Righteous Mahathir, still blaming Chinese and Najib

Malaysiakini:

Mahathir: I told Syed Saddiq not to further divide Malay votes

Last week, Dr Mahathir Mohamad was criticised for his pessimistic view on a new political party that his protege, Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman is working to set up.

The former prime minister said then that he does not believe the multiracial all-youth party can be successful.

In an exclusive interview with Malaysiakini on Thursday, Mahathir clarified that he was referring to the new party's survivability in elections.

He said the plan by Syed Saddiq would only further divide the support of voters, especially among the Malays.

"What I meant was the party cannot be successful politically. But between me and him (Saddiq), we do not have any problem.

"I told him that if we have many parties, going against each other, then we would lose and the others would win. Do not split the Malay votes. That was what I meant.

"I told him that if you take the young people, and leave the old ones here (in Pejuang), then who is going to support this new party?" Mahathir said in the interview.

Syed Saddiq, who is Muar MP, used to be the youth chief for Bersatu when Mahathir was the party chairperson. Together with several other leaders in Bersatu, they fought against party president Muhyiddin Yassin's decision to take Bersatu out of Pakatan Harapan.

The group was kicked out of Bersatu after they sat with the opposition in Parliament in May, and Mahathir had since announced that he is forming a new party called Pejuang.

Syed Saddiq (photo), who was widely seen as his blue-eyed boy, however, was not onboard with Mahathir's plan but instead wants to form his own platform.

'The non-Malays will be kingmaker'

According to Mahathir, further division of the Malays in politics would only weaken the group and leave the power to determine who wins an election to other races.

He cited what happened in the 1969 general election when he lost to PAS at Kota Setar Selatan.

This was allegedly because the Chinese had wanted him to lose.

"In 1964, I won the election in Kota Setar Selatan by 4,200 votes. This means that I was strong. In the constituency, there were 40,000 voters of which 35,000 of them are Malays.

"At that time, I was quite popular. That's why I won the 1964 votes - because the Malays supported me.

"In 1969, I expected to win. But because of my promotion of the Malays then, which might be seen as too much, the Chinese were not happy with me that Lee Kuan Yew called me as the 'Malay Ultra'.

Mahathir and Lee Kuan Yew circa 1980s 

"So, they wanted me to lose at my constituency. Not that they were against the alliance then, just me and maybe a few others too.

"What happened was they took away the Chinese votes from me by 3,000. Even with 3,000 votes down, I would still have 1,200 more. But the problem was they gave it to PAS, so I lost by 900 votes.

"That is the role that the minority in any constituency can play. So if we split the Malays, whether you like it or not, DAP or MCA will determine who is going to win. Not us," Mahathir said.

The nonagenarian, who had been PM twice, told Malaysiakini that this was the reason he was not fond of the idea of having too many political parties.

But, in the case of Pejuang, Mahathir defended his decision to form the party, saying that it was necessary because he had been sacked from Bersatu which he formed together with Muhyiddin in 2016.

Asked on why he does not choose to go into retirement instead, the 95-year-old politician claimed that it is not really a choice for him.

Mahathir said he had gone into retirement in 2003, but went back into politics to resist Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's government at the request of those who were not happy with how the latter ran the country.

After Abdullah (photo) eventually resigned and handed over the power to Najib Abdul Razak in 2009, Mahathir said he had given his full support to the sixth premier and even rejoined Umno, which he had quit during his tussle with Abdullah.

However, according to him, once again he had to intervene and fight Najib because of the latter's scandal with 1MDB.

"People come to see me and asked me (to do something). Because I know a lot of things. I have the experience, over 22 years as prime minister. And during my time I think I solved quite a lot of problems.

"So, people think I can do something. So they came to me. Could I just tell them to go away? I am not that kind of person.

"When people asked me to help, I help. If they hadn't, I am happy just to be where I am."

'The Malays need Malay-based party to help them'

Malaysiakini pointed Mahathir to criticisms by some quarters against his decision to form yet another Malay-based political party.

This was considering that many are calling for the end of race-based politicking in the country.

Responding to this, he said that the Malays still need special treatment to address their problems and thus require a political party that is specifically focused on them.

Mahathir claimed that the formula in a multiracial party may benefit all the other races, but not the Malays.

"When I was a boy, the Chinese, Indians, and Malays were all poor. All of them. The Chinese came here as labourers, the Indians came here as rubber tappers, and the Malays were also poor paddy farmers.

"Then we made plans to develop the country. And who had improved since? The opportunities were all the same, we even gave some advantages to the Malays but the Malays are not developing well.

"Why? Because they do not know how to handle it. When we give them contracts to help them become rich, they sell the contracts. The same happened to AP licenses and also land pieces that were given to the Malays to develop. They sold them.

"So you have to understand the weaknesses of the Malays to handle this problem," he said.

Mahathir said the policy implemented during his first tenure as PM for 22 years had succeeded to a certain extent to help the Malays, that there are more Malay professionals today.

Citing another example, he said that Permodalan Nasional Berhad, which was set up to help Malays get investment returns, today has over RM300 billion.

Permodalan Nasional Bhd 

It was initially started with the aim of collecting only several million ringgit to as capital to invest for the Malays.

"But we have to have a special programme for them. This is why I am concerned to have a Malay party, because the sympathy is there, and the understanding of the Malay problems is there."

Mahathir claimed that Pejuang has a big support base from former and current Bersatu grassroots members who do not agree with Muhyiddin.

However, the new party has yet to get them on board because Pejuang's registration is still not approved by the government.

'Slim by-election loss was because of Najib'

Last month, Pejuang, while not officially registered, got involved in its first electoral bout when the party decided to back an independent candidate in the Slim by-election in Perak.

However, the run for the Slim state assembly seat saw Pejuang defeated by Umno whose candidate got a landslide victory.

Asked about this failure in its first test at a Malay-majority seat, Mahathir blamed Najib and alleged vote-buying activities as the reason why the candidate that Pejuang endorsed had lost.

"This was the effect of Najib's propaganda. He had successfully manipulated (the people) into believing what is wrong as right.

"He has been convicted of crimes, but he dared to say that this was only lies, that he did not do anything wrong and he had been deceived.

"So the Malays, they felt sorry for him. They said their 'Bossku' was going to jail, 'Apa malu bossku'," he said.

He further alleged that vote-buying had happened during the by-election, where some voters were allegedly paid cash in exchange for their support.