For the last 30 months, Mahathir Mohamad has been burning the midnight oil trying to figure out how bitter enemy Anwar Ibrahim became the 10th Prime Minister. The 99-year-old former two-time prime minister is still in disbelief that his former protégé had outsmarted him, despite his attempts to sabotage Anwar’s ambition since 1998, the year Mahathir sacked his deputy for sodomy and corruption.
But the biggest humiliation still haunting the old fox is how “Malay voters” of Langkawi had surprised him with the biggest defeat in his political career in the November 2022 General Election. Not only it was Mahathir’s first defeat in Malaysia’s parliamentary elections since he lost in 1969, but he managed to garner only 4,566 votes, or a pathetic 6.8%, leading to his deposit money as candidate forfeited.
In comparison, Mahathir won 54.9% of the 34,527 valid votes in the 2018 General Election. That explains why it took him months of sulking, whining and bitching about the ungrateful Malays, who formed 90% population of the island constituency. He was widely respected for bringing prosperity and development to Langkawi by declaring it a tax-free haven in 1987, when he was Malaysia’s premier.
He had overestimated his popularity, and miscalculated that the ethnic Malays would forever be grateful to him for bringing tourism investment, including an international airport, ferry services and luxury hotels. Adding salt to the wound, Mahathir’s Parti Pejuang Tanah Air (Pejuang), which contested a total of 121 parliamentary seats, 13 of which were in Kedah (his home state), lost all the bets.
Worse, not only Mahathir and his own son Mukhriz had lost their deposits, but every single candidate of Pejuang had also failed to keep their deposits – a slap in the face of the former premier. It was the biggest signal that Malay voters were unconvinced by Mahathir’s promise of repairing the country’s economy and bringing back foreign investments and jobs by eradicating corruption.
Crucially, voters had lost confidence in Mahathir’s leadership after he abruptly resigned as prime minister in 2020 without any consultation with partners in the then-Pakatan Harapan government, allowing traitor Muhyiddin Yassin to form a backdoor regime with opposition UMNO and PAS. Voters were also angry over his betrayal after he failed to hand over the reins of the government to Anwar as promised.
Now, Mahathir is toying with a Malay secretariat committee called a “big umbrella” under the pretext of “saving the Malays”. Working with Opposition Perikatan Nasional, Mahathir said the committee would serve as a platform to address issues affecting the Malay community that the current Anwar government had failed to resolve. You don’t need Einstein to tell his latest scheme will fail miserably.
The desperate snake oil salesman said – “We have agreed to focus on Malay issues – not party matters, but issues that concern all Malays. They (Malays) need fighters to champion their cause. Right now, they don’t have a dedicated fighter. We’re not concerned with other problems, we just want to focus on one struggle – the struggle to save the Malays.”
Without specifying the types of issues plaguing the Malays, the old man argued that the Malays’ problems can only be resolved if the Malays once again lead the government. The Malays, already the majority race in the country dominating all of the important institutions, including the royals, police, armed forces, civil service and the Parliament, do not have problems that need Mahathir to solve.
Even if the Malays have problems, which they don’t, they don’t need so-called fighters to champion their cause as the supreme Constitution is their biggest protector. Besides, “Ketuanan Melayu”, the ideology of Malay Supremacy espoused by the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) under the Mahathir leadership during his 22 years iron-fist rule (1981-2003), is giving special positions and rights for Malays.
Has racist and corrupt Mahathir forgotten about the Malay dominance in every structure and fabric of the country? Let’s assume the Malays have problems that require the attention of a Malay-centric government. But the last time a Malay-Muslim government (not only a Malay-led government, mind you) was in power, they were only interested in stealing, plundering, backstabbing and slaughtering each other.
Yes, Malaysia had already experienced a “hellish” Malay-government from March 2020 to November 2022 under the illegitimate backdoor Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and unelected Prime Minister Ismail Sabri. Instead of solving Malays’ problems, both Malay leaders secretly enriched themselves to the tune of billions of dollars, whilst leaving ordinary Malays raising white flags as hunger spreads due to endless Covid-19 lockdowns.
Today, both disgraced Bersatu-Malay Muhyiddin Yassin and UMNO-Malay Ismail Sabri are being investigated and charged for corruption. Mahathir conveniently ignores the fact that current Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and Deputy Prime Minister Zahid Hamidi are more Malay than him. Despite claiming there were only spoonfuls of Indian blood in him, Mahathir – son of Iskandar “Kutty” – is not a genuine Malay.
Therefore, Mahathir isn’t qualified as a Malay fighter from the beginning. At most, he is just a “Mamak fighter” or a “Malay cap Ayam”. Even if he still insists to be more Malay than Java-immigrant Zahid and Hamas-cheerleader Anwar, he should be the last in the queue because the Malays in Langkawi, and throughout the entire nation, had rejected both the Mamak from Kerala, India, and his Parti Pejuang Tanah Air.
Exactly how could he shamelessly claim to be – or want to be – a Malay hero when 90% of the Malays were so sick of the old man that they booted him in Nov 2022? A year after his defeat, hilariously, Mahathir blamed his loss in the 15th General Election on Langkawi voters for abandoning him because he didn’t bribe them with RM100. So, is he going to save the Malays now by giving them free cash?
In truth, Malays today have become very rich. From Starbucks to 5-star luxurious cuisine restaurants, and from iPhone to Mercedes Benz, they are the prime consumers. It’s no longer a surprise that most owners of BMW, Volvo, Jaguar, Porsche, Range Rover and Audi on the road are Malays. Their spending power – even in the middle class – can be proven with closures of Starbucks and McDonald’s outlets due to their boycott.
Recently (June 2), a Malay influencer showed her fortune when she apologises to her 11-year-old daughter for spending “only RM1 million” – includinga brand-new Apple desktop computer, a Rolex watch and a luxury Toyota MPV – on her birthday. Heck, even her daughter’s driver was gifted with a brand-new Mercedes Benz. Clearly, this Malay does not need to be saved by Mahathir.
After his Pejuang and Gerakan Tanah Air (GTA) coalition failed spectacularly to grab power, Mahathir is cleverly using Bersatu (Malaysian United Indigenous Party) and Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS –Parti Islam Se-Malaysia) to start yet another Malay movement to return to power. However, like it or not, the new game plan won’t work without Malay nationalist party UMNO.
Running out of idea, master strategist Mahathir has resorted to copying a page from UMNO-Malay playbook – the previous national cooperation between UMNO and PAS, glorified as “Muafakat Nasional” under the pretext of Malay-unity, which successfully instigated and provoked more than 50,000 Malays to a street protest against then-Pakatan Harapan government in 2018.
Unlike in 2018, UMNO is currently one of the governing partners in a multi-coalitions Unity Government led by PM Anwar. Bersatu, without its own grassroots and machinery, is merely a parasite riding on extremist Islamist party PAS to win seats in the 2022 election. Hence, by having only Bersatu and PAS in his big umbrella, Mahathir’s political agenda will not only fail, but is nothing but a SCAM.
Desperado Mahathir’s agenda is to save his billionaire children, not the average Malays, mind you. He was extremely terrified as he could see the same corruption investigation on former finance minister Daim Zainuddin and the confiscation of 60-storey Ilham Tower and other assets controlled by Daim’s wife and two sons could soon happen to his families too.
Mahathir and Muhyiddin understood that the only way to escape prosecution is to seize power by toppling Anwar by hook or by crook. PAS, meanwhile, hopes to return to power by constantly persuading and pressuring UMNO to leave the Anwar government by falsely accusing UMNO of colluding with Chinese-dominated Democratic Action Party (DAP) in undermining the Malays’ interest.
Having tasted the chaotic administration of Muhyiddin and Ismail, particularly the economic mismanagement and Covid mishandling, it’s not rocket science majority of Malays prefer political stability of the current government. With 17 Malays (66%) and nine non-Malay ministers – of whom three are Bumiputeras from Sabah and Sarawak – in the Cabinet, it’s laughable to say Malays have lost power.
More importantly, Mahathir does not have any card to play today, unlike in 2018 when he was the Prime Minister and controlled Bersatu. Even back then, he could not threaten UMNO to dissolve and join his party, what more now. The Malays can never unite under one big umbrella because every Malay politician is a hypocrite, corrupt and power-crazy.
Someone should remind the senile old man that it was him who divided UMNO by forming Bersatu, who in turn betrayed friends in Pakatan Harapan to form a backdoor government comprising UMNO, Bersatu and PAS. But when the Malays were temporarily united, they started to split again – Muafakat fell apart after PAS betrayed UMNO by forming Perikatan Nasional with Bersatu, despite UMNO’s rejection.
Today, you have Anwar-led PKR and Zahid-led UMNO in the government, while Muhyiddin-led Bersatu and Hadi Awang-led PAS in the opposition – all being led by Malay leaders. Despite a balance of power on both sides of the political spectrum, only Mahathir sees Malays have problems and lied that the Malays isn’t leading the government. He thinks he is the only pure Malay capable of leading the Malays.
Mahathir should instead propose a Bersatu-PAS merger to become a bigger and a more powerful Malay saviour rather than wasting time on a big umbrella to save the Malays. If power-hungry Muhyiddin Yassin and Hadi Awang are not even willing to merge for the sake of Malay unity, it only proves that the call to save Malays is merely a political gimmick to hoodwink gullible Malays again.
Source : Finance Twitter
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