Dr M, vocal as ever

TMI - For Najib, an open society and Mukhriz’s loss invites Dr M’s venom, say analysts (extracts):

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad's scathing criticism of the Najib administration did not surprise politicians and analysts, who say the loss of the former prime minister's son, Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir, in the Umno polls was probably the catalyst for the attack. [...]

Some analysts also felt that Dr Mahathir should emulate other retired leaders like former UK prime minister Tony Blair and former US president Bill Clinton and not interfere with the current administration.

"Retired leaders should stay retired. Other retired world leaders understand this and do not interfere with their current administration,” said Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas) chief executive Wan Saiful Wan Jan, adding that past leaders should accept that their time is over.

"Problems will definitely crop up if leaders who are supposed to retire do not retire."

Dr Mahathir is 88 years old this year, endowing him with an auspicious double-8, in accordance with Chinese fengshui-ish pun, Gong Xi Gong Xi, wakakaka.

Considering he had actually reigned over Malaysia (in terms of real power) as the longest serving PM, for 22 years, bringing or rather dragging the nation into the 21st Century, and having successfully vanquished his political foes one by one, wakakaka, including indirectly deposing 2 PMs (Tunku and AAB), and seen his son Mukhriz becoming MB of his home state, etc etc etc, you would imagine this man, supposedly a retiree, would be happily enjoying his life now with his many grandchildren gamboling around him and Toh Puan while he munches contentedly on his coconut-bun from The Loaf, his own bakery.

But no, that was not to be, for Dr Mahathir is still right in the forefront of politics and power, not as an euphemistically named 'mentor minister', wakakaka, but as a player even if only outside the Cabinet.

We know he is the patron of Perkasa and we suspect he played a very influential role in having UMNO bizarrely put up two very un-electable candidates in the last general elections. perhaps much to the chagrin of the UMNO leaders.

But such has been his influence and more bluntly, his threatening potential to destroy careers as he had done to AAB, that most of his wishes, no matter how out of whack as it might have been seen, were kuai kuai accommodated by Ah Jib Gor, wakakaka.

He continues to rage socio-political polemics, which range from sometimes quite sensible opinions to usually outrageous ones, showing his Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde personality.

No doubt those currently in the powerhouse of UMNO wish he would be what Wan Saiful Wan Jan, IDEAS CEO, had wistfully and wishfully repined of him, that retired leaders should stay retired and accept their time (as a leader) is over.

But as a commentator in TMI remarked that asking this ex PM to stay retired and thus keep quiet on political affairs would be akin to passing a death sentence on him.

So don't hope for this man to remain silent, ever.

Pordah

The problem with Dr Mahathir's inability to let things go, lies, I suspect, in the following two inter-related points (if I may attempt to crystallize them):

• the humongous chip on his shoulder
• fear of his intended plans for Malaysia being derailed

Let me quickly get rid of the 2nd dot-point by saying it's directly related to the 1st, which thus sees him, for example, pushing for Mukhriz to ascend the UMNO's ladder of power so as to protect his (Dr Mahathir's) legacy, those implemented and those yet to be realized.

Many have, I suspect, mistakenly accused and still are accusing him of nepotism, and yes while there may be that too, the bigger issue in his promotion of Mukhriz is that he feels he cannot depend on Najib to continue his legacy and of how things ought to be done for Malaysia, so he needs his son Mukhriz, hopefully as PM, to fulfill his dreams.

Okay, that brings us to his humongous chip on his shoulder which has been the driving force behind this very intelligent and capable man but which ironically and indeed sadly brought him shame and much discredit.

I have written on this before, but I feel it's something I'd be writing on for many more times.

Once, RPK wrote of UMNO being transformed from a party of intellectuals and educators into a party of business towkays, to which I may daringly add, also from Malay nationalists who joined politics for community interests to Malay politicians who enjoin communal issues for personal interests.

But nonetheless, I opine the underlying cause of such an UMNO transformation, from Malay nationalism to individualized towkay-ism has quite a lot to do with that humongous chip on the Grand Olde Man’s shoulder, one which he provided a glimpse of in his book, The Malay Dilemma.

This is only kaytee's personal take of Dr M’s age-long grievance.

The Olde Man was aggrieved, or if we want to call a spade a spade, mightily pissed off in his personal perception of the Malays, the major group of constitutionally-determined indigenous people of Malaya-Malaysia, been subjugated (enslaved) in their own land by the other races, presumably and principally the Chinese, with the collusion of the British, all because of the Malays' tolerance and non-confrontational nature.

Would his description of Malays being tolerant and non-confrontational be true today? Maybe he has succeeded in changing the Malays mindset, anyway at least those in UMNO and Perkasa.

OK back to his belief of Sino-Pommie collusion - many Chinese and Indians would tell you that rather, the British colluded with the Malays to diminish non-Malay political power because they feared for their (British) assets like plantations, mines, properties, etc, in an independent Malaya and more trusted the Malays (or the sultans) to protect those British interests.

There have been some truths in both Dr M’s perception and the British assessment but there were gross errors (and nonsense) in those perceptions as well.

So, Dr M wanted an official program of affirmative action to address what he saw as the Malays’ disadvantaged position vis-à-vis Chinese control of business in Malaysia. His argument, as expressed in his 'The Malay Dilemma', influenced Tun Razak who after Brutus-ing Tunku Abdul Rahman following May 13, formulated the NEP, as well as brought back Dr M into UMNO's inner fold.

Anyway, for Dr M, if we can translate his ‘chip on his shoulder’ into very simplified terms, I suspect this would mean that he wants to see, just as a simple example, that for every 10 Malaysian millionaires, 10 big business tycoons, 10 industrialists, 10 doctors, 10 engineers, 10 chemists, 10 what-have-you, etc, the Malays should constitute approximately 6 (or more) of that number in each of those groups.

If we are prepared to ignore the very obvious fact that his perceived formula was not extended to ethnic composition in the police, military, civil service, university intakes, etc, then we would find nothing wrong in his objective per se, and indeed even applaud him for it. It was a reasonable and socially logical objective.

But the devil was in the details (or implementations). Thus the World's greatest social engineering project, alas, fell very short of its intended (higher) objectives and worse, brought about undesired attitude, generally referred to sneeringly as 'the rental mentality', and not only in its lamentable parturition but far worse, in its continuous nurturing.

Let's move on to another issue, the so-called the payung (umbrella) concept, which in simple terms involved the identifying, supporting, promoting, fostering, nurturing, etc of, say, 10 Malays to become very high level participants in society, such as industrialists, big businessmen, economic tsars, etc and hopefully with all becoming millionaires.

Each of these new heroes in turn would then do likewise (ie. identify, supporting, promoting, fostering, nurturing) another, say, 10 Malays, with a hope-for snowballing effect until eventually Dr M’s dreams come true, of a multitude of Malays assuming their rightful and proportionately-correct economic positions in Malaysian society.

Strangely, when he was a doctor in Alor Setar, he had a Chinese chauffeur, thus depriving a Malay from that job, but maybe that was him practicing the NEP in reverse, so who says he hadn't look after Chinese, wakakaka

It's a noble objective, but alas, Dr Mr, being the superman and super intellectual he has been, had not reckoned with the ordinary man's inherent selfish and weak nature, and thus failed to make allowance for these.

Some or perhaps many (though not all) of his 'chosen-ones' (his, not God's) were only humans with all their weaknesses, not helped at all by the lack of forging through the furnace of hard work, hardships, apprenticeships, and experience.

More than a few were failures, yet he kept forgiving them, each time helping them pick themselves up to try again, and again and again ….. I suppose only because he persisted in his invincible belief that their success was fundamental to social equity for the Malays, and towards removing the humongous chip from his shoulder.

We all know of horror stories of massive bailouts ... and bailouts ... and bailouts ... and ... well, you get the idea.

Blessed or cursed by (depending on your philosophical outlook) Malaysia's then new found wealth of oil and gas, which provided Dr M with almost unfettered latitude in implementing his policies and schemes, those encouraged by him to venture into big time ventures or businesses, all with humongous mouth-watering rewards, indeed went for them no matter how lacking in the prerequisite competence for those jobs, because the marvellous invisible safety net was always there, for Don Corleone was renowned for his indefatigable tolerance and forgiveness for the 'Chosen Ones' (except of course to those who were treacherous to him, wakakaka).

But believe it or not, somehow (I feel) the new national wealth in oil and gas was more of a curse than a blessing, endowing or damning Dr M with a nonchalant and tolerant attitude towards his protégés' failures and the associated profligate waste.

In the general case, the affirmative action, which I accept and indeed support as a noble and socially necessary program, was so thoroughly misused and abused that it soon negated any motivation for actual acquisitions of know-how, skills and incremental competencies for entrepreneurship and/or professional trades and occupations.

I would have to say again that his known tolerance for his protégés' failures instead encouraged their 'go-for-broke' get-bloody-rich schemes or gimmickry,  no matter how useless, irrelevant or wasteful the schemes or activities might have been.

Yes, his blind loyalty to his protégés and friends (or cronies) was legend, and had in many cases proved to be a liability as he sheltered them from falling off the face of the earth. But while I admire ‘loyalty’ I believe we mustn't let him off scot-free for his tautologically fallible virtue.

I had once written of him, that: “He chose the lame and therefore he must accept responsibility for their inability to perform.”

There have been many known examples of his intended legacy gone songsang, one being hundreds of millions if not billions were given to a local contractor to build naval boats, most of which didn't appear on the docks let alone the high seas. Was that bloke penalized?

The rest of the fleet have stealth technology
which has been why you can't see them, wakakaka

Dr Mahathir's supporters would look at his illustrious and more benign achievements as his blessings. And we mustn't deny him his dues, for he achieved many things for Malaysia. He was a ruthless one-man juggernaut as he dragged a reluctant Malaysia screaming into the 21st Century.

He was determined to propel Malaysia into the rankings of 1st World nations a.s.a.p, as an admired, respected, competitive, wealthy and proud member, and by a deadline too. The last word in his vocabulary was procrastination.

Undoubtedly he saw Singapore's progression into the ranks of 1st World nations with much chagrin as Malaysia is in reality resource-richer with more potential than the little island nation. Yet ....., and that was probably what had additionally and frenetically driven Dr M when he was PM.

But ironically, he instead entrenched a political system that promotes ethnic supremacy and ethnic dominance in virtually every field, which have been notorious for non-transparency and non-accountability, lamentably contributing to Malaysia’s current situation.

We are now running on the reserves we have accumulated in the earlier days of our independence as well as from the wealth from our nation's primary but steadily diminishing resources.

I have a sneaky suspicion Dr M, then and now, knew his affirmative programs were not gaining traction. But being the man he has always been, he came out as usual swinging, blaming everyone particularly his favourite target, Chinese Malaysians, though today his target, thank goodness for the Chinese wakakaka, is his own UMNO and its already well-known issue of money politics.

Don’t expect him to remain silent, for that would be, as mentioned, akin to a death sentence for him.

And for those who wish him ill, and we should never ever to anyone, no, not even Dr M, I must inform you that he and his family have been blessed with the longevity genes, wakakaka.

Yes, it’s likely he’ll not only continue spewing his usual venom, but also outlive many of his enemies yet, wakakaka.

Weep, you mongrels
I'm gonna be still around for quite a fair while

wakakaka