Mahathir : Malays have lost Penang

OPINION | Mahathir : Malays have lost Penang


24 Nov 2025 • 7:00 PM MYT


TheRealNehruism
An award-winning Newswav creator, Bebas News columnist & ex-FMT columnist

Image credit: TheRealNehruism


Mahathir is out again, cranking up the “Malays are in danger” narrative.


In his latest statement, he even claims that Malays face the danger of “losing their country” because half the peninsula has supposedly slipped out of Malay ownership—urban and suburban lands, former colonial estates, luxury housing, industrial zones, theme parks, agricultural lands, mines, and even “almost the entirety of Penang.”


He further warns that Malay-majority constituencies will shrink, that Malays refuse to vote, and that Malay disunity ensures no Malay party can form a government.


Additionally, he is also claiming that the Malays have lost Penang. It used to be that he would only claim that the Malays have lost Singapore, but now I suppose he is adding Penang to the list as well.


He is also proposing to freeze Malay land sales except to Malay-controlled funds (PNB, EPF, KWAP, Tabung Haji), to use massive reserves such as Bank Negara’s RM400 billion, and to mobilise Malay institutions to restore Malay economic power.


And unsurprisingly, his solution is always the same:


The Malays must unite under one umbrella, put aside parties and NGOs, and gather beneath a single leadership “to save Tanah Melayu.”


And of course, that umbrella just happens to be the one he created — and the leader he wants Malays to unite under is himself.


And who does Mahathir think is posing a danger to the Malays? He doesn’t say, but considering that the country is basically made up of Malays and non-Malays, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out what Mahathir is dog-whistling about.



After all, it’s not like we only found out who Mahathir is yesterday. We have known him for a long time. Too long a time, if you ask me. When you know someone for as long as we have known Mahathir, you will always know what he means even if he doesn’t say it openly. When you know the person, you don’t have to investigate too much to know what is in their heart and mind — the fact that you know them means you know all that needs to be known.


Anyway, when I thought about why Mahathir keeps coming up with this “Malays are in danger” narrative, I realised that at the root of the problem is us — we are at fault for giving Mahathir power for too long. He ruled for 22 years in his first stint, and he likely did not fully retire after stepping down — instead he probably continued to wield power behind the scenes until he returned for another 22 months in 2018. Only after he was ousted in 2020 by the Sheraton Move was he truly expelled from the corridors of power.


As Lord Acton famously said: Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.


Going by Lord Acton’s wisdom, Mahathir has been holding power for so long that it is inevitable his heart and mind have been thoroughly corrupted by it.


When you have power but are not yet corrupted, you will see power as something you possess because of your abilities and practices.


You will believe that you gained power because you trained hard, gained skills, kept abreast of information, and that you are supposed to use all this to achieve something real.


But if you remain in power for too long — long after you have achieved your aims, or long after you’ve been given every opportunity to do so — you will become corrupted by power. And when you become corrupted, you stop associating your position of power with your abilities. Instead, you start associating it with yourself.


And when you associate power with yourself, you start believing you deserve to be at the top because it is your destiny to be there. That your nation or people depend on you being at the top. That if you are not at the top, they are in danger.


A sign you have been corrupted by power is when you start to conflate your own fortune or misfortune with something greater than yourself — the nation, the people, even God.


When you have power, you cannot understand why people complain that things are not well. You will insist that everything is fine because you are in power, and if anyone disagrees, it is because they are ungrateful, spiteful, or harbour ill intentions towards the nation and the people, for refusing to acknowledge all you have done for the people and the country.


Following the same logic, when you suffer misfortune or danger, you assume something greater — your entire race, nation, or even God itself — is also suffering. And then you start deluding yourself and everyone else into “saving” these things from danger, even though they might not actually be in danger at all and in truth, all that you are trying to save is yourself.


I think Mahathir has been corrupted by power, because why else would he still think he is capable of being prime minister, or that he has a role to save his race and nation, when he is so old he can’t even bend down to put on his shoes anymore?


In a video I saw not too long ago, the man can't even bend down to put on his shoes - instead he has a stick like apparatus that he uses to slip his shoes onto his foot while standing.


The only explanation for why someone who cannot even put on their shoes believes they are the best person to lead the country is that their heart and mind have been so corrupted by power that they genuinely believe they are the only one chosen by destiny to save the country and the people.


To justify why he must return to the top, Mahathir keeps coming up with all sorts of excuses — including that the Malays are in danger and on the brink of losing the country to “others.”


But while Mahathir might be crying wolf because he is equating his personal fears with the fears of the Malays, do the Malays feel the same way?


Well, I for one seriously, seriously doubt it.


The Malays today may have problems, but their problem is not that they think they are weak or facing imminent disaster. In the 60s, when Mahathir made his name, perhaps that was the sentiment — but not today.


The problem with the Malays today is not that they are losing, but that they don’t feel like they are winning.


When you feel like you are losing, you will feel that you don't have much, but what little you have - be it your dignity, land, self-respect and freedom, is being taken away from you. That might have been how Malays felt in the 60s. But that is not how they feel today.


Today, Malays do not feel like losers — they simply don’t feel like winners even though, by every measure of resources, status, titles, institutions, and wealth, they have every reason to feel like winners.


Winners always feel like they would rather be themselves than anyone else. Until you become a winner, you always want to be someone else. It is only when you win that you truly prefer to be yourself. That is why all of us want to be winners in the first place - it is because it until we believe that we are winners, we will never be comfortable being ourselves - we will always be harassed by a desire to be someone else.


There are many reasons why someone might not feel like a winner even when they technically have won — some internal, some external. But because this article is not about what it means to be a winner, and is instead about why Mahathir is crying wolf again, I will say this:


Whatever problems the Malays face today, Mahathir just doesn’t get it.


That is why when he preaches about Malays being in danger, his message will not make an impression on their hearts — any more than a warning about drowning will impress someone suffering from a broken heart on dry land.


In other words, because Mahathir doesn’t understand what Malays today are struggling with, whenever he tries to “help” them, all he will do is conflate his problems with theirs — and Malays will increasingly feel that Mahathir is only trying to help himself while claiming to help them.

***

He's NOT worried about 'Malays losing this or that'. He's worried about:

(1) His sons' future under an Anwar government,

(2) Political rule of Malaysia will oscillate for a long long time amongst Anwar's PKR, UMNO and DAP. Yes, his bete noires (and heirs) are or will be in power for a long long time, namely, Anwar, Najib, KJ, &

(3) Blardy Chinapek (including the red dot) cannot be effectively 'dhimmi-rised'