Mahathir, a destructive force? Please think again

By Rais Hussin

Tun Dr Mahathir has been described by Mohd Zuhdi of PAS as nothing less than the proverbial bull in the china shop. According to Zuhdi, one of the five tembikais in PAS’ central policy committee who has urged party president Hadi Awang to sever all ties with Pakatan Harapan, Mahathir is the personification of all that is destructive about current Malaysia.

Zuhdi is one of the infamous five tembikais – green (PAS) outside, but very very red (Umno) inside – while the other four are Ahmad Samsuri, Nik Abduh Nik Aziz, Nasrudin Tantawi and Khairuddin Takiri. Of course, lurking behind them is Nasharuddin Mat Isa, who is the specific link to Umno.

Now let us go back to Zuhdi’s lunatic fairy tales. How did the cost of living begin? Mahathir is to be blamed, as he first introduced the policy of privatisation, Zuhdi argued, not without a dash of polemics. With privatisation, according to Zuhdi, came all the ills of a private economy where the cost of living spiralled out of control.

And how did Malaysia become a country that neglected its agricultural base? Again, Mahathir is to be blamed, as he introduced a policy of industrialisation that led to the marginalisation of the agricultural sector, hence transforming Malaysia into a country that is lopsided.

Instead of having a strong agricultural sector, Malaysia is trapped in a state where our industrialisation simply cannot rival or compete with China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan or South Korea. Malaysia, in other words, has backed itself into a corner because of Mahathir.

But Zuhdi also argued that had the language of Malay been given more prominence, Malaysia would have prospered, too. Yet, such an assertion must seem strange as the digital economy is completely run in English. How can more Malay – rather than English – help Malaysia become the centre of industrial prowess? Even the sultan of Johor has called for a return to the medium of English to keep pace with globalisation. Is Zuhdi trying to challenge the sultan of Johor, too?

Indeed, how did Malaysian roads become all clogged and congested? Well, the blame again went to Mahathir, as he was the one who introduced the national automobile policy where Proton Saga was first rebadged and created with the help of Mitsubishi. Now, if the national car industry never began in the first place, how did Proton Saga create the necessary skill sets to allow Perodua to prosper as one of the top car manufacturers in the country? In fact, quite a large number of PAS members are likely to drive a Perodua or Kancil. And, when they do, they can also prosper in their respective jobs and businesses as both models are more fuel efficient.

Now, had Zuhdi been given more time to focus on the ills of Malaysia, including the poor performance of the Malaysian national football team, surely he would have said that Mahathir did not create enough football fields to allow young Malaysian talents to rise to the fore. Perhaps Zuhdi could have said that the sepak takraw teams in Malaysia lost to Myanmar and Thailand since Mahathir does not play the game, either.

Further, if the focus had been on the failure of Malaysia to convert Cyberjaya into a first-rate information technology corridor, the blame would have been laid on the distance of Cyberjaya from the city centre. In other words, there is no end to the laments of Zuhdi, as his goal is to disparage everything about Mahathir – in order to consolidate the electoral pact of PAS and Umno, a strategy that he conceived with the goal of perpetuating the joint hegemony of PAS and Umno.

The fact is Zuhdi has perfected the art of seeing a glass as perpetually half-empty, if not completely cracked and leaking. Yet, Malaysia is leaky, and leaking precisely due to massive and monumental corruption, malfeasance and abuse of power at the top, allegedly cascading from Umno, which PAS now seeks to collaborate with. The PAS-Umno collaboration is no longer a secret relationship – it is an open and audacious relationship, using religion and race to further divide Malaysians through fear tactics.

A case of selective amnesia

This is where one’s rebuttal of Zuhdi must begin. First, where was Zuhdi when the corruption cases in Malaysia went from millions to billions as was the case with 1MDB and Felda? Each year, Malaysia needs a RM9 billion subsidy from the government to keep the prices of Malaysian goods in stable order.

Maybe this is RM9 billion that could be saved further at the expense of the people. But the alleged corruption and mismanagement of 1MDB under the tenure of Prime Minister Najib Razak has robbed the country of close to RM42 billion and counting. That’s the equivalent of nearly eight years of subsidies that could otherwise be used to defray the rising cost of living. Why is Zuhdi quiet on this? Selective amnesia, perhaps.

And how long has Najib been in power? Since April 3, 2009. From 2009-2017, which is a mere eight and a half years, the cost of living in Malaysia has shot up, while the income of the country has remained perpetually stagnant, thus reducing immensely the disposable income of the people. Why is Zuhdi quiet on this? Selective amnesia, perhaps.

Now, does one go back in time to blame Mahathir for his tenure from 1981-2003, when there was only one mild recession in 1984 when the prices of rubber and tin crashed across the world, or does one blame the current prime minister who has chaired an economy whose cost of living has been increasing painfully during exactly the same period in which Najib has been its leader? Why is Zuhdi quiet on this? Selective amnesia, perhaps.

Of course, the blame falls on Najib. Over the course of the last eight and a half years, he has come up with template after template, each of which has failed. To begin with, there is no Bumiputera Empowerment Fund that can help the Malays credibly. If there was, the funds in Tabung Haji, Mara, Felda, and the army veterans associations would have seen an increase. Yet, a lot of Malays have remained weak and paltry.

Secondly, one hardly hears of 1Malaysia anymore, let alone Kedai 1Malaysia. Or 1Malaysia clinics. Kedai 1Malaysia has been found to sell goods that are more expensive than mom and pop shops.

Thirdly, the so-called National Economic Transformation model has lost its traction. Pemandu, which is supposed to spearhead the reform of the Malaysian government, came up with a slew of key performance indicators (KPIs) where added meetings and trips abroad were all counted as added productivity to Malaysia, not wastage.

This transformation is nothing but transformation using exciting decks of PowerPoint presentations that help camouflage the facts instead of telling them. It is just a “PowerPoint” Transformation model that focuses primarily on telling “narratives” to help prop up Najib. Nothing less, nothing more.

Fourthly, the Blue Ocean Strategy has become a sea of red ink. The listing of Felda Global Ventures has collapsed. Non-core businesses like properties in London and Australia have had to be sold off in order to cover the embarrassment of former chairman Isa Samad, who is under investigation for corrupt practices. Why is Zuhdi quiet on this? Selective amnesia, perhaps.

Even Malaysia’s public finances are in severe shape. 84% of the government’s spending in 2018 is listed as operational expenditure, whereas 16% is dedicated to the development expenditure of the 14 states in Malaysia.

Of the 16%, more than a quarter, according to Budget 2018, is corralled and given to the gargantuan Prime Minister’s Office and Department. How can Malaysia avoid the ignominy of what economists at Khazanah Malaysia called the “middle-income trap”, if each state will receive less than 1% of the development expenditure? Why is Zuhdi quiet on this? Selective amnesia, perhaps.

In fact, Zuhdi claims that power was concentrated in the hands of Mahathir when he was Malaysia’s fourth prime minister. Now, if the finances of Najib’s budget are so tight – and they are tight to the point of ridiculousness – then Najib is the one who has mismanaged the economy and further tightened the money so that the state is left with crumbs. Why is Zuhdi quiet on this? Selective amnesia, perhaps.

Instead, over the last 8.5 years, it is the federal government that has received the lion’s share of each national budget, regardless of whether other states can survive or not. Not surprisingly, even the annual budget of USM in Penang is bigger than the entire budget of the Penang government! Why is Zuhdi quiet on this? Selective amnesia, perhaps.

When the Penang government was unable to raise sufficient development expenditure from the federal government, it had to privatise its economy too – a template deployed by Mahathir once to relieve the pressure on the fiscal crisis of the government.

More importantly, over the last three years, the value of the ringgit has lost more than 22% under Najib, and close to RM161 billion in Bank Negara. If such a huge amount disappears into thin air, one of the important factors must be due to the corruption of Malaysia that makes the politics of the country unstable, eroding the confidence in the ringgit as alluded to by the former Bank Negara governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz when she said the 1MDB issue must be resolved credibly to regain confidence in the ringgit. This is as sentiments play a big role in the ringgit value, apart from the economic fundamentals. Why is Zuhdi quiet on this? Selective amnesia, perhaps.

Foreign direct investors have never seen it attractive to invest in a country where the yield of the currency begins with a deficit of 22% per ringgit.

Finally, Zuhdi claims that Mahahtir will destroy the country. If Mahathir could destroy the country, why was it during his time that one saw the creation of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC), the KL Twin Towers, the KL Towers, the North-South PLUS Highway, the development of Putrajaya as the new federal government centre, the Penang bridge, MRTs and LRTs, and a growth rate that prior to the Asian financial crisis had been close to a clip of 8%-10% each year, leading Mahathir to believe in 1990 that if the country had continued at such a trajectory, especially 7.5%, Malaysia would become a developed economy by 2020? And factually so. Of course, under Najib, the dream is dashed. Perhaps forever, if nothing credible is done. Why is Zuhdi quiet on this? Selective amnesia, perhaps.

Instead, Umno under Najib has failed to achieved the target of 2020, and is now pushing it back to 2050 – a full delay of 30 years. Doesn’t this suggest that Umno and Barisan Nasional have had to start over? That they have failed in their policies from 2009 onwards? Why is Zuhdi quiet on this? Selective amnesia, perhaps.

Now, why should the people give Umno or Najib the chance to govern the country for another 30 years, when Mahathir had improved the country during his 22 years in power? Why is Zuhdi quiet on this? Selective amnesia, perhaps.

As Mahathir is known to have said: “During my time, I won five elections, all of which with a 2/3 majority.”

One wonders if Najib and Barisan Nasional can win even 1/3 of the seats in a serious reversal of fortunes. One must add that it was during Mahathir’s time that Malaysians of all backgrounds truly believed in the concept of “Malaysia Boleh”.

Under Najib, however, as Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said, “Satu Malaysia” has effectively become “Sapu Malaysia”. Zuhdi, sadly, believes that there is nothing wrong with the latter, and that PAS should still be in league with Umno. Can it be that Zuhdi is a believer in “Samun Malaysia” (Let’s rob Malaysia clean)? If not, why is he more Catholic than the pope, as the saying goes?

God save Malaysia.

Rais Hussin is a PPBM supreme council member. He also heads the Policy and Strategy Bureau of PPBM. -FMT