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Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Mahathir and Malaysia’s State of Confusion


dr_mahathir_mohamad65
Mahathir is a master in creating state of confusion. We have seen him at it during his time serving as prime minister and even so now. As an example, not too long ago, the man had criticized the party that he himself created (Umno Baru) and used to lead, saying that it is rotten to the core. He also once declared that the government is corrupt from top to bottom.
Django Setemolya, Malaysian Digest   
Our most beloved and hated prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad recently said that Umno needs more intellectuals and professionals as its members. I can’t agree more to his obvious observation. In fact, I’ve mentioned this years ago when I highlighted the difference between Umno and the Opposition. To recall the article, I said most that make up the opposition are intellectuals and activists in non-governmental organizations while most in Umno are opportunists and capitalists. 
Our longest-serving premier also said on the same day that it is difficult to predict the results of the coming general election due to the rather confusing prevailing situation.

"What is certain, it won't be easy for BN to get two-thirds majority this time. The opposition now is not like that of the past, and the current situation is rather confusing," said the former premier.

Mahathir is a master in creating state of confusion. We have seen him at it during his time serving as prime minister and even so now. As an example, not too long ago, the man had criticized the party that he himself created (Umno Baru) and used to lead, saying that it is rotten to the core. He also once declared that the government is corrupt from top to bottom. On top of that, according to Raja Petra Kamarudin, Mahathir had launched Anything But Umno (ABU) after having quit Umno during the time when his successor Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (whom he himself picked and later heavily criticized by the way) was prime minister.

Kind of think about it, Mahathir is the source of this whole confusion. After all, our opposition leader was also created (and broken) by him. The whole Umno (Baru) culture now that people are not too happy about has everything to do with him too. 

To add to this confusion, lately he’s been singing praises about the same party which he said not too long ago is rotten to the core. 

I actually can’t remember if I had ever written anything dissing Mahathir. People who may hate me for this are the very people who can’t see why many Malaysians, especially opposition leaders, blame Mahathir for a lot of things that are not so right in this country. Either that or they owe Mahathir a favor, or their lives, even. To be fair, I know Mahathir have also been a good Samaritan to a lot of people who had seek help from him and even those who hadn’t. 

It’s actually not hard to argue about The Doctor in the House’s contribution to the country especially now that he is no longer prime minister and have no control of the media (and the police and the legislation for that matter). To those who love him so much, I just need to ask one thing: what has he done for the country? The first thing that comes to mind would unfailingly be the Petronas Twin Towers. Then I would ask them how this twin towers have helped Malaysians. There’s usually a long pause after this though I know they want to say those two buildings have helped put Malaysia on the map. This is when I tell them: how have these former tallest buildings in the world helped in reducing poverty? (another long pause). Then I go into whether it has improved education, our quality of life, cost of living, human rights laws, racial harmony, crime rates etc. They usually get frustrated by this time.

mahathir_mohamad
Don’t get me wrong, not everything Mahathir had done is bad. The problem is we didn’t see it because all we’ve been seeing during Mahathir’s administration from 1981 to 2003 are the good things. On top of the tight control over media and dissent, we never really get to see the ugly side of the government during the Doctor’s rule as the internet was still relatively new and not as popular and accessible as it is now. 

As with most cases, Mahathir was very noble in his early days when he was a doctor providing his services for free and on credit. The problem is he ruled for too long (22 years) and he became shrewder with time. We’ve seen what happened to other dictators like Muammar Gaddafi who started out as a venerable and valiant leader. As they say, power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely. Having said that, our Father of Modernization also deserves the title of ‘The Most Cunning Prime Minister’ we have ever had.

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