We have to clean Mahathir’s mess

Today, the mess which Dr Mahathir started has created a nightmare for Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak; but Najib is out of his depth as leader.

COMMENT

Very few homes have a plumbing system as efficient as Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s memory, which can turn on and off like a hot water tap.

On Feb 25, Mahathir denied claims that he had influenced Petronas to award contracts to any of his children. He subsequently turned his ire on Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim, his former deputy, and accused him of nepotism and cronyism.

“Anwar Ibrahim accused me, as Petronas advisor, of having been involved in awarding Petronas contracts to my children. For Anwar, this is a normal practice if he’s in power. When he held the post of deputy prime minister and finance minister, he awarded so many contracts to his political supporters and family members.”

Are we to understand that Mahathir did not give his friends, Ananda Krishnan, Syed al-Bukhary and Vincent Tan a leg up in the business world of Malaysia?

Mahathir wrote in his blog that “The ministry, during an Umno assembly, had presented the names of those awarded with contracts during his tenure. Included in the list were the names of Anwar’s supporters and family members. None of my children’s names were ever listed.”

Why is Mahathir claiming the moral high ground now that his nightmarish legacy has been exposed? If the allegations are true, why did he, as PM at the time, not put a stop to such practices?

Mahathir claimed that he was kept out of the decision making process and said that he only knew about the Petronas contracts after they had been awarded. He expressed his willingness to swear in a mosque and on the Quran.

People should not belittle the religion by swearing on the Quran. Swearing on the Quran proves nothing. Only those without a conscience would propose such acts. Or was Mahathir simply playing to the crowd and appealing to the most simple minded, conservative Muslims?

Soon after the Sabah Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) started, Mahathir told a press conference that he had offered citizenship to illegal immigrants in exchange for their voting rights.

The outrage of the rakyat forced him into a corner and he tried to blame the Tunku Abdul Rahman. One of the criteria which the British imposed, in exchange for independence, was that all Malayans who were in the country should be given citizenship.

Tunku did not give citizenship it for votes; Mahathir did. Tunku played by the rules; Mahathir observes no rules but invents them according to his whim.

Sociopathic disorder

Mahathir then tried to blame Anwar for ‘Project M’, claiming that Anwar had acted on his own.

Everyone else, but Mahathir is responsible. Perhaps, this is a sign of a deep-seated sociopathic disorder.

Yesterday, a former ISA detainee and Umno member, Siti Aminah Mahmud told reporters that she had volunteered to help the late Sabah Umno chief Mustapha Harun secure victory for Umno, in Sabah.

Mustapha had allegedly told her that he was ordered by Mahathir to issue ICs to village chiefs throughout Sabah who would give them to Filipinos and Indonesians.

According to Siti, documents were processed within a month after she had collected information and fingerprints from remote villages, where she would also distribute and collect forms for the National Registration Department.

Over a four year period, 1990 to 1994, she was sometimes in Sabah twice a week for this task and according to her, no less than half a million foreigners had been processed. Another unsettling detail was that none of the 100 people with whom she worked, were NRD staff.

She said, “The areas with the highest numbers were Tawau, Sandakan, Lahad Datu and Kota Kinabalu, as well as areas at the Tawau-Indonesia border. Another area was Semporna. Many were given there because many Filipinos were there.”

Today, the mess which Mahathir started has created a nightmare for Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak; but Najib is out of his depth as leader.

His government deported one lone Australian senator, Nick Xenophon because he was “a threat to national security” but welcomed 100 armed and uniformed militants into Sabah.

In his blog, Mahathir compared the treatment Xenophon received with the reception a variety of despots might receive in America.

He wrote “Incidentally President Mugabe of Zimbabwe and President Bashir of Sudan would be arrested if they were to visit the US… What happened to YB Xenophon of Australia is nothing.”

Mugabe is Mahathir’s good friend and they have much in common – democracy, fair play and justice are not high on the list of their priorities. Bashir is wanted for crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes, in Darfur. Who needs enemies with friends like Mugabe and Bashir?

Yesterday, the Sulu militants who are holed-up in Lahad Datu fired warning shots. The wife of the Sulu sultan claimed that the men were there for a picnic. Were they hunting game?

Lahad Datu takeover

Perkasa and the usual men who prance about showing off their silat skills during Umno conferences are strangely silent. Is it because the invaders are Muslim and considered “friendly”?

Does this mean that Talibans or other militant Muslims from Africa or Yemen would also be welcome here?

Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein looks comical, wearing wrap-around shades, peering through long lens binoculars.

He looks like he is twitching (bird-watching). The non-existent leadership of the Defence minister, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, is proof to Umno Perak, that he is not capable of being Menteri Besar, a post he once coveted.

Umno regularly goes shopping for expensive armaments, which the country does not need. These armaments are so expensive, because the inflated commissions are needed to fund the Umno election war-chest.

If we buy sophisticated weaponry, we must be prepared to spend a large amount of money on spare parts and maintenance. Unfortunately, we have a varied arsenal from a multitude of countries. This presents a logistical nightmare to those who must maintain the weaponry.

On Feb 15, a lift in one of the 10 storey apartment blocks at the Lumut naval base plunged to the ground killing a housewife. If a lift can fail, despite many safety features, the maintenance of the weaponry will also have been slap-dash.

Perhaps, a lack of spare parts and maintenance prevented the state-of-the-art ships, submarines and jets from detecting a few speed boats in the Sulu “invasion”.

Almost every other week, we hear of buildings and structures collapsing despite a premium price being charged for their construction.

GE-13 is your chance to stop the carve-up of the country before there is nothing left, upon which to rebuild Malaysia.

Mariam Mokhtar is a FMT columnist.