Mahathir Unforgiven

Malaysiakini - PKR: TO DEFEAT UMNO WE MUST FORGIVE MAHATHIR FOR HIS CRIMES (extracts):

FMT) – PKR has urged is supporters “to swallow their anger” for Dr Mahathir Mohamad for the sake of winning Putrajaya.

The party’s vice-president, Prof Shaharuddin Badaruddin, and Youth chief Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad said that the “reformasi” supporters should move on especially since Anwar Ibrahim Mahathir’s protege turned arch nemesis has come to terms with the former prime minister.

“I am sure there are those who cannot forgive (Mahathir) and you can’t force them to do so. It must happen naturally,” Shaharuddin said when met after attending a forum in Unisel, here, today.

He said it was understandable what the “reformasi” supporters felt but it was necessary for them to set their feelings aside if they wanted to beat the Barisan Nasional in the coming general election.

“There are things we need to prioritise and this means some of us will have to swallow our anger,” he said, stressing that cooperation was a must.

Shaharuddin and Nik Nazmi were commenting on the jeers some “reformasi” supporters directed at Mahathir when he turned up at a convention last week.

During the event, Mahathir had urged the crowd to put the past behind them, but a section of the crowd yelled back that they could not.

Shaharuddin urged the “reformasi” supporters to look at the bigger picture, which is to ensure straight fights with the ruling coalition, a strategy which Mahathir has said in the past would give the opposition a fighting chance to win Putrajaya.

Nik Nazmi, meanwhile, said that there was a need for everyone, including the “reformasi” movement, to join hands to defeat BN.

One of my principal critics (blog visitor) commented in my post about HRH Sultan Selangor pardoning a man on death sentence that:

There are crimes so heinous, and where the person has no remorse, that the appropriate penalty, after due process, is DEATH.

In other words, when a person has been guilty of terrible crimes, forgiveness for that person is out of the question a la 'To err is human, to forgive divine, to unforgive only appropriate' (in some horrendous cases).

In my mind and those of many others, the political destruction wrought by Mahathir in his 22-years reign would be considered as 'crimes' to the nation so horrendous (eg. destruction of the integrity of the Judiciary, Civil Service, Senate, and profligacy in the billions of ringgit, etc) that we cannot ever forgive him.

Though we are not demanding the death penalty for him (as that would be over the top) we cannot countenance his political resurrection with our support and alliance with him and his Pribumi.

And that's what PKR's Prof Shaharuddin Badaruddin and its Youth chief Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad are asking of us.

Why have they been so forgiving of Mahathir, once their bête noire, a man they scornfully called Mahafiraun?

I suspect they have been under instructions from Azmin Ali to do so as the Selangor MB has long since allied himself to Mahathir. I don't know what has been promised to him but then again, that's Azmin. Besides, Azmin was brought up by the Mahathir family.

If they want to forgive Mahathir, they might as well forgive everyone including Najib, Gobalakrishnan, Nallakaruppan, Chegubard, Jonson Chong, Loh Gwo Burne, Chandra Muzzafar, and that revolving-door bloke from Bota, Nasarudin Hashim, wakakaka.

By the by, Loh Gwo Burne and Gobala left PKR (2012?)with huffs and puffs because as PKR members they made the political mistake of offending Azmin Ali.

Loh wrote a personal letter to PKR party president Dr Wan Azizah to complain about what he believed to be dodgy party polling process (in a PKR intra-party deputy presidential race between Azmin Ali and Zaid Ibrahim), and worse than that, also criticizing Azmin Ali - see my post The Poison Within PKR.

Then carrying out the coup de grâce but for himself (wakakaka) Loh further wrote a very public letter to Malaysiakini to lambaste Azmin Ali. In doing so he burned his final bridge with PKR.

Loh was a supporter of Zaid Ibrahim and probably must have been so nauseated by the injustice done to Zaid in PKR where he saw nothing would be dealt with (including his complaint to Dr Wan who as usual acted 'dunno').

His sheer frustration by a virtually moribund party president and the lifeless party machinery (lifeless when Azmin was the object of any complaints) compelled him to write such a very public letter as a last resort to condemn the party's deputy president. From that moment, Loh sealed his fatal fate as a member of PKR.

Gobala

As for Gobalakrishnan, he made the accusation that the appointment of N Surendran as one of three newly appointed PKR VPs was illegal because Surendran at that time was allegedly not a registered member of the party.

My post is not about the issue of Surendran's membership, but rather the story of an 'anwarista (Gobala) scorned' wakakaka.

As the saying goes (paraphrased) ‘Hell hath no fury like an acolyte scorned’.

And the story is not just about (at that time, around 2012) poor marginalised Gobala, once chief bodek-er of Anwar Ibrahim, but about the nature of Anwar’s leadership (or lack of) in PKR and the paradox of his role in the Pakatan Rakyat coalition.

PKR party secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution (at that time) said he had directed his staff to check with the party’s membership listing and discovered that Surendran was a registered member with the Lembah Pantai division, naturally saying (wakakaka): Gobalakrishnan’s accusation is not true. Surendran is a party member.

Now, that might well have been so, but alas, Saifuddin Nasution had said as well as promised a lot of things, to Chegubard, Zaid Ibrahim and a few others including outsider Haris Ibrahim. But had any of his promises been fulfilled satisfactorily?

Take for example, the case (at that time) of Badrul Hisham Shaharin, better known as Chegubard, who too complained about irregularities in PKR party polling process.

chegubard 

According to Chegubard, Saifuddin promised in November (2012?) that investigation into Chegubard’s complaint had been initiated and the finding would be revealed in a couple of weeks’ time. Well over a month since Saifuddin’s deadline promise, Chegubard was still asking about the finding of that so-called investigation.

The party leadership appointed Chegubard to the position of party deputy secretary-general, perhaps believing that should mollify and quieten him down over his earlier complaints about the irregularities in the party polling process.

But Chegubard refused the appointment, insisting on first knowing what the finding of the so-called investigation was.

As Penangites would say, with some people, yes, you can cheet haw ch’ooi (keep the tiger’s mouth closed by filling it with goodies), but with others you just can’t!

Chegubard was not the only person in the party to complain. Leaving aside people like Zaid Ibrahim, Gobala, and Loh Gwo Burne, PKR member Jonson Chong wrote a personal letter to the party president Dr Wan Azizah about the questionable party polling process – see my earlier post  Dr Wan Azizah ignores Jonson Chong's plea?

Jonson Chong 

Renowned activist Haris Ibrahim praised Jonson for his constructive approach but alas, not so Dr Wan as she ignored him completely.

Why did a party president ignore a constructive proposal from a sensible, fair and balanced gentleman like Jonson Chong which would have put to rest all complaints if the polls had been conducted fairly, unless of course she knew it was far too embarrassing to her hubby and blue-eye boy Azmin to take up Jonson's proposal?

Anyway, Jonson was so disappointed with the arrogance of the Anwar-Azmin-Saifuddin coterie in its refusal to truly investigate into party members’ complaints about the dodgy party polls that he eventually left PKR (not that Anwar-Azmin care two hoots).

Three things we learnt from that nasty episode where Zaid was the victim of PKR's intra-party polls, which has been the real reason for his departure from that party (and not because he jumped or left out of boredom), namely:

• Do not stand against Azmin Ali in PKR party polls, wakakaka
• Do not write any complaint about the party to Wan Azizah
• Do not rely on the party machinery to answer your complaint

Obviously the above advice applies to only those against the party inner core like Azmin and his cohorts, wakakaka.

Many left PKR with extreme bitterness and acrimony, so I would recommend to PKR who is now so keen to forgive Mahathir to first forgive those who had left abruptly - alas, the list of fed-up frustrated followers who left PKR is too long to name in detail here. 

except for Mahathir

who in his 22 years as PM wrought political destruction so horrendous (eg. destruction of the integrity of the Judiciary, Civil Service, Senate, and profligacy in the billions of ringgit, etc)

that we cannot ever forgive him as his mistakes, methods or/and manipulations would be considered as 'crimes' to the nation