Dr Mahathir and his mouth — Greg War

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad seems to think that Malaysians are still intellectually backward and unable to read. In today’s Malaysia where one has access to immediate news from the Internet, the rakyat are not easily fooled.

Still, some of his public statements have been downright shocking, leaving the rakyat revolted in disbelief and protest. Every time he opens his mouth these days he seems either to spew out venom or spew out lies and hatred. He is a man of 88 but he has not lost any of his vengeful leanings.

Even after retirement, Dr Mahathir’s speeches have continued to stink of racism and his thoughts seem bizarre for an experienced former head of government. Is he sensationalising just to grab the headlines from Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak or is he rooting for someone else?

Dr Mahathir conned three generations of Malaysians and kept them in check with his various laws to silence them. One would imagine that after having governed the country for 22 years and having enriched many around him, he would be content to rest on his laurels (sic) and spend some quality time with his grandchildren.

But no. One of his latest targets was the venerable Bapa Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman. Readers will perhaps remember Dr Mahathir’s poison letter against Tunku for which Dr Mahathir was kicked out of Umno. Dr Mahathir never forgot that. Lately when Dr Mahathir was implicated in the Project IC scandal he said Tunku had done something even worse. He blamed Tunku for granting citizenship to Indians and Chinese at the advent of independence. Later he implicated his favourite bogeyman, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, saying that it was Anwar who was responsible for the whole of Project IC.

When everyone, including some from the BN, were condemning Ibrahim Ali for advocating the burning of bibles containing the word “Allah”, Dr M came to Ibrahim’s defence, stating that the Perkasa leader did not mean any malice in his call but was only saying that since those books were supposedly banned, it was all right to burn them.

His latest vitriol is against Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan. Reportedly, he said the government needs to amend the constitution if it wants to strip off the citizenship of lawyers, such as Bersih co-chair Ambiga, who go against the government. Therefore the people must vote in the BN with a two-thirds majority. Desperate election stunt?

The rakyat are not swallowing meekly all that Dr Mahathir is spewing out. One only has to read the online media comments of readers to understand how fed up and tired we have become of his inane rants, both in his blog as well as in the media. Even the son of one his staunch supporters — S. Vell Paari, MIC strategist and son of Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu — let out a tirade against Dr Mahathir. But Dr Mahathir seems to go on and on and on like a broken record. — aliran.com

* Greg War is an Aliran member based in Penang.