’ as another of his tricky political tool and ploy, no matter how the facts could easily be proven against him otherwise.

Free Malaysia Today story:

Nur Jazlan: ‘Mahathir a/l Iskandar Kutty’ name correct

Khairil Ashraf

| August 2, 2017

Many sources exist that can be used to verify names, such as Mahathir’s university registration, says deputy home minister.

KUALA LUMPUR: Deputy Home Minister Nur Jazlan Mohamed said today that the name “Mahathir a/l Iskandar Kutty” which Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi claimed to be the full name of the ex-prime minister was correct.

Nur Jazlan said there were many sources that could be used to verify the name, such as the university registration of Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

“We can check the registration at his university if we want to know the name he used originally,” he told reporters after visiting the TRIS Centre for registering refugees here.

Zahid, who is the home minister and Umno acting deputy president, was widely criticised after claiming on Sunday that the name on Mahathir’s identity card (IC) was “Mahathir a/l Iskandar Kutty”.

The “a/l” stands for “anak lelaki” which in Malay means “son of”, and is commonly used in the official naming of Malaysians of Indian ethnicity.

Zahid said at the Kelana Jaya Umno division meeting that the Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman was “the man who struggled for the Malay agenda” once but was actually “using the Malays”.

He also said he obtained the IC from the National Registration Department’s director-general Yazid Ramli.

However, Mahathir yesterday explained that Indian Muslims did not include the “anak lelaki” (a/l) (son of) or “anak perempuan” (a/p) (daughter of) in their names which normally comprised only two components since two Indian Muslim names were rarely similar.

He challenged Zahid to produce the IC that purportedly carried the name “Mahathir a/l Iskandar Kutty”.

Nur Jazlan said the police would investigate the reports lodged against Zahid.

“The police will investigate. But what happens if their investigation confirms the name? This issue has been politicised,” he added.

Nur Jazlan also said what Zahid did was not an offence.

“The details on an identity card are a public record. Everyone can know our name.

“It becomes an offence if an IC is used to fraudulently take a loan, but there is nothing wrong in revealing what is on an IC,” he said.

He said Zahid made the revelation because Mahathir was not sincere and honest in his struggle for the Malays.

“We should look at Zahid’s revelation in the proper context of the speech,” he said.

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Dr. Mahathir and his supporters tried to cause an uproar even with the tone of trying to instigate the anger of India-Muslim community, with Deputy Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Dr. Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s speech in Kelana Jaya on Sunday.

The attack is not about Dr. Mahathir’s ancestry but how he was never truthful about his ancestral origin and trying to pass off as a ‘Malay’.

It has been proven so many times over the past sixty years he used in Malay-ness and UMNO platform and clout, to cause a lot of turmoil which has affected the Malays through the years.

It essence, Deputy Prime Minister Zahid was trying to sum up that Dr. Mahathir had been a bane for the Malays.

In the context of selective memory, yesterday Dr Mahathir blogged about Deputy Prime Minister Zahid. The former mentioned about the “Declaration Zahid made”, which is about “RM230million”.

Excerpt from Che’ Dog blog:

8. Berkenaan dengan Melayu mudah lupa, walaupun Zahid bukan keturunan Melayu, sudahkah Zahid lupa deklarasi harta yang dibuat olehnya kepada saya sebagai Perdana Menteri apabila ia dilantik Ketua Pemuda UMNO.

9. Apabila saya tanya dari mana ia perolehi 230 juta Ringgit yang ada dalam akaunnya, jawapannya kurang jelas.

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Dr. Mahathir’s statement against Zahid about the “RM230 juta” is really interesting. The facts are:

1. That was twenty years ago
2. Its a private disclosure and now he is making it public

So, Dr Mahathir has sterling memory of numbers, events and stories. However, it was not so when he was on the stand in the cases of:

1. RCI of VK Lingam
2. RCI ‘Projek IC’ Sabah
3. PKFZ trial.

Now, that also got us thinking. If he has first party knowledge of the “RM230 juta”, why didnt he do anything about it then?

He was the Prime Minister at the time and Anti Corruption Agency was a department under his Ministry.

Quad erat demonstratum. Dr Mahathir could be never trusted then, nor now.