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Sunday, February 1, 2015

BOLEHLAND, the Mahathir syndrome

BOLEHLAND, the Mahathir syndrome
Just after I questioned the need for the so-called ‘moderate Malays’ to meet Mahathir Mohamad - in my view the begetter of poisonous, racist politics in Malaysia - over Najib Abdul Razak’s failure to rein in the radical forces, yet another group has courted the ‘benevolent dictator’ for its cause.
This time, it is Save Rivers, an environmental group formed to defend forests, rivers and sustainable livelihood in Sarawak. Its chairperson Peter Kallang recently invited Mahathir to speak on their behalf, and the former prime minister readily did it in a keynote speech in Kuching earlier this week, urging the Sarawak government to “rethink its controversial dam-building initiative”.
Yes, controversial is the keyword. Barely a few years before the Asian financial crisis hit Malaysia in 1997 and halted Mahathir’s hitherto uninterrupted ‘economic miracle’, the then prime minister argued for the case of the now ill-functioning Bakun Dam that would not only provide the cheapest source of energy but would also spur Malaysia’s industrialisation.
Harrison Ngau
The mega dam would involve the relocation of up to 10,000 indigenous people from the Kayan, Kenyah, Kajang, Ukit and Penan ethnic groups, and radically alter Sawarak’s ecological system including the flows of the Rajang River and destruction of rainforests. Protests by grassroots activists went largely unheeded as Malaysians indulged themselves in the economic booms of the 1990s, entrusting the megalomaniac leader to do whatever he saw fit to ‘modernize’ the nation.
Prior to that, Penan protesters who wanted to preserve their land and traditional way of life were rounded up and manhandled by the police on Mahathir’s watch. One Sawarakian campaigner for indigenous rights and rainforests, Harrison Ngau, was incarcerated under the notorious Internal Security Act in 1987, while another by the name of Anderson Mutang Urud had to flee the country in 1992 just to avoid draconian legal snares.
The Bakun Dam was suspended thanks to the financial crisis, only to be revived in 2000 as Mahathir was adamant that “money spent on pre-construction works should not be wasted”. Forced relocations and resettlements therefore continued, much to the detriment of the indigenous peoples.
On June 27, 2013, Sarawak suffered a state-wide power failure and it was attributed to, guess what, the Bakun Hydroelectric Plant!
Throughout his 22 years of excessive rule, Mahathir never stopped being fond of mega projects.
British taxpayers paid for Pergau Dam
In her last days as British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher inked an arms deal with Mahathir only after the latter had secured the Iron Lady’s consent to finance the controversial Pergau Dam in Kelantan.
To bring the word ‘Great’ back to Britain, Thatcher had always been desperate to promote British arms sales around the globe, and all that she did was to reach for the taxpayers’ money to pay for the Pergau Dam.
Tim Lankester, then permanent secretary of Britain’s Overseas Development Administration, had raised doubt over the Pergau Dam and its potential environmental impact, but his opinion was disregarded by a Thatcher-dominated cabinet.
The Pergau Dam ended up as Britain’s biggest folly in terms of foreign aid and was declared, finally and quite extraordinarily, ‘unlawful’ by the English High Court in 1994 on the grounds that “it was not of economic or humanitarian benefit to the Malaysian people”.
A waste of British taxpayers’ money, no less, but the money was by then already in the pocket of the Mahathir government and there was nothing Malaysians could have done. Or they simply did not care given the false sense of ‘economic wonders’ at the time!
The charge sheet against Mahathir in regard to environmental damage is long, yet the man has shown not even a semblance of regret or remorse. He is, of course, not always right but is never wrong!
Still, there are those who rush to have an audience with Mahathir whenever a crisis occurs, just like those who look up to him as the ‘defender’ of the secular constitution, conveniently oblivious to the fact that it was Mahathir who allowed Selangor’s Non-Islamic Religions (Control of Propagation Amongst Muslims) Enactment 1988 to be passed!
Thatcher
Moreover, Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid holds Mahathir responsible for the rise of Islamic conservatism in that it was during the Mahathir administration that the Department of Islamic Development of Malaysia, popularly as well as unpopularly known as Jakim, was placed under the Prime Minister’s Office with more powers on religious affairs!
And now the moderate and elitist Malaysians are dying for Mahathir’s advice and guidance. If this is not Stockholm Syndrome, I don’t know what is. Or we should just rename it the Mahathir Syndrome!
If things do not turn out right for the country, I earnestly hope these self-congratulatory NGO leaders would not blame the Malaysian public or the opposition for their failure to change Malaysia. They have insulted those who had suffered tremendously under Mahathir’s tyranny for their equally just causes.
After all, it is their eagerness to embrace a divisive, devious, hypocritical, authoritarian and internationally discredited Mahathir for their ‘good causes’ that is perhaps most responsible for their own failings, and it is people like them who lack the spirit of change and inspirations, not us. - M'kini

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