‘Mahathir, you have not triumphed’

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad may have been aiming 'a tad too high' when he likened himself with 'dictators' such as Mubarak, Hitler, Marcos and Gaddafi.

COMMENT

“Saya ingin tahu daripada pelawat ke blog saya tentang apakah yang saya telah lakukan semasa saya menjadi Perdana Menteri Malaysia yang menjadi bukti bahawa saya adalah seorang Diktator.” – Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Mahathir in his posting ‘Diktator’ recently asked readers of his blog Che Det, (of which this writer is one) for reasons why he has been unceremoniously dubbed a dictator.

He mentions Mubarak, Hitler, Marcos, Ceausescu, Mussolini, Gaddaffi and Saddam Hussein – all dictators of ill repute, notorious and certainly of dubious prominence but may I humbly suggest to Tun Mahathir that maybe he might be aiming a tad too high when linking himself to these dictators.

Any one of them would easily rate a mention in the top 20 dictators in our lifetime.

Unfortunately Mahathir may, at most, be mentioned as a dictator by the DAP Rocket and few other bloggers.

He flatters himself by thinking that he is in their company. These days he does seem bothered about what people write about him…visions of mortality perhaps.

Let’s start from the beginning – from the time when he was a doctor and had to have the biggest car around and a Chinese driver!

Right from that time in his life Mahathir was already into making it known that he could afford a big car and a Chinese driver!

But then as now, who really cares?

His next memorable work was the writing of his book the Malay Dilemma – and we know what that was all about.

Insecure Mahathir
Then as Minister of Education, the changes he made to our education system has had adverse ramifications until today for the Malays and for all Malaysians.

My first memory of Mahathir’s time as Prime Minister was his insistence that all government servants use a name tag.

Who can forget that Lat cartoon about that civil servant with a name tag right across his chest!

I mention all this because it gives us an idea of what kind of person this Mahathir is.

A very insecure little man who seeks attention and recognition from others with grand empty supercilious gesture that falls short of any real substance.

There are always a few of these ‘Walter Mitty’ types in our midst.

A Walter Mitty is “an ordinary, often ineffectual person who indulges in fantastic daydreams of personal triumphs”

Our tragedy is that this ordinary, ineffectual person who indulges in fantastic daydreams of personal triumphs became our Prime Minister!

He had grand designs.

This ‘almost a Malay’ used the most fundamental tools – education and all government machinery under his control – to try and establish ‘his’ Malay race as the first amongst equals in our nation.

Ustaz Reduan Tee said even as a Chinese, he stills champions the Malay!

Mahathir, an ‘almost Malay’
The irony of it all must have not been lost on Mahathir because we have this ‘almost a Malay’ not championing his people from Kerala but the Malays because he now becomes part of the ‘Tuans’ in Malaysia.

This daydream of his never became a reality as evident in the situation the Malays find themselves in today – never an equal among the other races and always the ‘Johnny-come-lately’ behind the Chinese.

But it did okay for Mahathir, his family and his cronies. They are rich beyond their dreams – at our expense.

For Mahathir,  his family and his cronies are the proof that his grand design for Ketuanan Melayu has been achieved!  Yes it has Tun Mahathir but at whose expense?

This 13th GE will be a defining moment in our nation but it has a historical before and after.

Umno is now facing the real possibility of defeat at the polls and this is because of the historical before!

The ‘historical before’ of what 22 years of Mahathir rule has turned Umno and Barisan Nasional into – a corrupt, arrogant and isolated political entity that is unable to understand the aspiration of its own people.

The ‘historical after’ is what we are trying to achieve with Pakatan Rakyat – change for the better.

Mahathir still clueless
Even in his heroic daydreams, Mitty does not triumph, several fantasies being interrupted before the final one sees Mitty dying bravely in front of a firing squad.

And all of them have faced their personal firing squad in one form or another. None of them died bravely!

You are in the midst of being blind folded and about to be taken to meet your firing squad – though like your Diktator article indicated, you are NOT going bravely – still protesting your innocence, still clueless of what and why you are about to be sentenced for.

And you’re obviously still wanting assurance from the people that you have indeed triumphed in your personal daydreams. Tun Mahathir you have not triumphed.

Mahathir, while you see Putrajaya, Twin Towers, the North South Highway, KLIA, Petronas Twin Towers as massive business opportunities given to the Malaysian businessmen and it is your legacies to our nation – we see waste, costs overruns, massive debts and mismanagement of our resources and wealth to benefit your family, your cronies and Barisan Nasional.

While you see 22 years of political stability, we see the misuse and abuse of every imaginable public and government apparatus for the benefit of your political agenda to keep you in power for that 22 years.

And we all, together with Umno, now have to live with the consequences of that selfish 22 years that kept you in power.

It will take a long time before our society deals with these failures. Because your government failed, we the people have had to take the initiative of making these changes ourselves.

You used race and religion to divide and rule our people.

CT Ali is a reformist who believes in Pakatan Rakyat’s ideologies. He is a FMT columnist.