GIVING MAHATHIR THE SAME OLD ROPE TO HANG MALAYSIA: NO, DR M HAS NOT CHANGED – AND NO ONE TO BLAME BUT THOSE WHO DARE NOT CHECK HIM

‘Are we going to give him more leeway to do more of the same? We deserve better.’

We thought they were different, rues Ambiga

Sinar Belawan: Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin has expressed that he is concerned over the rising sentiments regarding race, religion and royalty (3R).

According to Muhyiddin, police data showed that the number of incidents involving 3R issues has doubled since the beginning of this year compared to last year.

Former Bar Council chairperson Ambiga Sreenevasan, your friends in Bersih are in power now, and you are close to the family of the prime minister – Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali and Marina Mahathir.

You should not just moan about these matters to the media. Do something with your powerful friends on the 3R and the economy, too.

Anonymous_807520: There is no one shared vision for the country. Rather, there are several different versions of Malaysia. The starkest one being the PAS-Umno variety and its antithesis shared essentially by non-Malays and some moderate Malays.

Once, there was a single vision. Just go back to the days of Tunku Abdul Rahman. Not to indulge in nostalgia but to those values seen in shared lives back then. Dare we resurrect this and inculcate them into our schools and workplaces?

We saw a glimmer of this during GE14, full of hope and promise. We pined for it. We grasped it but it is now slipping away. This is a struggle for the Malaysian soul.

Over 60 years of nation-building and we have seen different versions of Malaysia. One of exclusiveness and the other, inclusiveness. The fate of a nation lies with its leaders. We rise or fall with our leaders.

Evin K: The leaders of Pakatan Harapan were driven by love prior to GE14.

They used to love the rakyat, people of all races and colour, creeds and background, and they used to preach a more inclusive and harmonious Malaysia.

Now that they’re in power, they are no longer driven by love. They are driven by fear. They fear to lose the power they have more than anything in the world.

One only fears the things they don’t understand. It is apparent that Harapan no longer understands the rakyat.

Capo: Ambiga, we are in this sorry state of affairs because the prime minister has hijacked the multiracial and multicultural spirit of Harapan and turned it into a racist cocoon of his own.

A place where racists, hate preachers and extremists are put on a pedestal over its own citizens.

Ambiga, weren’t you one of those who chided PKR leader Rafizi Ramli for speaking up against Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad for appointing ministerial positions without consultation and consensus from all parties in Harapan?

Even if it is the prime minister’s prerogative, he must be reminded that he is not the president of Umno anymore, where he is used to bulldozing everything.

The shutting down of voices of dissent, together with Harapan parties giving him too much freedom, have emboldened Mahathir to act unilaterally and dictatorially in all matters of national importance.

He interprets rule of law according to his whims and fancies and overrides the police even before they can complete their investigations. He is what he is because we allowed him to do so.

Are we going to give him more leeway to do more of the same? We deserve better.

Vijay47: Ambiga, your thoughts on hope, expectations and reality for Malaysia are truths that all of us subscribe to. But my response for now will be on an issue that can be described as trivial, even frivolous.

You spoke of coming together to celebrate our Merdeka and Malaysia Day. Let me share my sentiments.

Last year, about three months after that fateful date May 9, a day I now regard as accursed, I went out and bought a national flag for the first time in my life.

I then flew that flag on a tall pole fixed to my gate’s pillar, just like many of my neighbours. The flag flying high was a sight that touched me with various arousing emotions – elation, hope, pride – and at the glorious change heading our way.

The surprise today is not that these beliefs of optimism seem to have disappeared but the speed at which our prime minister achieved this collapse. After all of his pious preaching and promises, we never reckoned with what really lay beneath his visage of benevolence.

He led us away from Umno and in its place, he installed Bersatu. People like Syed Sadiq Syed Abdul Rahman don’t really matter as he is a little boy who believes he has grown up and matured just because he prowls with more seasoned and cunning politicians.

And this year? My flag lies forsaken and hidden somewhere in my storeroom. After all that Mahathir and Bersatu wreaked on us, I will not be flying that flag. The sky in my neighbourhood looks so empty.

Athena: @Vijay47, “…the speed at which our prime minister achieved this collapse.”

Exactly! That was our biggest mistake. I still remember how he used Bersih 5 and others to win our hearts. Now, it’s very obvious it was a means to an end.

That authoritarian and autocrat has truly not changed one bit. The only difference is that his fangs are not as sharp.

Ipoh PP: Yes, I will not be flying the flag too as long as this old fox who took us all for a ride is around.

We were taken in by his tears and pleas to save the nation. Today, he is his old self. Swimming in the slime and dirt of racial and religious intolerance.

Why else would he be in the company of rabble-rousers and money launderers? As for the young fellow, Syed Sadiq, it is said that a man’s character is measured by the company he keeps.

Anonymous_1527925538: Ambiga is wrong. They are politicians.

As politicians, they just cannot ignore political reality and majority sentiments and thus needs to balance the fine line of doing the right thing and the popular thing.

Multi Racial: We certainly don’t want PAS and Umno as they can only move Malaysia backwards.

Harapan started with promises and after 15 months, we are disappointed with many of their ministers. Many are still talking about race and not about what is good for Malaysians and Malaysia.

For a short moment, we thought Mahathir will be different this time. But he is still the same person who screwed up our nation in his 22-year-rule.

We thought this time with God giving him a second chance, he would right all the wrongs that he has done, considering his current age, and certainly should not be ambitious for another term. We are wrong.

Mahathir is no statesman. He publicly cried when he said the affirmative policy failed and made Malays lazy. Yet he continued to insist for the affirmative action policy to be continued. He not only allowed a racist preacher to divide our country but also publicly supported him.

We hope people like Ambiga, Zaid Ibrahim and many other moderate leaders who will come together to stand as a third force if Harapan refuses to change its position.

Rzee: Ambiga, you are wrong to say it’s only one man, Zakir Naik, dampening the Merdeka and Malaysia spirit.

It is this other man, and the leaders who support him, and the thousands who think that this one man is right.

MKINI