COMMENT Now pushing 90, former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad continues to live in a make-believe world, oblivious to the contempt that many Malaysians have for him. This is especially true whenever he has something to say about Anwar Ibrahim, his former deputy.
This week, Mahathir has outdone even himself. He told the media in Kemaman on Tuesday that the federal government should not prevent Anwar from going abroad. Mahathir thinks – or so he says – that no one will now believe Anwar even if he continues to badmouth the country abroad. Besides, he added, the people will get angry if Anwar is prevented from going abroad.
Left unsaid is the truth that the federal government in the post-Mahathir era has never prevented Anwar from going abroad. This must make us all wonder whether Mahathir is for real.
It seems that Mahathir is suggesting to the federal government, in reverse fashion, that it should prevent Anwar from going abroad. So when it does happen, which is unlikely, he can turn around and say that he did advise the federal government against it.
It is not true to say that Anwar has been badmouthing the country. Mahathir deliberately makes no distinction between the country and the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition.
As the opposition leader, Anwar is duty-bound to give the international community the true picture of the ruling Malay elite and Umno. Investors should not turn up in Malaysia and find that the situation is not as ideal as made out by the BN’s propaganda mills.
Some pressure from the international community can help take Malaysia onto the right path of respecting human rights, the rule of law, ensuring public accountability and transparency and respecting the judiciary and law enforcement agencies.
In return, the international community counts on Muslim leaders like Anwar to help foster a dialogue between the West and Islam. This is a key plank in the long-running war against global terrorism.
Social contract
The international community would also want to know what the social contracts, both written and unwritten, and Article 153 of the Federal Constitution are all about. Then, there’s that bizarre notion of ketuanan Melayu (Malay political dominance and supremacy).
It was Mahathir who dismantled Tunku Abdul Rahman’s unwritten social contract – that the Malays stick to politics and the Chinese to the economy – when he unilaterally extended Article 153 to every facet of life in Malaysia, claiming in the process that the Malays had special privileges.
Article 153 of the Federal Constitution (the written social contract) provides a special position for Malays and natives by reserving for them a reasonable proportion in four specific areas: intake into the civil service, intake into institutions of higher learning owned by the government, government scholarships and training privileges, and opportunities from the government to do business.
Mahathir put the terms “special position” and “training privileges” together and came up with the idea that the Malays had “special privileges” and hence could ride roughshod over everyone else.
Such a line only served a handful of people, that is, those who, like him, belong to the ruling elite. To ensure such abuse of power, as well as the exercise of absolute power, he needed to make sure that there were no Malay-led political parties in the opposition. This effectively held the Malays to ransom; they are forced to subscribe only to Umno.
Ever since, Umno has been twisting and turning every issue in Malaysia into a racial issue. The idea is to camouflage the fact that while the people are drawn into the rhetoric, polemics and public debates on “racial” issues generated by Umno, the ruling elite can continue to plunder the public treasury at will under the guise of development and the Bumiputera economy.
Not surprisingly, Mahathir has trotted out the usual tribal arguments against Anwar, that is, he is a traitor for setting up a party and dividing the Malays further. He wants PKR to disappear and all Malays united under Umno. This is a self-serving argument which can only benefit a tiny minority like him at the expense of the people and the Federal Constitution.
It was Mahathir himself who pushed Anwar into the situation that both men find themselves in today. Had he paused to reflect, he could have just reshuffled the Federal Cabinet in 1998 and left Anwar out. Instead, he not only took the extreme step of sacking him but also removing him from Umno. Anwar could have just been suspended from Umno pending the resolution of the corruption and sodomy charges against him. The rest is history.
Breath of fresh air
Between Anwar and Mahathir, the former is like a breath of fresh air although he has his skeletons in the cupboard too. The people would rather believe Anwar than Mahathir. The latter, everyone knows, is loaded and can continue to create trouble in the politics of the country.
So far, Anwar has held his peace. If the de facto PKR chief ever decides to go after Mahathir, he can easily make mincemeat of him. Mahathir is perhaps more than a little depressed by the fact that Anwar continues to ignore him, considering him an anachronism and irrelevant in the emerging politics of Malaysia.
Anwar’s setback in the country’s politics is that he has been unable to woo and rally the people of Sabah and Sarawak to his agenda for change and reform. Malaysians on the other side of the South China Sea see nothing for themselves in Anwar’s crusade.
Even in Peninsular Malaysia, Anwar has a fair share of detractors who, like many Sabahans and Sarawakians, see PKR as just another form of Umno but with non-Malays as members. This is something that Umno could easily do as well if it can ditch its racist mindset, which has since been sub-contracted to Perkasa, an extreme right-wing Malay NGO.
No comments:
Post a Comment