Musa: Mahathir trained followers, not leaders

Dr M's former deputy says Vision 2020 'falling apart bit by bit with alarming speed'.

PETALING JAYA: Mahathir Mohamad’s Vision 2020 is falling apart “bit by bit but with alarming speed” because he failed to train leaders, Dr Mahathir’s former deputy, Musa Hitam, said last night.

He said Dr Mahathir had undermined the ideals of the visionary programme by removing potential leaders and training followers.

His remarks were made in a speech at a commemoration of the birthday of the late Tunku Abdul Rahman, the first prime minister of Malaya and Malaysia held by the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs.

“It is ironical that Dr Mahathir’s vision is now certain to fail because of Dr Mahathir himself,” Musa said, quoted by Malay Mail Online.

He said that despite Mahathir’s brilliance, “he forgot that in order to succeed, he needed to train leaders at all levels, most importantly, political leaders. But his personal leadership record shows that he did away with all potential leaders, one by one and in groups, and retained and trained followers.”

Musa himself was the earliest casualty of Mahathir’s leadership. He resigned as deputy prime minister and teamed up with Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah in an attempt to unseat Mahathir as Umno president, which failed by a narrow margin.

That leadership struggle led to Umno being deregistered and being reborn as Umno (Baru) while Tengku Razaleigh went into opposition for a spell.

Anwar Ibrahim was the second deputy prime minister to fall out with Dr Mahathir. His sacking in 1999 led to the Reformasi movement calling for Mahathir to be ousted and eventually to the formation of a united opposition front and Pakatan Rakyat.

Dr Mahathir was later to undermine his successor Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who took over in 2004, and the political in-fighting led to Pakatan Rakyat’s success in the 2008 and 2013 general elections.

He has since been engaged in a year-long campaign to unseat Najib Razak, who became prime minister in 2009 when Abdullah resigned under pressure.

Musa said it was “mostly these trained followers” now at the helm today. “These trained followers are dedicated and loyal to whoever sits at the very top,” he said.

The government in power did not seem concerned about the state of affairs, and Vision 2020 was falling apart with only four years left to achieve the goal of becoming a developed nation, he said.

He accused government leaders of being more concerned with security, by making threats about tighter controls on free speech and the press, with some measures even considered constitutionally questionable.

He did not give specific examples of these controls, however, in recent months there has been an outcry about provisions in the National Security Council Bill and Sedition Act, and proposed amendments to the Official Secrets Act.

Such controls would only allow autocrats to thrive, and “the ugly head of dictatorship appears” when a leader imposes himself and demands unquestioning loyalty accompanied by loss of respect of good governance, human rights and the rule of law, without consideration of the people’s welfare.