S Thayaparan
Published: Jan 25, 2024 10:30 AM
“An idea is like a virus, resilient, highly contagious. The smallest seed of an idea can grow. It can grow to define or destroy you.”
COMMENT | I do not know if former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad will be “erased” from our political landscape.
However, I do know that his ideas will continue to define the direction of this country until we either lurch into a theocratic state or a group of political operatives coalesce and reject those ideas that serve as the first principles of the “ketuanan” state.
Non-Malays can point to the old maverick and claim that he is all that is wrong with the country but your average Malay (who in some cases has a vote that carries more weight), owes it all to the former prime minister.
Mahathir gave them everything. He taught them how to think, how to maintain power and how to use legislation to curb dissent.
The fact that he is now in the crosshairs of his political adversaries, with an attorney-general who has been heavily criticised, a MACC which has been heavily criticised and a segment of the voting polity baying for his blood, should tell us that his lessons have been sublimated by the political elites and their followers in this country.
These totalitarian ideas of his - dressed up as economic, social and educational assistance for the community he has shown great contempt for, are the founding ideas of the “ketuanan” state and will continue until we eventually reach our destination of a theocratic state.
Mahathir was also adept at corralling non-Malay support for his odious ideas.
For decades, he made it seem that the choice of BN was the lesser of two evils, leveraging non-Malay anxiety to nurture an economic, political and social elite Malay class and creating a Malay middle class who were for the most part narcotised by religious and racial propaganda.
Published: Jan 25, 2024 10:30 AM
“An idea is like a virus, resilient, highly contagious. The smallest seed of an idea can grow. It can grow to define or destroy you.”
– Cobb (Inception)
COMMENT | I do not know if former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad will be “erased” from our political landscape.
However, I do know that his ideas will continue to define the direction of this country until we either lurch into a theocratic state or a group of political operatives coalesce and reject those ideas that serve as the first principles of the “ketuanan” state.
Non-Malays can point to the old maverick and claim that he is all that is wrong with the country but your average Malay (who in some cases has a vote that carries more weight), owes it all to the former prime minister.
Mahathir gave them everything. He taught them how to think, how to maintain power and how to use legislation to curb dissent.
The fact that he is now in the crosshairs of his political adversaries, with an attorney-general who has been heavily criticised, a MACC which has been heavily criticised and a segment of the voting polity baying for his blood, should tell us that his lessons have been sublimated by the political elites and their followers in this country.
These totalitarian ideas of his - dressed up as economic, social and educational assistance for the community he has shown great contempt for, are the founding ideas of the “ketuanan” state and will continue until we eventually reach our destination of a theocratic state.
Mahathir was also adept at corralling non-Malay support for his odious ideas.
For decades, he made it seem that the choice of BN was the lesser of two evils, leveraging non-Malay anxiety to nurture an economic, political and social elite Malay class and creating a Malay middle class who were for the most part narcotised by religious and racial propaganda.
He can rightfully take credit for creating the Malay middle class and he can take credit for creating “Malay” citizens whose geographical location and religious leaning made it easier for them to assimilate into the Umno body politics.
Of course, these days he demurs but reality and history say otherwise.
When Mahathir came into power again with Pakatan Harapan, the same old games were being played.
We now know that poor Lim Guan Eng did not really have much say, like most of the MCA did back in the day and it was all about giving the majority community more than the minority communities and enabling Chinese plutocrats.
"We still have to give them, but what we gave to them was very small (compared to what the Malays got). But we could not say it then, because then the Chinese would be angry.” He said in an interview with Malaysiakini.
He also told Malaysiakini that the “…DAP leaders also accepted a new government policy that was slanted towards helping the Malays.”
Mahathir's ideas of power-sharing - the first ingredient spook the non-Malays and the second ingredient makes them pliable to Malay supremacy to maintain political power as defined by the non-existent social contract, which is still in play today.
Why do you think the DAP is as quiet as a church mouse? Not only have they got to contend with the remnants of Umno clinging to power, but they also have to ensure that Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is not the progressive Malay leader that Perikatan Nasional characterises him as.
‘DAP’s pledge to Anwar’
Remember the words of DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke - “So I wish to put on record, as I said just now, on Nov 22, before Anwar went to Istana Negara, I told Anwar, as long as you can be prime minister, DAP is willing to sacrifice anything, that is my commitment to Anwar.”
See that right there? Those are the magic phrases of the old maverick’s sick idea and what is happening today? The non-Malays are so afraid of the “Green Wave” that the Madani government is left unchecked to carry out policies that enable the ideas of PAS.
This is exactly what happened during Mahathir’s long watch. He allowed the Islamic bureaucracy to come into its own, establishing a state interpretation of religion which further eroded the secular and democratic norms of this country.
This is not to say that all of Mahathir's ideas were necessarily bad for the country even if they were self-serving. When Mahathir went up against the royal institution back in the day, he used the instruments of the state to make his case.
As reported by the Independent - “In the meantime, the government is waging all-out war on the rulers.
“Civil servants have been told to seek the prime minister's permission before seeing the king, state governments are under orders to refuse business favours to their rulers.
“For the past month, page two of the government-controlled New Straits Times has been devoted to the sultans’ excesses - how Sultan Ismail Petra of Kelantan, for example, imported 30 duty-free luxury cars rather than the seven allowed and how he got away from Customs officials in a Lamborghini Diablo on the pretext of test-driving it.
“The RM200 million cost of maintaining the rulers has been lavishly detailed, including the hospital wards kept for their exclusive use, and the RM9.3 million spent on new cutlery and bedspreads for the king, which the newspaper said could have built two hospitals or 46 rural clinics, or 46 primary schools.
“Religious teachers have been encouraged to comment on the un-Islamic behaviour of the supposed guardians of Islam.”
And yet these days, we actually have people who think that it is the job of the royalty to constrain political power.
You can bet your last ringgit that the political class will latch on to this as a means to stifle dissent and legitimate criticism, which is exactly the kind of ideas Mahathir promulgated back in the day when it came to manipulating the royalty.
Keep in mind the political and economic malfeasances going on during the trial of Najib Abdul Razak which were either ignored or underreported.
Why, because a large component of Mahathir's policy ideas and political manoeuvrings are based on bread and circuses. Distract the population while we pick a pocket or two.
The same thing is happening now. We have an AG who has come under severe criticism for the way how he and his department are handling cases but all this is forgotten because Daim Zainuddin and Mahathir are in his crosshairs.
Mahathir knows that the only way his ideas would ever be repudiated is by the reform and dismantling of the system he created. He knows that this will probably never happen.
It is cold comfort that it is his ideas and the system he created which are now being used against him.
S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. Fīat jūstitia ruat cælum - “Let justice be done though the heavens fall.”
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