Gerontocracy Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad’s disregard for anything but the grip for power and determination to grasp without any consideration for anything as anyone guised as ‘Preserving Democracy, Not Practicing Democracy’.
“We are mobile, we are not fixed.” – Dr Mahathir Mohamad when asked about party-hopping.
COMMENT | It’s rare that a newly elected leader (only for an interim period), elected by the rakyat because of promises made by the coalition he heads, breaks key promises in a short space of time, and says with a straight face that re-assessment has to be made in the face of changing developments.
This man, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who came to power as a result of a mass uprising against the kleptocratic Umno/BN government and who promised that he would not take defecting Umno/BN MPs, just two days ago handed out membership cards to seven such people with not so much as an apology for his action. Two others had defected earlier, making nine in all.
They were Jeli MP Mustapa Mohamed (a former minister) who crossed over in October, Bagan Serai MP Dr Noor Azmi Ghazali who joined a month later, Masjid Tanah MP Mas Ermieyati Samsudin who crossed over in December, Larut MP Hamzah Zainuddin (who is also a former minister), Mersing MP Abdul Latif Ahmad, Tasek Gelugor MP Shabudin Yahaya, Sabak Bernam MP Mohd Fasiah Mohd Fakeh, Hulu Terengganu MP Rosol Wahid and Tanah Merah MP Ikhmal Hisham Abdul Aziz.
He justified this acceptance of the Umno MPs into the fold with his trademark twisted logic. Examples, as reported in theSun:
“I am now sitting on the same side as leaders I once attacked and mocked, but politicians are sometimes forced to jump ship according to circumstances.
“If you are tied to only one leader or party and stay with them even if they rob the people, then you are not a politician, but one who only cares for yourself.
“I was previously in Umno, and I left to join DAP, PKR and Amanah. But if they are no longer loyal to the country, I will also move to other parties. We are mobile, we are not fixed,” he added.
In his replies (you can watch the full press conference here), he ignored the fact that he is prime minister by virtue of other parties supporting him, for his own Bersatu had only 13 seats compared to PKR’s 47 and DAP’s 42 at the end of the last polls. What he is doing now, by accepting Umno MPs into the fold now, is a tacit support of those who, by omission, clearly supported the previous kleptocratic government.
Not just that, it has been reported that all Umno divisions received money from former premier Najib Abdul Razak’s personal account which, it was quite clear at the time and well before the elections of May 9 last year, received money which came from 1MDB.
In fact, the Wall Street Journal reported in July 2015 that some US$700 million had come into Najib’s accounts from 1MDB funds. This was confirmed later by the US Department of Justice which gave in detail the money trail. These people did not oppose Najib at all, but supported his kleptocratic acts by not voicing their concern and accepting to stand in the elections. They are, therefore, irrevocably tainted.
Bolstering his own position
Mahathir does not care if they are corrupt or immoral. The only reason that Mahathir is accepting these tainted people into Bersatu is to bolster his own position within the coalition from the paltry 13 MPs he had at the end of the election to 22 now, making it bigger than PAS with 18 MPs.
That is purely as a result of nine defections. The defections are legal partly because Mahathir, during his previous rule, refused to make it illegal to jump parties. However, they remain ethically and morally extremely repugnant and go against the grain of reform promised by Harapan.
Mahathir acquiescing to defections despite earlier opposition, opens the door very wide for Bersatu to accept virtually all of the other Umno MPs – some 40 odd, if you exclude those who are clearly unacceptable like Najib. In addition to some 16 others in Sarawak and perhaps four independents in Sabah, there are some 60 more. This could swell Bersatu’s combined support to some 82 MPs.
The implications of this are enormous. If DAP and Amanah throw in their lot with Mahathir, a total of 53 seats, Mahathir’s numbers increase to 135, enough to command a handsome majority in the 222-member house, even if PKR were to leave the coalition. Another 13, not forgetting possible defections from PKR’s 50 odd members, will give him a two-thirds majority.
If PKR, DAP and Amanah stuck it out and stayed together, then they will have some 103 seats. Include Warisan’s eight, and it takes the tally to 111, which comes to exactly 50 percent of the seats in Parliament. This puts PAS in a very strong position with their 18 seats, as kingmaker.
Things, of course, may not pan this way. Any number of things can happen in the interim. But it is very clear that the situation has become very fluid and uncertain because Mahathir has changed the rules of the game to suit himself and Bersatu, something he has done throughout his 22 years at the top between 1981 and 2003.
All this means that the political situation in this country has turned rather unstable because of Mahathir and because he has been constantly shifting his position and openly in defiance of coalition politics. He wants to be in total control all the time. Hopefully, he won’t have it his way this time around.
There were many who had misgivings about Mahathir joining the Harapan coalition, including this writer, given his past record as a dictator and an autocrat who used his party’s two-thirds majority in Parliament to introduce authoritarian laws and to control government institutions which should have remained independent.
A dangerous weapon
This is what I wrote in an article titled “Can Mahathir be trusted?” in April 2017, when there were moves to get Mahathir into the Harapan coalition: “If any one takes the trouble to remember what this man did and stood for, he would be mad to think that Mahathir is the solution – he was, and is, the problem. Without him and his 22 years of misrule, Malaysia would not have descended to what it is today.
“Mahathir was accountable to no one. Not the people, not the party, not the judges. He could do almost anything he pleased and get away with it using the apparatus and machinery of control he had put in place.
“He made opaque many decisions of government, putting anything marked secret by the government as secret under the law by removing the power of judges to judge even if the secret posed no danger to the country, but only embarrassed the government and exposed its corrupt ways.
“That was the legacy he left behind – and a leader who followed him used it to do nasty things, some worse than that by Mahathir. Now we expect Mahathir – the source of all this – to save us Malaysians from Najib!
“Is that why Mahathir is sticking his neck out? For the good of the country? But remember he had his chance – 22 years of it. He bungled – all he did was to stay in power and do the greatest damage to the country ever by any one, prime minister or not.
“His goal now is not to get into power, but to ensure that whoever comes into power does not destroy him. As far as Mahathir is concerned, it is always about him – not Malaysia, not Malaysians, not even the Malays.”
Now there are those who argue that he needs to get Umno members to obtain a two-thirds majority to change the constitution in order to reform. How stupid! Much of the reform that is needed can be done by just amending and scrapping laws which only needs a simple majority in Parliament.
To give Mahathir a two-thirds majority is to put into his hands a mega-weapon which he will not hesitate to use against anyone who opposes him. It is a dangerous weapon to put in the hands of a man who can not be trusted and who alters his promises to suit his ulterior motives.
Mahathir is not the person to reform this country, simply because he was ultimately responsible for most of its ills. His actions show he does not believe in reform or fair play. Mahathir blithely talks of loyalty to the nation for his shifting stand. Let’s not let him betray the rakyat who are what makes the nation.
P GUNASEGARAM says a leopard likes its spots too much to change them. E-mail: t.p.guna@gmail.com.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.
— Read on m.malaysiakini.com/columns/463894
This analysis is the concise of what Gerontocracy Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir, frame of mind and attitude is all about.
The ‘Peril of Democracy’
It is time Gerontocracy Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad to put his act together and no longer pander to the fragile ‘Marriage-of-(in)convenience-between-backstabbing-strange-bedfellows’, as the ‘Peril of Democracy’ already demonstrating its vicious spiral towards digression and eventual doom for the nation.
The Edge Daily story:
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Gerontocracy Prime Minister Dr Mahathir already demonstrating his restlessness, in just one week of events.
The Adviser of Parti Pengkitar-semulaan Buangan Melayu already grew 70% of his party’s market share within six months by last week’s unilateral admission of six UMNO MPs, against the will of PH coalition partners.
He also announced the Semenanjung Malay party which is actually an UMNO mirror and dissent into Sabah and lied about his meeting with PAS President Ustaz Dato’ Seri Haji Hadi Awang last Friday.
Political analyst Joceline Tan’s column in The Star:
It is also believed that the requested PH Presidential Council yesterday was cancelled.
The Pakatan Harapan coalition partner, has started to sound out for Gerontocracy Prime Minister Dr Mahathir to leave.
FMT story:
Even Parti Pengkitar-semulaan Buangan Melayu Presiden Tan Sri Muhyiddin Mohd Yassin is struggling to convince the Malays, that they are there to look after interest of the majority of Malaysians.
Case in point is the recent so called financial fiasco of Tabung Haji (TH) by the previous Government and management of ‘Illegal Hibah’ distributed and this provided the Minister-in-charge Mujahid Yusof to make the announcement ten weeks ago.
Hence, it warranted TH to be structured and the RM19.9billion worth of assets and investments deemed ‘problematic and bad’, be treated through the Classic Gerontocracy Dr Mahathir solution: Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV).
What is worrying the Malays is that not only the subsidy for Hajj Pilgrims would be rationalised, the SPV, Urus Jemaah Sdn. Bhd., is manned by TH staff but under the absolute control of the Minister of Finance.
DAP Secretary General Lim Guan Eng is the Minister and DAP Chief Strategist Tony Pua, is the Minister’s Political Secretary and head honcho of all exercise by the Minister.
Democracy, provided everyone the right for them to voice themselves out loud, be it appropriate or otherwise.
Never mind the fact that the Media Adviser to the Prime Minister, who happened to be an award winning journo and one time a media baron, openly using his blog to shell of the Seri Paduka Baginda Yang DiPertuan Agong and the Royal Institution.
Now, even a serving Court of Appeal Judge is freely voicing allegations that the Judiciary is being tampered by the Executive.
The Edge Daily story:
The over politicking of the ‘Blame Game’ now is intertwines with geo-Political relations and high level corporate game.
They say, ‘Too many cooks spoil the broth’. The simple case in point is the cancellation of the ECRL project from Port Klang through Pahang, East Coast of Terengganu and eventual terminal at Tumpat, Kelantan.
The mumbo-jumbo adverse statements and announcements between key Cabinet members back and forth is really leaving the nation baffled, and the nation into a laughing stock.
What is even damning is that the project involved a major foreign trade and geo-political super power and the cancellation/uncertainty is also about state owned corporations.
This is not withstanding the mockery of the democracy demonstrated by ruling Government leaders, in their greed and manifestation for the new found power and the mess they are creating disputing in public amongst themselves.
They say, desperate time seeks desperate measure.
Perhaps it is time to do away with this over politicking and get the reins of the nation and put it back on track for recovery.
The ‘democratic solution’, where too many people saying too many things on chaotic three-dimensional matter on just the same problem or issue, is simply impractical and not at all provide the avenue of getting things sorted out.
This is the ‘Peril of Democracy’. Like how the Brits decided on Brexit, mainly on playing the falsehood of sentiments against the reality of the future.
Now, they are suffering for the uncertainty and inability to get the democracy to agree on a plan, to move on and forward and mitigate everything downside about of the haste political decision, made by the majority.
The Brits should sought Prime Minister Churchill’s wartime ‘War Cabinet’ as a solution.
Probably, temporarily suspend Parliament and just get the experts to sort it out.
Malaysia did see this once. Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman declared Emergency on 15 May 1969 and National Operation Council under Director Tun Hj Abdul Razak Hussein, then Deputy Prime Minister, took over the reins of the nation.
The Parliament was suspended.
Of course, it was not at all democratic. Everything was sorted out by the NOC, which included roles played by the Parliament.
In less then two years, when NOC got the nation sorted out and everything was stabilised, it became better. That provided the stability, for the economic engine growth.
New Economic Policy, Rukun Negara and even a tighter all parties (PAS, Sabah and Sarawak parties with the exception of Chinese Chauvinists DAP) co-operation coalition came onboard and contributed to propel the nation forward.
One of the important economic policy that came out from this was taking Malaysia from a primary-industries based economy and moved towards industrialisation, which propelled under industries.
It is time for Gerontocracy Prime Minister to consider the best option, to move the nation forward in the neck of the confusion and inconsistency of the incompetency traits the current ruling Government is abundantly demonstrating, day to day.
- Commentary
on February 19, 2019 at 15:00 Leave a Comment