Mahathir's Mageran Dream: Why 2021 is not 1969

Mahathir's Mageran Dream: Why 2021 is not 1969

by James Chai

COMMENT | One argument between the late Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman and his wife, Neno, remained unresolved until his dying day: Is there a dead body underneath their garden? (This is stated in a book titled 'The Reluctant Politician: Tun Dr Ismail and His Time', written by Ooi Kee Beng and published in 2007).

Ismail told his wife that there was none, but Neno refused to believe. So Ismail dug up the spot in the garden to prove it to her. Later, Ismail filled up the hole with water and made it a swimming pool. In the next 40 years, the pool was used by prime ministers from the United Kingdom and Canada whenever they visited Malaysia.

But Neno only used it once.

That meant that the pool was a place where Ismail could divulge secrets away from his wife. Three weeks before Ismail (file photo, above) died, he told Robert Kuok: “I had three heart attacks in the last two weeks… quite serious ones. I have young children, and Neno is expecting. If anything happens to me…”

“No, no, no… Don’t talk like that,” said Kuok. “Let’s tackle the problem at hand first. Can you hand in your resignation (as deputy prime minister) tomorrow?”

“No, I can’t. I do want to resign, but (prime minister) Razak (Hussein) is leaving for the Commonwealth meeting in Ottawa soon, and I have promised him that I would act in his absence. I will resign when he comes back,” said Ismail. He then let out an ominous “Aaaaaaaahh.”

This was not the first time Ismail had to carry on his national duty while carrying fatal illnesses. A decade before, he had a bacterial infection in his heart; then, he had nose cancer which necessitated urgent treatment, and his heart condition ever since almost crippled him.

Before the 1969 election, Ismail said: “Even if I stand for election and win, I shall not accept appointment as a Minister… I made a pledge to myself and to God that after I recovered from my illness I would not again become a Minister.”

Ismail: The Rock of Gibraltar

But his steady hands were called to return in Malaysia’s worst ever racial riot. At a time of intense interracial distrust, irreversible bloodshed and grave uncertainty, the Malaysian people needed to hear from someone firm, rational, and deeply respected.

Gua Musang MP Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah

Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah remembers Ismail as a “pillar of strength”, the Rock of Gibraltar, during the crisis. “Ismail was a principled man – and was seen that way by different races… Once he decided on something, you could be sure that he had gone through the relevant details and studied them.”

When the government declared the formation of the National Operations Council, or Mageran in Malay, in 1969, you know the motivations of people like Ismail was right. When you hear that he said “democracy is dead” and he saw it as his duty to bring it back – you could trust him.

Ismail took decisive actions against people who caused instability and violence irrespective of race, and he sent out stern warnings to people within his party trying to topple the leadership. He was the only person in Umno that everyone feared, including Harun Idris and Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

True enough, Ismail spent the Mageran days returning Malaysia to a sustainable democracy. When Razak toyed with the idea of a “benevolent dictatorship”, he was quickly discouraged by Ismail, who was incessant in pushing Malaysia to restore Parliament as soon as possible.

Although Razak was the director of operations and Ismail the minister of home affairs, Razak constantly deferred to Ismail in making the right decisions. In meetings, Razak would chair but wait for Ismail’s cue when decisions were hard.

Why do the details of Ismail matter?

Any discussion of a Mageran – primarily involving the suspension of all democratic functions and shrinking the decision-making team to only a handful – requires a strict examination of the people who will lead it. And the most important considerations in our assessment are the motivations and personality of these people.

A Mageran established in the name of saving the country would easily transform into a dictatorship if it was led by people who simply want to seize power for themselves, without any intention of restoring democracy.

What's in the Mageran 2021 proposal?

Mahathir took it upon himself to suggest to the King that Malaysia requires something as drastic as a Mageran to combat the virus. When probed further, he said that he offered himself to lead the Mageran. Always planning ahead, he had even prepared a list of nominees for the Mageran team.

We can assess his motivations by looking at his proposal.

First, there is a trust deficit in the proposer, since Mahathir’s desire for great power is well-documented. No one has surpassed his record of being prime minister twice and going for a third. But that may be too easy and overly presumptuous.

Maybe we could look at the second. Mahathir’s Mageran manifesto is designed to be as broad as possible, to “work towards herd immunity against Covid-19, solve problems regarding education and fix the economy.” This sounds similar to his excuses “putting the economy back in order”, “reduce national debt”, and “fix the country’s problems” to delay the handover when he was the Pakatan Harapan prime minister. A broad manifesto is motivated by limitless authority.

Third, the magnitude of power is equally broad. He stated that although Parliament can ask questions about the Mageran, it does not have the powers to dismantle it. In other words, the Mageran is immune to any challenge and would persist as long as it insists.

Fourth, the timeline for Mahathir’s Mageran is equally broad and unspecific. When asked about when this Mageran would end for democracy to resume, Mahathir said that it would end only after herd immunity is achieved or after the next general election is held. What that implies is that nothing could compel a return of democracy until Mahathir feels that he is safe politically.

Therein lies the greatest risk of any drastic proposal in a time of crisis. Politicians would not hesitate to use our agony and insecurity to their political benefit. A national Emergency that suspended Parliament was already considered an overkill, what more a total suspension of democracy via a Mageran. Once given, democracy cannot be returned.

Mageran of 2021 is not like 1969

The irony is that Ismail was instrumental in getting Mahathir expelled from Umno when they were young. Ismail guarded the doors twice to make sure Mahathir was not re-admitted. He once said to the Singaporean diplomat, Maurice Baker, that it was “impossible to forgive Mahathir” for what he has done in his early Umno years.

Did Ismail see it coming all along?


JAMES CHAI is a legal consultant and researcher working for Invoke, among others. He also blogs at jameschai.com.my. You may reach him at jameschai.mpuk@gmail.com

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I published the following post on 16 Nov 2016:

Mahathir escaped the hands of Tun Dr Ismail?

I have finally bought a copy of 'The Reluctant Politician' by Ooi Kee Beng in a local bookstore specializing in Asian books. It's a biography of Tun Dr Ismail, said to be the best PM we never had, when unfortunately for us, he passed away suddenly during his stint as DPM to Tun Razak.



Unusually for a Muslim, his body laid in state for two extra days because Razak was then out of the country, actually in Canada attending the Commonwealth Summit, and the PM at that time gave instructions not to bury Allahyarham Tun Dr Ismail until he returned home to personally attend to the deceased's state funeral.

Before I get into the meat of what I want to say, I noted with some interests as well as puzzlements that in Ooi Kee Beng's acknowledgements thanking those who helped him with the book, he did NOT list the name of Mahathir Mohamad.

This was weird considering Mahathir was PM of Malaysia for 22 years and rather unusual for Ooi not to consult or interview Mahathir on a book about the legendary Tun Dr Ismail.

Apart from the obvious (family members of Tun Dr Ismail), the various agencies like Bernama, NSTP and the not so well-known, Ooi Kee Beng only acknowledged the help of Malaysian politicians, social personalities and academicians (well known to us) like:

... AAB (wakakaka), Ku Li (wakakaka also),

... Prof Khoo Kay Kim, Robert Kuok,

... Lee Kuan Yew, Lim Chong Eu,

... PG Lim, Din Merican, ex-IGP Hanif Omar,

... Ahmad Rithauddeen, Ghazalie Shafie, Rais Yatim, and

... Gaafar Baba, Aishah Ghani,

but strangely, nay, bizarrely not Mahathir Mohamad at all.

(Najib was not even a politician at that time)

Does that mean:

(a) Ooi Kee beng did not interview Mahathir at all? (most unlikely as Mahathir was PM of Malaysia for 22 years) or,

(b) Mahathir refused to be interviewed by the author for various reasons including the possibility that he disliked Tun Dr Ismail so much he (Mahathir) did not want to have anything to do with the book, or

(c) Mahathir was interviewed but said something so bad about Tun Dr Ismail that so shocked Ooi Kee Beng who then decided to omit that interview completely.

Personally I have no idea. Maybe one day I'll write to Mr Ooi Kee Beng to find out what was the reason for the significant omission of Mahathir.

But on with the story about Tun Dr Ismail (which I had posted on before).

To start off, my dear readers, here goes.

When Tun Dr Ismail who was acting PM at that time because Tun Razak was in Canada, died suddenly of a heart attack in 1973, Razak issued instructions from Canada (even as he rushed back, with the travelling support of the Canadian government) that the deceased was to be buried INSIDE the Makam Pahlawan (Heroes Mausoleum).

On reaching Malaysia after a flight to Europe and thence to Malaysia where he was picked up by a RMAF transport aircraft, Razak in an unguarded moment remarked sadly to his RMAF pilot in the cockpit which he visited during the flight, words to the effect, "What am I going to do now with Tun Ismail gone?" indicating his (Razak) frightening loss as he had relied so much on the late Tun Ismail.

And it has to be said that Tun Ismail probably died much earlier than he would have because he was recalled from retirement to serve as Razak's deputy after the chaos of May 13, when he was already suffering from a bad heart and was advised by his doctor to retire.

Now on the Makam Pahlawan (Heroes Mausoleum) which has two burial sectors, one inside the building and the other outside in the open, Tun Razak wanted Tun Dr Ismail interred inside.

According to Wikipedia, Sardon Jubir, a minister in Malaysian cabinet in earlier days, had prepared the burial plot for Tun Dr Ismail OUTSIDE the Makam against the explicit instructions of Razak, BUT I was reliably informed, very reliably informed, that Razak, on realizing his specific instructions was disobeyed, blamed Tunku for that.

Razak was heard by many who were there during the change of site for the burial plot to have snapped very fiercely at the older man (Tunku who was then long deposed by Razak of his PM post), hurtful words to the effect: "Don't worry about being deprived of a place inside the Makam, I'll reserve a place here for you."

Tunku who was said to be the brains behind the construction of Makam Pahlawan was so shocked and hurt that he left very specific instructions not to be ever buried inside or outside the Makam. In 1990 when Tunku passed away, his instructions were obeyed where our nation's 1st PM was buried in the Kedah Royal Mausoleum in Alor Setar.

Now, it might be that Tunku could have ordered Sardon Jubir to bury Tun Dr Ismail elsewhere or at most outside the Makam Pahlawan

The reason could be this (admittedly speculating here): Tunku who was fond of stuff American, had the original aim of making the Makam Pahlawan as the Malaysian equivalent of Arlington National Cemetery.

That meant the Makam Pahlawan (as its name implies) was meant only for military and police service personnel who died in heroic circumstances (Malaysia was then in the throes of the Emergency) and not civilians.

By the by, Tunku also modeled the Tugu Pahlawan after the US Marine Corp Monument and allegedly the Malaysian flag after the US flag.

So that might possibly have been the reason why Tunku was stunned by and possibly disagreed with Tun Razak's unilateral decision to change the already agreed concept of burial at the Makam Pahlawan to inter the late Tun Dr Ismail, essentially a civilian, there.

But Tun Razak's stinging words to Tunku, his one-time mentor and boss, and his predecessor as PM, was quite ferociously biadap for a Malay, and generally considered as absolutely uncalled for.

OK, another important tidbit about the late Tun Dr Ismail was RPK's mention of Dr Mahathir in his THE UMNO, PKR AND PAS INTERNAL STRIFE (PART 5) post, that prior to Tun Dr Ismail's death he voiced his real concerns to some friends about Razak's intention to rehabilitate Dr Mahathir, wakakaka.

Obviously Tun Ismail who was a multi-racial-culturalist didn't like or trust Dr Mahathir who was already a notorious ultra in those early days of Malaysian independence, and was said to have prefer the far more moderate Musa Hitam.



I suspect that if Tun Dr Ismail did not pass away suddenly, and had lived on to become the 3rd PM of Malaysia, Mahathir would not be ever PM nor even accepted back into UMNO. Tun Dr Ismail'c choice would have been Musa Hitam or perhaps Ku Li.

Robert Kuok, who was a personal friend of Tun Dr Ismail, said: “In my opinion, he was probably the most non-racial, non-racist Malay I have met in my life. And I have met a very wide range of Malays from all parts of Malaysia. Doc was a stickler for total fair play, for correctness; total anathema to him to be anything else. Every Malay colleague feared him because of this, including Mahathir."

Mahathir was afraid of the late elderly doctor?

I wonder whether that could have been the reason Ooi Kee Beng was possibly spurned by Mahathir for an interview on the life of the late Tun Dr Ismail, or Mahathir might have said something nasty about the respected late Tun Dr Ismail to the extent Ooi thought it would be more discreet to remain silent on ever interviewing Mahathir (I suspect Ooi must have because Mahathir was PM of Malaysia for 22 years), and which had been why he did not include Mahathir in the acknowledgement page of his book on Tun Dr Ismail?