The Reason For Mahathir’s Disgust With The Malays

To understand Mahathir, you need to look at what he said over 50 years from 1968 to 2018. And what he has been saying is more or less consistent although he uses a different language at different times. Mahathir’s message is there must be a united Malay under one master, not Malays split into Umno, PKR, PAS, PPBM, and Amanah. And PPBM is going to be that party which unites Umno, PKR, PAS, PPBM, and Amanah under one umbrella.

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Raja Petra Kamarudin

Some say Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s disgust with Singapore is because in his university days he was treated as Indian and not Malay and hence was regarded as a third-class citizen. At least as a Malay he would be regarded as second-class and not third-class. To Mahathir, the Singapore Chinese, or Chinese in general, are mothers of all racists.

That sort of explains why until today Mahathir hates Singapore with an obsession and passion. It is almost like how the Armenians feel about the Turks, until today.

However, Mahathir feels that part of the problem is the Malays themselves. The reason the Chinese look down on the Malays — not only in Singapore but in Malaysia as well — is due to the attitude and behaviour of the Malays.

‘The Malay Dilemma’ is an anti-Malay book, not an anti-Chinese book

Some Malaysians — probably less than one million out of 33 million Malaysians — may have read Mahathir’s infamous book, ‘The Malay Dilemma’, published in 1970, one year after ‘May 13’. Chinese and Indians would point to that book as ‘evidence’ that Mahathir is a racist or anti-Chinese.

The truth is, Mahathir’s book ‘The Malay Dilemma’ is not anti-Chinese. It is anti-Malay. Mahathir was not criticising the Chinese, like many may have interpreted the book. Mahathir was criticising the Malays. He does not hate the Chinese for looking down on the Malays. He hates the Malays for what they have allowed themselves to become.

Actually, to be fair to Mahathir, he is not a racist or anti-Chinese. He is just anti anyone and everyone who is not Mahathir. Mahathir is pro-Mahathir and that is that. Other than that, he is anti-anyone else — Jews, Americans, Australians, Arabs. You name it, he is anti it. And, more importantly, he is anti-Malay.

The Semangat 46, DAP and PBS Gagasan Rakyat alliance in 1990 (and the separate APU alliance with PAS) posed a serious threat to Umno and Barisan Nasional that delayed the termination of the NEP post-1990 

In his book ‘The Malay Dilemma’, Mahathir attacks the Malays, not the Chinese. Not long after he became the prime minister in 1981, he called the Malays for a meeting (I was in that meeting) and he told the Malays that the New Economic Policy (NEP) was going to end in 1990, which was just eight years away.

Ready or not the Malays were going to be thrown into the deep end of the pool. So they had just eight years to learn how to swim, or drown, because the government was not going to throw them a life vest after 1990.

Three years later, the 1985 recession hit the world. Another three years on, Semangat 46 was launched to challenge Umno’s monopoly over the Malay vote. In the 1990 general election, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, together with PAS, showed Mahathir (and Umno) that they cannot take the Malays for granted. They needed to earn the Malay support because the Malays now have alternatives such as Semangat 46 and PAS.

Semangat 46 would have replaced Umno if Mahathir had ended the NEP in 1990

Because of the 1985 recession, 1988 split in Umno, and the touch-and-go 1990 general election, Mahathir had to abandon the plan to end the NEP after 1990. If Umno cannot show the Malays it is the defender of the Malays (rights, language, religion, and the monarchy) then the Malays might as well abandon Umno and go ‘alternative’.

At the end of the day, as much as Mahathir may have had his own ideas of how the Malays should be nurtured, he still had to bend to the ‘market demand’ and play whatever card he was handed to secure the Malay vote. And that included extending the NEP till this present day.

But today Mahathir no longer needs Umno. He has PPBM. Hence does he still need to continue with his ‘pro-Malay’ policies? Mahathir may no longer need Umno. In fact, Umno may no longer be relevant. But PPBM is merely another Umno with a different name (just like Umno Baru in 1988 was Umno ‘Lama’ with another name). So it is still business as usual.

PPBM has no choice but to be another Umno if it wants Malay support

From 2006 to 2008, Mahathir travelled the whole of Malaysia to give talks. He gave the same speech everywhere he went (I attended all of them) but the gist of what he said is Malays are always being colonised since the beginning of time. And they will call the colonialists ‘Tuan’, whether it is the Siamese, Portuguese, Dutch, British, Japanese or whoever.

Mahathir said Malays are hamba di negeri sendiri (slaves in their own land). And this is so because the Malays are never united. If the Malays do not unite, they are going to lose their land to the foreign powers.

In 2013, Mahathir attacked Najib Tun Razak and accused him of neglecting the Malays and of wasting time with the Chinese who are never going to support Umno never mind what you do for them. Umno’s support base are the Malays, Mahathir argued.

Yes, to understand Mahathir, you need to look at what he said over 50 years from 1968 to 2018. And what he has been saying is more or less consistent although he uses a different language at different times. Mahathir’s message is there must be a united Malay under one master, not Malays split into Umno, PKR, PAS, PPBM, and Amanah. And PPBM is going to be that party which unites Umno, PKR, PAS, PPBM, and Amanah under one umbrella.