Mahathir remains Malaysia’s biggest liability

Mahathir created a culture of fear, criminalised our freedom of expression and planted fear among Malays

COMMENT

By Tajuddin Rosli

He (Mahathir) is the father of all this in Malaysia and for him to stand in public and complain about the lack of freedom of speech or democracy is really unacceptable.He should just be quiet and apologise for what he has done”-Human Rights Watch Asia Director Brad Adams-

I have been voicing my opinions for many months and have to thank media portals like Malaysiakini, Free Malaysia Today and Malaysia Today for unbiasedly publishing them. In many of my articles I have voiced my personal opinions about Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad who is undoubtedly the reason Malaysia is pedaling backwards.

Despite me clarifying my stand before, I still receive emails ridiculing me for speaking against Mahathir. I read comments by esteemed readers saying it is no use attacking Mahathir now. Some even claim I am a Barisan Nasional cybertrooper to counter Mahathir. It is up to the individual what he/she wants to believe.

The current Generation Y is pro e-media based. They do not read hard copy publications like most of us from the older generation. Many are oblivious to the past and are only interested in the current situation. The past is important because it teaches us not to repeat previous mistakes. A famous English philosopher come historian Robin George Collingwood once said, “History is for human self-knowledge … The only clue to what man can do is what man has done. The value of history, then, is that it teaches us what man has done and thus what man is.”

When Mahathir tried to selfishly use dissatisfied Malaysians to push for the resignation of Najib Tun Razak, he was hailed as a national saviour. The younger generation who have only read biased reports where Mahathir is portrayed as more beautiful than Mona Lisa worries me. To them, Mahathir is only linked to the modernisation of Malaysia. They have no clue about Umno Baru. They have no idea how Mahathir diminished the judiciary’s powers. They are misinformed on how Mahathir destroyed multi-racial peace and unity. They are ignorant about how Mahathir spearheaded ethnic cleansing in both the civil and education sector.

It is equally worrying that the Opposition seemed poised to shake hands with Mahathir at one point in time. I, for one, was not going to sit back and see that 90-year old manipulating people in order to command power once again. Therefore, I voiced my opinions on e-media since it is probably is the best way to reach out to the younger generation.

The younger generation who are fully immersed in their e-world do not know how wonderful it was to be able to sit in a restaurant with people from different ethnicities speaking a common language and laughing-out-loud. It was not a problem if I sat in a Chinese non-halal restaurant drinking cina teh panas while my non-Muslim friends who consumed alcoholic beverages. We could openly joke about one another’s religion and it was never blown out of proportion. National sports teams had a good mix of ethnicities that were selected on merit and skills and not on skin colour. I still remember many Indian heads of departments in the civil service who were impeccable in how they carried out their duties. There was no clocking in for one another or multiple tea breaks during working hours. Phone calls to government offices were attended to immediately and misplaced documents were almost unheard of. What a wonderful time my generation had.

When did it all come to an end? The beginning of the end was when Mahathir became Prime Minister. Mahathir created a culture of fear and criminalised our freedom of expression. He mutated the Malay gene and planted the fear that non-Muslims were out to rob them of their rights. He removed the ‘mak’ (from mamak) and replaced it with ‘lay’ making people believe he is Malay.

Some people say Mahathir is probably repenting by trying to correct the messy state of the country today. Has Mahathir ever apologized for his wrongdoings? Till today Mahathir says Umno must remain in power forever and calls for Muhyiddin Yassin to replace Najib as Prime Minister. Is he really penitent or is he restructuring so he and his family can remain in power to call the shots? People applaud Marina Mahathir for speaking up on human rights. Has she ever condemned her father for what Malaysia is today?

Today the international non-governmental organisation Human Rights Watch has come out condemning Mahathir. They probably can foresee his intentions too but, unfortunately, many Malaysians can’t.

Malaysia does not need another Mahathir regime. As Winston Churchill once said, “Those who failed to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

Tajuddin Rosli is a FMT reader