Harapan is too pusillanimous to sack Mahathir

“Sometimes we have to do a thing in order to find out the reason for it. Sometimes our actions are questions, not answers.”

― John le Carré, A Perfect Spy

The prime minister’s casual dare to anyone in his coalition to sack him further demonstrates how “running dog” Pakatan Harapan is when it comes to challenging the prime minister. 

Dr Mahathir Mohamad knows that nobody in Harapan will pick up that gauntlet besides a few “Chinese” politicians who would no doubt be vilified for doing so.

Even more important is that no Malay political operative in the coalition would even consider such a play because to do so would invite the wrath of the Malay political establishment. Any challenge to Mahathir always came from the Malay establishment and the most notable, because of its political terrain shifting, was PKR leader Anwar Ibrahim.

The fact that the prime minister can say this when there really has been no real challenge to him is demonstrative of how unstable Harapan is. But what more noteworthy is that the old maverick understands nobody in Harapan wants to rock his boat. Cowardice sold as pragmatism is what the Harapan government is all about, especially when faced by acolytes of the fascist state.

And when the prime minister has the backing of the opposition, Harapan partisans should understand how screwed they are when it comes to ministerial accountability and transparency. Not to mention policymaking.

Mind you, I don’t think losing a by-election warrants sacking but let us face facts, there is conduct that warrants censure of some kind if the Harapan political operatives had any scrotal fortitude.

DAP strategist Liew Chin Tong got it wrong in his recent public comments about the internal politics of Harapan when he says, “We might as well accept the fact that this is a Mahathir-Anwar government, as much as it is an Anwar-Mahathir government.”

Firstly, there is no evidence that Anwar has any role in this government beyond being some sort of spare heir and this is in rhetoric only. I would argue that his role does not even amount to some sort of lady in waiting in Mahathir’s court. Indeed Anwar is there mostly to give hope to some Harapan partisans that there may be a transition of power.

Secondly, has there ever been a time when Mahathir shared power? This goes way beyond the realities of political power brokers influencing government but rather the notion that Mahathir has never considered the agenda of anyone but himself.

Another interesting point that Liew made - well, interesting for me at least as he couches it in middle ground terms when it is anything but – is this one, “we need both Mahathir and Anwar to consolidate our nascent democracy”.

First of all, we are not a “nascent” democracy. The reality is that we have been holding elections and the majority of the voting public voted in successive BN governments. The reality is that when DAP was the opposition before it hooked up with Malay power brokers, the Chinese community were not voting for them. When Mahathir was accused of heading a kleptocracy and described as a dictator, the majority of the electorate still voted for him. 

Even PAS was part of the anti-BN movement (although not aligned with DAP until much later) and they were also part of the democratic process. I would argue that their early Mahafiraun narrative was perhaps the best propaganda they came up with, and it is really pathetic to see PAS snuggled between the old maverick and Umno.

Indeed, the Tanjung Piai by-election demonstrates how challenging it is facing a hostile electorate when it comes to the democratic process. Hence, this idea that Mahathir and Anwar are consolidating our nascent democracy is ludicrous.

Secondly, since we are not a “nascent” democracy what Mahathir and Anwar really are there for is to consolidate the Malay vote. This was the reason why Anwar, DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang, Amanah chief Mohamad Sabu and the propagandists of Harapan claimed was the reason why an alliance was formed with Bersatu and Mahathir, right?

'Middle ground'

What I want to know is whether Mahathir and Anwar were really capable of consolidating the Malay vote. Mahathir went to the dignity forum to demonstrate that he was still the Malay uber alles prime minister he always claimed to be. This certainly riled up Chinese voters in Tanjung Piai but meant very little to the Malay voters he was supposed to secure.

Outlier political pundits are still debating if Mahathir was even needed to put the coup de grâce on the Najib Abdul Razak regime. There was a significant portion of the Malay electorate who just had enough of the excesses of the Najib regime and would swing to Harapan even without the old maverick.

Meanwhile, Anwar still struggles with the Malay demographic because of the hatchet job his former Umno comrades did on him. His compromise with the old maverick just makes him look weak, as does the pleas that his supporters should be patient and that he will become the next prime minister.

When people see this kind of behaviour, they see weakness. They see a ruler who did not take power but begged for it. The reality is that this is the kind of majority electorate that was created through the religion, education and bureaucratic indoctrination programmes. All this was done during the watch of two men who Liew claims are needed to consolidate our nascent democracy.

As far as the “middle ground” nonsense is concerned, I think this is just another red herring. You cannot market progressive ideas as moderate, especially when you are up against a fascist coalition which you are attempting to differentiate yourself from. People need to know what makes you different, for better or worse, and understand the kind of change you are going to bring to the table.

Harapan will never sack Mahathir. I doubt if Anwar will even make an audacious play for the post of top job. I don’t blame him. It did not work out that well for him the first time he attempted it.

I guess what that elderly Chinese man in Liew's blog post really believes is that Mahathir's running dog will eventually be put down by votes from an angry public. And remember folks, Mahathir would "choose" Umno if its reputation was not in the crapper, which is strange because to any objective person Umno's ideology is toxic even without Najib and Co. 

But then again, so is any race-based party. That’s democracy for you.

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S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. A retired barrister-at-law, he is one of the founding members of Persatuan Patriot Kebangsaan. - Mkini