MAHATHIR, A DEFLATED BALL, TRYING TO SAVE HIS TUN-SHIP

Mahathir and family are currently in Phuket, Thailand, to discuss their next move. They know it is game over for them and Najib is going to remain Prime Minister. But they still need to figure out how to save Mahathir’s Tun-ship, which he will lose once he is charged for a crime.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

While Malaysians are enjoying Hari Raya and are making their rounds at open houses, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his family are behind closed doors in Phuket, Thailand, embroiled in a family conference of sorts. They arrived by private jet (like how they always travel) and are staying at…well that is for me to know and for you to find out (after all Phuket is not really that huge an island)

Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali, Mahathir’s wife, called for this family powwow to discuss how to salvage whatever little the husband has left after the disaster of trying to oust Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak. Siti Hasmah has accepted the reality that Mahathir has lost and she wants the family to explore where they go from here.

How ironical that just a year ago in July they were flying high and were celebrating what they thought was the imminent ‘death’ of the Prime Minister. And today, not only are they no longer flying high, but the main focus of the Phuket conference is about how to help Mahathir crawl out of the hole that he has found himself in, before he gets covered and buried for good.

Mahathir has finally, although reluctantly, accepted the fact that he has lost this game of thrones. In spite of the odds and the surety of the Anti-Najib Campaign (ANC) that Najib will not survive July 2015, let alone be around to celebrate Christmas last year, Mahathir cannot deny that it is game over, real and truly over.

Mahathir has no more goodwill left. And neither do his children. So it all boils down to the matriarch of the family, Siti Hasmah, to embark upon damage control and not allow the entire family to burn into ashes. And this is why she called for the meeting in Phuket.

Mahathir is going to be charged for a couple of crimes. Everyone knows this and it is no longer a question of if but when. The main preoccupation now is not whether Najib will survive until 2018, or whether he can be toppled before then, but what is going to now happen to Mahathir.

They do not need to discuss whether Najib can survive. They need to discuss whether Mahathir can survive.

At first they thought Mahathir was going to be charged and would be sent to jail if found guilty. Now they realise that jailing Mahathir is not at the top of Najib’s priority list. Mahathir is already a spent force so why the need to jail him? As ex-Deputy Prime Minister Musa Hitam once said, there is nothing to gain in kicking a deflated ball (because it cannot go far) — and Mahathir is just that, a deflated ball.

Mahathir, in fact, does not fear jail (well, at least that is what he tells us although I have heard otherwise). He knows he does not have long to live so how long can you jail him for? And if he dies in jail he can be declared a martyr, just like Mahatma Gandhi, and this would help strengthen the ANC.

But Najib is not stupid as to put Mahathir in jail and turn him into a martyr, which will be playing into the old man’s hands. All Najib needs to do is to hit Mahathir where it hurts most, and that would be to take away his Tun-ship.

To Mahathir, what is more important than money — and when you have RM1 billion who the hell needs to worry about money? — would be his name, status, position, etc. So his Tun-ship means everything to him.

However, once Mahathir is charged for a crime or a couple of crimes, then his Tun-ship will be lost and Mahathir will be reduced to an orang biasa. Then his VVIP status would disappear and he can no longer throw his weight around like he was one of Malaysia’s ten monarchs. Mahathir would no longer be a Maha-Mahathir but just an Encik Mahathir.

Siti Hasmah would not be affected, though, because the Tun-ship belongs to her and she is nottompanging on Mahathir’s Tun-ship. But it would be demeaning for Mahathir and the family if he had totompang on his wife’s Tun-ship to continue using the VVIP lane.

So that is what today’s meeting in Phuket is all about. It is about how to save Mahathir’s Tun-ship and what they would need to do to help save it. Will Siti Hasmah request a meeting with Najib and plead for the Prime Minister to not take away the last thing that Mahathir has, his Tun-ship?

When Anwar Ibrahim was arrested in 1998, Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail went to meet Siti Hasmah to plead for her help. Unfortunately, Siti Hsmah was not able to help Wan Azizah. Maybe Siti Hasmah will have better luck than Wan Azizah had when she goes to meet Najib to ask for his help.