Terence Netto
COMMENT | It was to be expected.
After two cancellations of his attempt on Sunday to hold an indoor mass meeting to drum up support for his campaign to highlight alleged Malay grievances, Dr Mahathir Mohamad would bring a bludgeon rather than a scalpel to take down his nemesis, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
Chagrined by the cancellations of his bookings to hold a “Proklamasi Melayu” gathering, the frustrated former prime minister told a press conference that Anwar was complicit in the matter, though he offered no proof.
Infamous during his first stint as PM for insisting that people show proof before hurling accusations of any kind, Mahathir is now similarly remiss in offering no proof of Anwar’s alleged complicity in preventing him from holding an indoor gathering.
Authorities at the venues who did not give reasons for their cancellations obviously preferred silence to saying something that would only give the spiral of expostulation and reply a nudge.
This would open the floodgates to a back-and-forth that would lead to nowhere.
Instead of taking their circumspection as a cue, Mahathir came out swinging at Anwar.
COMMENT | It was to be expected.
After two cancellations of his attempt on Sunday to hold an indoor mass meeting to drum up support for his campaign to highlight alleged Malay grievances, Dr Mahathir Mohamad would bring a bludgeon rather than a scalpel to take down his nemesis, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
Chagrined by the cancellations of his bookings to hold a “Proklamasi Melayu” gathering, the frustrated former prime minister told a press conference that Anwar was complicit in the matter, though he offered no proof.
Infamous during his first stint as PM for insisting that people show proof before hurling accusations of any kind, Mahathir is now similarly remiss in offering no proof of Anwar’s alleged complicity in preventing him from holding an indoor gathering.
Authorities at the venues who did not give reasons for their cancellations obviously preferred silence to saying something that would only give the spiral of expostulation and reply a nudge.
This would open the floodgates to a back-and-forth that would lead to nowhere.
Instead of taking their circumspection as a cue, Mahathir came out swinging at Anwar.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim
He branded Anwar a “dictator”, saying the current PM is more oppressive towards the Malays than the British colonials had been.
Anwar’s defence against Mahathir’s brickbats gained support from an unexpected quarter.
Former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak weighed in with a Facebook posting that pointed out the irony in Mahathir’s branding of Anwar as a dictator.
Najib’s criticism was of the “see who is calling the kettle black” variety.
“Mr ISA calling others a dictator” chimed in the now-jailed former PM from his eyrie in Kajang Prison.
Najib was reminding the public that someone like Mahathir. who had used the now-rescinded colonial-era law, the Internal Security Act, to detain more than a hundred politicians and social activists during his time as prime minister, has to have much gall to accuse Anwar of being a dictator.
He branded Anwar a “dictator”, saying the current PM is more oppressive towards the Malays than the British colonials had been.
Anwar’s defence against Mahathir’s brickbats gained support from an unexpected quarter.
Former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak weighed in with a Facebook posting that pointed out the irony in Mahathir’s branding of Anwar as a dictator.
Najib’s criticism was of the “see who is calling the kettle black” variety.
“Mr ISA calling others a dictator” chimed in the now-jailed former PM from his eyrie in Kajang Prison.
Najib was reminding the public that someone like Mahathir. who had used the now-rescinded colonial-era law, the Internal Security Act, to detain more than a hundred politicians and social activists during his time as prime minister, has to have much gall to accuse Anwar of being a dictator.
Jailed former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak
Mahathir cannot hope to win his battle of one-upmanship with Anwar, given the range of critics of him and what he had done during his two stints as PM.
He can’t win, not when he has detractors like PKR MP Hassan Karim, who has raised the legitimate query of whether Mahathir, when he was PM, was more interested in helping his cronies than the Malays.
Pundits speculate that Mahathir’s motive, in his current public joust with Anwar, is to create a distraction from what he anticipates is coming around the corner for him – the scrutiny by the authorities of the wealth acquired by his family.
They say the reason Mahathir has long feared Anwar’s rise to the premiership is precisely because he expects this scrutiny once Anwar reaches the top post.
The news that the MACC has already summoned for questioning a former top cabinet minister over ownership of large sums of money in an offshore financial haven is signal enough that that scrutiny is in the works.
Arousing Malay discontent against Anwar
Knowing his pre-emptive approach to danger, Mahathir is now busying himself arousing Malay discontent against Anwar, thus hoping to derail the reckoning that’s coming for him.
Even his worst critics would not decline to give Mahathir credit for striving – in his tenth decade in life – in pursuit of his aims.
There is something admirable about someone in his nineties persisting in the belief that salvation is for those who never cease to strive.
But there is also something about knowing there is a season to everything in life, including a time to recognise when to quit.
Failure to recognise this wisdom risks making one a crashing bore.
Mahathir cannot hope to win his battle of one-upmanship with Anwar, given the range of critics of him and what he had done during his two stints as PM.
He can’t win, not when he has detractors like PKR MP Hassan Karim, who has raised the legitimate query of whether Mahathir, when he was PM, was more interested in helping his cronies than the Malays.
Pundits speculate that Mahathir’s motive, in his current public joust with Anwar, is to create a distraction from what he anticipates is coming around the corner for him – the scrutiny by the authorities of the wealth acquired by his family.
They say the reason Mahathir has long feared Anwar’s rise to the premiership is precisely because he expects this scrutiny once Anwar reaches the top post.
The news that the MACC has already summoned for questioning a former top cabinet minister over ownership of large sums of money in an offshore financial haven is signal enough that that scrutiny is in the works.
Arousing Malay discontent against Anwar
Knowing his pre-emptive approach to danger, Mahathir is now busying himself arousing Malay discontent against Anwar, thus hoping to derail the reckoning that’s coming for him.
Even his worst critics would not decline to give Mahathir credit for striving – in his tenth decade in life – in pursuit of his aims.
There is something admirable about someone in his nineties persisting in the belief that salvation is for those who never cease to strive.
But there is also something about knowing there is a season to everything in life, including a time to recognise when to quit.
Failure to recognise this wisdom risks making one a crashing bore.
TERENCE NETTO is a journalist with half a century’s experience.
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