RESET must by bonking mad (and eff-ing masochistic) to propose Mahathir as NRC Chair

Dr M as recovery council chair? RESET Malaysia itself needs resetting!

By Prof Ramasamy Palanisamy



I AM sorry to say that RESET Malaysia, an umbrella body representing 116 groups, must be completely out of their mind to suggest that former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad should be appointed as chairman of the National Recovery Council (NRC).

RESET Malaysia opined that fellow former Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s appointment to chair the powerful body was wrong.

In their argument, since Muhyiddin failed as the prime minister in resolving the health and economic problems during his term, the Pagoh MP might not be the right candidate for the post.

As I have stated earlier in my recent article, appointing Muhyiddin to become NRC chairman is not only inappropriate but also morally wrong.

My question was, how can Muhyiddin be appointed to the post when he failed to administer the country when he was the prime minister.

It goes to show that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob is not serious about the NRC. Muhyiddin was appointed for the sake of political expediency.

Having said that, I also cannot fathom RESET Malaysia’s suggestion to replace Muhyiddin with Mahathir. It is nothing short of jumping from the frying pan into the fire.

And this illustrates the situation Malaysia will be in if Mahathir is appointed to the post.

I guess people needs a reminder that Mahathir served as the prime minister of the country not once but twice.

I am not sure about his contributions, if there were any, but I am sure that Mahathir destroyed the efficiency and competence of our civil service, emasculated democracy and most importantly harmed the ethnic relations among Malays, Chinese and Indians.

Malaysia needs a fresh start

If the country is divided in ethnic and religious lines, the person responsible is none other than Mahathir.

RESET Malaysia might be an umbrella body of civil society organisations, but it definitely has a poor understanding Malaysia’s history and some of its problematic leaders.

It is no question that Muhyiddin was a bad choice, but bringing Mahathir in will be the greatest mistake Malaysians will ever make.

To be clear, Mahathir is not interested in being the chairman of NRC. He wants to lead the country, either as the prime minister or become the head of the security council he proposed to the Yang Dipertuan Agung recently.

In fact, knowing him, Mahathir may not be keen to be the prime minister but is more interested to head the security council, where he can hold almost dictator-like powers.

If RESET Malaysia wants a dictator for the country, then Mahathir is the right man for the job!

It is funny that RESET Malaysia, with its nice sounding progressive name, seems to have little or no understanding of the nature of politics, especially the need to avoid tainted leaders of the yesteryears.

And Malaysians have had enough of both Mahathir and Muhyiddin. The time has come for us to move on. RESET Malaysia should be more focussed on grooming young and dynamic leaders. Such an organisation cannot call itself “RESET” if it does not look into the future but remains frozen in time and space.

If that is the case, I suggest that the umbrella body changes its name to reflect its archaic and decadent ideas. – Sept 7, 2021.