On the cusp of GE-13, is Mahathir trying to make a political comeback?

For those who are not interested in politics, it would be wise to remember that just because you don't take an interest in politics, it doesn't mean that politics won't take an interest in you!

Whatever the outcome of the 13th general election, the result will affect the daily life of all Malaysians. It will affect the lives of the unborn who are due to inherit our sky-high national debt and the other burdens placed on our society. Even the dead will not be spared. Some pundits even say the dead will be restless and many will squirm in their graves too.

Why such a doomsday prediction? Isn't GE-13 just another ballot, another decision by Malaysians on whom they want to lead the country for the next 5 years? Well, yes and o. Yes, because this is the fact of what an election is about. No, because Umno-BN, the only federal government we have known for the past 55 years, has given warning that it will not cede power no matter what the GE-13 results show!

Such is the arrogance of the current Umno-BN government led by Prime Minister Najib Razak. But Malaysians cannot live in fear all their lives. So let Najib and Mahathir Mohamad, the ham-fisted former premier, do their worst and learn for themselves the bitter lessons of Egypt's Mubarak and Libya's Gadaffi.

Mahathir wants to ensure the 'pirate ship' stays afloat

At the end of the day, it is all about politics. And self-preservation. This is why Mahathir - at 86 years of age - is still firing salvos every other week despite having retired and is not holding any government posts anymore . From taking on Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim and accusing him of being part of a Jewish and US plot to topple the Umno-led BN government, to disallowing Najib from taking part in a public debate with Anwar on the state of the economy and nation, to defending his economic 'brainchild' like Proton and why the MAS-AirAsia share swap was not a bailout, Mahathir gave his take on life as he saw it.

Not surprising that talk began to float around that Mahathir was considering making a political comeback, so high was the profile that he had begun to assume. It is no secret that he wants his youngest son Mukhriz to become prime minister after Najib, but the reality is that the politically immature Mukhriz, the Jerlun MP, is far from ready. And Mahathir knows it. Scarce of talent Umno might be, but Mukhriz would still need to be marinated a while more before he can be fast-tracked into the party's top-tier leadership.

Najib is not doing too well either. In fact, Najib is probably the worst-ever prime minister Malaysia ever had. Yet, Mahathir cannot criticize or scold him publicly. After all, he was the one who picked Najib to succeed Abdullah Badawi and he was also the one who picked Badawi to succeed himself. Although later on, Mahathir publicly attacked Badawi, claiming that he had made a bad mistake in picking his successor, it won't look good if he made the same mistake twice in a row. Not all complimentary to his abilities.

Maybe that is what sparked the speculation that a fed-up Mahathir was trying to make a comeback. His own son was not ready, Najib badly under-performing but there was no else to pass the baton to except Muhyiddin Yassin, the stodgy and less than satisfactory deputy prime minister and current Umno No.2. Perhaps this is why Mahathir decided to test the waters and gauge for himself his own chances of making a comeback. And the results must have been a blow because in the past 2 weeks, he has been subdued, retreating into a shell.

Eyes wide open now

The said truth for Mahathir is that Malaysia no longer likes him. They have not only fallen out of love with him, they cannot even understand or recall why they ever though he was so great. Indeed, looking back at Mahathir's 22-year rule, it is like a bad dream. Malaysians could only think of saying 'yes' to him. They surrendered their intellectual capabilities to him, to his "otak intan berlian" (diamond brain). But those days have gone and Mahathir is in real danger of being remembered as a dictator and racist, who jailed and persecuted his political rivals, schemed and maneuvered his way around Umno and most of all, plundered the national coffers mercilessly.

Some say Mahathir not only wanted to save Umno from being trounced at GE-13, he was also trying to salvage his 'legacy'. But both are likely to be out of his reach. Despite releasing his autobiography amid a grand fanfare of publicity, Malaysians will remember him as they wish to remember him and not how he wishes they would remember him.

Saving Umno is way beyond Mahathir's capability now. The party has grown out of hand. It is now an uncontrollable beast and this is due in large part to his own policies, where to stay in political power, he had propagated the worst sort of racial bigotry, implementing policies to prop up the Malays and sideline the other ethnic groups. Umno, the swollen-headed pirate ship, is now sinking on the weight of its own corruption, dishonesty, ignorance, backwardness and political incest.

For example, no young Malay of any worth and talent has risen through its ranks in the past 5 years. They are not allowed to, or how else can Mukhriz, or Najib's cousin Hishammuddin Hussein guarantee themselves the premiership when it is time for Najib to go? Umno remains a closed-door elitist party that depends on the rural Malay folk for its support, taking everything from them and from the non-Malays as well, and giving peanuts in return.

Sharp decline

In the past 3 months, Umno's decline has been apparent for all to see. It has been on a long-term downtrend but the cancer eating away at it can no longer be hidden. Like the Titanic, the pirate ship Umno has already tilted - its nose in the air and bottom already submerged. Self-appointed admiral Mahathir is still trying to steer it to safety, but what good can spinning the wheel do when the ship is not able to respond because it is no longer fully afloat.

Mahathir may be willing to be the target of every arrow fired at Umno, and in fact is the magnet attracting the most attacks. He may offer himself to be the diversion, the punching bag for Umno critics but it won't set the fallen Umno upright again. Trying to deflect all the bad press for Najib won't work either. It is as futile as the efforts by the Umno media in trying to impress upon the people that while Mahathir, Umno and BN are rotten to the core, Najib is still a white knight in shinning armor and the best bet still for Malaysia.

Why has Mahathir failed to convince the people that Najib is better than Anwar Ibrahim? The answer is simple and Mahathir - as a man of reasonable intellect despite a shocking ignorance in economic matters - should know. It is simply because Najib is anything but honorable. He comes with as much baggage as Mahathir although in the wealth accumulation department he lags far behind Mahathir, who remains the champion with 22 years of near dictatorial rule under his belt. But then Najib has scandals that Mahathir never had. Such as the Port Dickson affair with a songstress and the beautiful 28-year-old Altantuya Shaariibuu, who was murdered in a Selangor jungle clearing in 2006.

Responsibility or protecting Umno's way of life - corruption!

Some diehard Mahathir loyalists say he is well aware of Najib's weaknesses but he has no choice. He has to accept Najib along with the rest of Malaysia because he wants to be accountable to all his cronies who have helped him through the decades. But this explanation, this "sense of responsibility" is horrifying to Malaysians. Young and old, Malaysians are fed of the current system where corruption rules all levels of the government. How many Malaysians have never experienced being stopped by a grubby traffic cop for the smallest misdemeanor and asked to cough up a RM50 bribe or get a RM300 summons?

What about the string of deals that the Najib administration has pushed out in recent weeks? Was this Najib's way of appeasing and staying on the good side of Mahathir, who can still inflict severe political damage to Najib if he wants to. The 60-year RM7.1 billion West Coast Expressway toll concession, the Kidex highway, the RM8.5billion acquisition of power assets belonging to Ananda Krishnan by national fund 1MDB are but just a few of the most recent examples. What kind of "responsibility" is this? Who does Mahathir feel the most responsible to -  the nation, his cronies or party Umno?

Comeback 'kid'

Come what may, Tun won't give up, Mahathir's supporters also say. And this true. Mahathir has that sort of stubborn streak in him. Since his legacy is being torn to shreds and with the present situation in Umno uncertain, with no strong leader in sight, Mahathir may feel he doesn't have any choice but to make a political comeback.

But to be frank, he hated leaving the political limelight in the first place and fought every move by his successors to change or even adapt his past policies in any way. Woe betide those who did, like Khairy Jamaluddin, Badawi's son-in-law and the Umno Youth chief who until now has to sit on the political cold bench until Mahathir forgives him.

But for any comeback plan to succeed, Mahathir knows he needs another platform to help jack him back to the top. He knows he cannot do it alone. This is where Perkasa comes in. Recently, Mahathir held a closed door meeting with the Malay rights group to ostensibly discuss Malay matters. Also invited was the notoriously bigoted chief cleric of Perak, Harussani Zakaria, and other conservative pillars of the Malay community.

Perkasa has in recent weeks also expressed support for Najib's 1Malaysia, but make no mistake, its loyalties are firmly with Mahathir, who is after all its patron. Perkasa's role will be to help garner support for Mahathir from 'like-minded' Malays who want to ensure Malay supremacy and Umno's policies of racial favoritism continue unchecked in Malaysia.

A time gone by

But there is no place in Umno for Mahathir anymore. Those who are in the party, especially the younger faces and hopefuls won’t let Mahathir have another chance to head the party. After all, they know he won't give them the same chance either. Everyone understands that Mahathir wants to save Umno for himself, his cronies and of course, his son Mukhriz. No way, Mahathir will go to so much trouble and then let anyone win the Umno presidency by merit or by free and fair party polls. He might as well not bother.

The sad fact for Mahathir and his supporters is that they have had their golden opportunity and maximized their chances too. Cronies Vincent Tan and Ananda are on the Forbes list of the world's richest men. So are 2 of Mahathir's own sons. Their time is now over. The new hopefuls will prefer to support Najib as it is now their turn to control the gold mines.

Najib too is aware of what Mahathir is trying to do. No doubt, with the power of the PM's office behind him, Najib can always create some scene to stunt Mahathir’s effort but unless Mahathir exposes his deep dark secrets, Najib knows it will be more beneficial to stay on good terms with the older man. Hence, the slew of deals. As they say, money makes money.

Checkmate

As for Mahathir, after all the effort in getting the Special Branch to accumulate the dossier on Najib, he is now finding that he can't use it after all. To do so would immediately kill of Najib's chances. It would make Umno's loss in GE-13 a certainty. That would be the worst scenario for Mahathir. The Pakatan Rakyat led by Anwar Ibrahim have already promised full-scale probes to recover the RM1 trillion in illicit outflows siphoned from the country if they are elected to power.

So it is checkmate for Mahathir. Not only is Father Time not on his side, his own carefully-planned political 'insurance' is not paying the dividends he had hoped to reap. Whatever that he tries to do now is too little and too late. Mahathir now can only have regrets and denials. He knows that his time is past and he is just trying his best to do that he can with whatever remnants of strength and power he still has.

The most bitter pill of all is that after 22 years of service, he does not enjoy the good thoughts and opinion of his countrymen. They don't think well of him. Maybe this because he was never interested in them and didn't give much thought to their well-being. Almost everything he did was with an ulterior purpose, a goal that could benefit himself, his politics, his family or his cronies.

This then is Mahathir on the cusp on the 13th general election, a ballot which could well see a historic change in regime and open up Malaysians to the new world that Mahathir refused to envisioned. If only he had, perhaps Malaysians would then remember him more kindly than they are wont to now.

Malaysia Chronicle