Dr M's 'poorah tambi' to Samy Vellu

In 2005 I posted Mahathir: Unforgettable & Unforgiveable where I remarked: Mahathir's unrelenting energy, confidence, vision and loyalty have all been both his strengths and weaknesses. […]

Mahathir was … let down by his generals. But as a Field Marshal he should have selected the best officers to put flesh to his vision and policies. But his loyalty to them proved to be a liability as he sheltered them from falling off the face of the earth.

Last year in my post Robert Mugabe in Malaysian exile? I said Dr Mahathir’s greatest strength and greatest weakness has been and probably still is his sense of ‘loyalty’.

There have been several examples of how his loyalty was misplaced – Tajudin of MAS, his own Kedahan UMNO pollies, Najib, and a certain someone - ke ke ke!

But the flip side of ‘loyalty’ is of course that old saying (paraphrased) ‘Hell had no fury like a loyal godfather scorned’.

In other words, while Dr Mahathir had been most loyal to his men, he never forgives them once he has been betrayed. Examples of his dislike, if not hatred, would be his Kedahan erstwhile supporters and political beneficiaries like Johari Baharom, Osman Aroff, Samsudin Ahmad, and Mahadzir Khalid.

For more, please read my post in 2006 titled Et Tu Baharom. These blokes make you wonder how UMNO people could dare claim to cherish the spirit of Hang Tuah. It's pukish!

Then the kahuna of what he perceives as Brutus would be his once much-loved protégé and anointed heir Anwar Ibrahim. I shall keep my mouth shut and not comment any further wakakaka.

Yes, Dr Mahathir is a man of extreme emotions, where he either loves or hates ... very very very much - no half way measures.

So I was hardly surprised when I read Malaysiakini Quit 'liability' Samy: Dr M strikes again where Dr Mahathir launched another volley of missiles at erstwhile friend and political beneficiary Samy Vellu even as the latter attempted to apologise for the slippers affair.

Samy had also burned his bridges with Mahathir during AAB’s premiership.

I suspect the only reason why Najib escaped relatively unscathed has been (1) his equivocating ways during AAB’s leadership, and more significantly (2) Mahathir’s huge debt of gratitude to Najib’s dad, the late Tun Razak, who brought Dr Mahathir from the ‘cold’ back into UMNO.

Dr M told Samy to poorah from his MIC presidential post to accept responsibility for his party's failure in the last general election, where Humpty Dumpty himself had the greatest fall in his so-called stronghold of Sungai Siput.

Mahathir sneered: "You have failed to lead MIC to the point that you lost yourself. In other countries, when a leader fails, he resigns voluntarily. In Japan, he would commit harakiri (suicide). We are not asking him (Samy Vellu) to commit harakiri.” - wakakaka.

He continued with his jibes: "Samy's performance is worse than Pak Lah, but he still does not want to give up his post. He should have resigned before things got to this stage."

That’s great Tun, but what about Koh Tsu Koon?

Isn’t the Minister-Headmaster for Report Card in the same boat as Humpty Dumpty, where he failed to lead Gerakan to the point that he lost himself?

Wait ... No, in fact he’s worse than Humpty Dumpty because MIC has more parliamentary seats than the moribund Gerakan - wakakaka!