Mahathir should beware: karma does exist

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Dr Mahathir Mohamad was once very much in control of the government but is now on the opposite bench with the mammoth task of upsetting the ruling coalition.

By Karamjit Gill

Most people have heard one version or another of the following quote: “Remember, what you do now will come back and haunt you in the future. Life has a funny way of making you deal with what you make others go through.”

The provisional deregistration of PPBM comes as a firm reminder that karma exists. In his book “Government and Society in Malaysia”, Australian political science scholar and author Harold Crouch revisited the birth of Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s Umno Baru.

During Umno’s constitutional crisis in the late 80s, a new party called Umno Malaysia was formed under the leadership of the late Tunku Abdul Rahman with his deputy being the late Tun Hussein Onn. However, the Registrar of Societies (RoS) rejected the application for the party’s formation. Tunku and Hussein formed an alliance to go against Mahathir for his ill demeanour. The RoS is part of the home ministry, and Mahathir was the minister then. As with everything else, if asked, Mahathir would of course deny his involvement in pulling the brakes on Umno Malaysia.

A leading Asean commentary site, Asean Today, has drawn similarities between the happenings to Mahathir today with Tunku between 1987-1990. According to the analogy, what Mahathir did to Tunku has come back to haunt him. Despite being in poor health and confined to a wheelchair, Tunku travelled the country with a determination to stop Mahathir. Tunku, too, gave scathing interviews to foreign media, very much like Mahathir in recent times.

Tunku wrote in a highly influential weekly column, “As I See It”, in The Star newspaper. He often criticised Mahathir and his authoritarian mannerism. Following Mahathir’s Ops Lalang in 1987, the publishing permits of three newspapers were revoked, The Star being one of them. Six months later when The Star was permitted re-publication, the sitting government led by Mahathir allegedly gave strict orders to discontinue Tunku’s column.

Mahathir was also known as a global “ambassador” for election rigging during his time. From Project IC to gerrymandering, Mahathir violated every rule in the book to continue his tyranny. Despite street demonstrations and rallies across the country, the opposition could only shed tears. Presently, Mahathir is on the opposite bench with the mammoth task of upsetting the governing coalition.

Mahathir relied on Malay supremacy and used favouring the Chinese community as an excuse to force Tunku to resign. Tunku’s fairness towards all races was cunningly centrifuged to form a toxic poison. Today, Mahathir is heavily relying on the same Chinese community for support.

Macroscopically, the Chinese seem to be rallying behind him, but only the election results will reveal the true story. Analysis of the Teluk Intan (42% Chinese voters) and Sungai Besar (31% Chinese voters) by-elections showed that some of the Chinese votes swung back to Barisan Nasional (BN). In East Malaysia, Sarawak elections painted a similar picture.

Mahathir is still bent on carrying out his race-based policies by even having a specific section in the election manifesto to woo the Indians. Recently, an international research firm, Fitch Group, gave the manifesto a thumbs down. Selangor state government think tank Darul Ehsan Institute (IDE) also recently stated that the manifesto does not seem to wield any influence on voters. Furthermore, the Indian section of the manifesto received flak for copying the Malaysian Indian Blueprint (MIB) of the BN federal government.

Samy Vellu was blamed for the travesties endured by the Indian community, which is wholeheartedly accepted by Pakatan Harapan and its supporters. Meanwhile, when Najib said he was unaware of the 1MDB dealings and operations, people went ape.

History is the best teacher. Errors of the past are the wisdom and success of tomorrow. Malaysia’s father of independence passed on at the age of 87, with Mahathir very much in control of the government.

But do as you might, one cannot go against the law of nature.

Karamjit Gill is an FMT reader.