Dr Mahathir & PKR - birds of same feathers?

On Friday 15 April 2011 I posted RPK and the necessary destruction of Anwar Ibrahim? where I commented on the attitude of anwaristas that:

… those who criticize PKR, like RPK, must have been paid (by BN) while those who criticize BN are deemed to be doing the right thing.

In the aftermath of the Sarawak election results, PKR supporters irritated me when they condemned Ibans as stupid for succumbing to the BN’s money politics.

To those anwaristas, people who exercised their democratic rights to vote for a party are stupid because they failed to vote for PKR. That’s the pathetic state of their mentality and understanding of democracy. Quite frankly I dread to see these PKR people in ruling power.

Now, it seems that Dr Mahathir has the same attitude too. Today, The Malaysian Insider (TMI) reported him stating that Sarawak Chinese have been infected by DAP racism.

What led him to this conclusion?

According to TMI, Dr Mahathir accused the DAP of destroying the so-called 'power-sharing formula' that BN had implemented for half a century. More of this 'power-sharing formula' later.

He said: “I congratulate the DAP for bringing its racist politics to Sarawak. Before this, all races co-operated well with each other for the good of Sarawak. Now we see clearly that the Chinese community in Sarawak has rejected multiracialism.”

“They have become infected by the virus of Chinese racism that is the guiding principle of the DAP.”

So like PKR, Dr Mahathir sees his political views in black & white tones only, that if a Chinese votes or have voted for DAP, he/she must be a racist.

Now, that by itself would not have been so bad if we are not immediately reminded that Dr M is the patron of the Malay ultra-rightwing Perkasa, a man who has constantly urged Malays to be united and vote for UMNO to protect Malay rights from the Chinese.

So, what does that make him then?

The editorial of TMI has this to say of him and his comments about DAP infecting Sarawakians with racism:

Two days after the key Sarawak election, those batting for Barisan Nasional (BN) are talking about the loss of Chinese votes to DAP with Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad right in front calling them racists for drawing the community away from the ruling coalition.

The country’s longest-serving prime minister and one-time mover of Bangsa Malaysia is a fine one to talk.

Since 2008 he has been the patron of Perkasa the right-wing group that fights to preserve everything for the Malays at the expense of others.

For Dr Mahathir and Perkasa everything is at risk from the non-Malays although the Federal Constitution already provides safeguards through the Malay Rulers.

In his blog today Dr Mahathir wrote among others, “I congratulate the DAP for bringing its racist politics to Sarawak. Before this all races co-operated well with each other for the good of Sarawak. Now we see clearly that the Chinese community in Sarawak has rejected multi-racialism.”

“Perhaps the SUPP are at fault but others in the BN also committed many wrong things. But the rejection is almost entirely by the Chinese community.”

In his world-view and through his writing Dr Mahathir does not believe that people can make up their own minds and decide to vote for whoever they want, the essence of democracy.

Perhaps he does not see that the policies put in place by his administration such as privatisation has resulted in endemic corruption abuse of power and the weakening of the country’s institutions - some of the factors which has caused Malaysians to lose faith in BN.

Dr Mahathir does not lead BN now. It is Datuk Seri Najib Razak and before him Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Abdullah carried the baggage of Dr Mahathir’s rule but crumbled under the weight of his own unfulfilled promises. Now it’s Najib’s turn and his six days for the Sarawak campaign is a measure of what he had to do to counter criticisms against Dr Mahathir’s contemporary Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud.

Yet Dr Mahathir only sees what he sees.

“I will be called a racist for pointing this out. For more than half a century the races in Malaysia had worked together to build the nation. The world saw stable BN governments with power and wealth being shared by all races quite fairly. None of the races got everything that they considered they were entitled to, not the Malays nor the Chinese nor Indians nor Ibans, Kadazans etc. All had to give up something. That is the essence of sharing. Now the DAP has destroyed this power and wealth-sharing formula by separating the Chinese from the rest,” he also wrote today.

Thing is Dr Mahathir is just not the right person to level any such accusations.

When he and others talk about the BN style or formula, what they mean is keeping cronyism and institutional racism entrenched.

He is no honest broker in this exercise of dissecting the Sarawak election and its aftermath. Malaysians have a right to vote whichever way they want. Taib returned 35 out of 35 seats back to the BN. Presumably there are people happy with his rule.

Yet there are others who are not happy and want an alternative. Nothing racist about that. It’s simply called democracy, the right to differ not defer.

Kaytee concludes that some PKR people and Dr Mahathir share the same lamentable attitude.