Caught out by the Net

But that’s Dr Mahathir for you. He could say almost directly contradicting things and get away with it. But that was then. Today, we live in an information age where the Internet is not censored thanks to Dr Mahathir, which is another ironic thing. Precisely because the Internet is not filtered, we have bloggers and online media highlighting the contradictions in what he says.

Oon Yeoh, The Sun

IT HAS always been remarkable to me how former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad can say one thing one moment and another the next. He did it throughout his time as prime minister and he is doing it now.

I recall how once he told a Chinese crowd how the Federal Constitution does not specify the race of the prime minister and he could envision one day a Chinese person becoming the prime minister. Of course he got a hearty round of applause from the audience. A short while later while addressing a Malay crowd he said the government will never concede an inch on Malay rights.

A newspaper editor I was talking to at that time remarked what a remarkable gap it was between saying that you can envision a Chinese politician becoming prime minister and that you will not concede an inch on Malay rights.

But that’s Dr Mahathir for you. He could say almost directly contradicting things and get away with it. But that was then. Today, we live in an information age where the Internet is not censored thanks to Dr Mahathir, which is another ironic thing. Precisely because the Internet is not filtered, we have bloggers and online media highlighting the contradictions in what he says.

Let’s look at some of his recent comments. He told an audience earlier this month at a talk entitled "Malay race and the future" at the Tun Hussein Onn Memorial that "Peninsular Malaysia was known as Tanah Melayu but this cannot be said because it will be considered racist."

Of course he said it anyway, and added: "We must be sincere and accept that the country is Tanah Melayu."

Less than two weeks later, he told Siti Nurhaliza in a televised interview that he would place racial equality on top of his list of priorities to develop the country if he were given a second shot at running the country.

For decades, he has been railing against the Malays for relying too much on the government, for adopting a rentier philosophy and for quickly selling shares allotted to them through the NEP. Recently, he did it again. "They receive approved permits and sell it, they are awarded contracts, they sell it. Quick gains don’t last. Whose fault is it? It is ours," he said this month in a speech at a symposium about the Malay dilemma.

Yet, in the very same breath he warns against scaling back the NEP. Never mind that it was supposed to end in 1990. He thinks it needs to continue despite the abuses and the problems associated with it.

And for good measure, at that symposium, Dr Mahathir reasserted his comments about Tanah Melayu, saying, "We had willingly changed the name of our country, the Persekutuan Tanah Melayu to Malaysia, and no one is thankful that we had done so for their interests."

In a new book published about Dr Mahathir, he is quoted as saying he spoke with opposition leaders before the notorious Operasi Lallang was carried out and assured them they would not be detained. He also said it was the police who ordered the ISA detentions.

When opposition leaders like Lim Kit Siang and Karpal Singh rebutted his assertions, Dr Mahathir said he could not quite remember who was there. "It happened over 20 years ago," he said. "I met them but I cannot remember the faces of those people."

He also asked the opposition members who were there to own up and admit they were there.

This is classic Mahathir but unlike the time when he was prime minister, today there are blogs, social media and online news portals ready to analyse his statements. Perhaps this is something Dr Mahathir should realise and consider before making more statements.