Can a leader be unpredictable yet principled?
Amanah vice-president Mujahid Yusof Rawa (photo, above), who is the federal minister for Islamic affairs, raised this proposition while commenting on word from the grapevine that PAS and Umno were in talks with Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad on a possible tie-up.
Dr M is, of course, the leader of the ruling Pakatan Harapan government which unseated Umno-BN in the GE14 on May 9, 2018.
In the run-up to the election, PAS declined to condemn the ruling regime's perceived corruption while disdaining collaboration with Harapan. PAS wanted to go it alone and did.
Most commentators attribute Harapan's improbable victory to voter disgust at the pervasive corruption of the incumbents.
Generally, it is agreed the Malaysian electorate wanted change and reform after 61-years of BN rule.
Running into GE14, Umno-BN represented the corrupt status quo; Harapan exuded change and reform; while PAS was neither here nor there.
Harapan won and duly undertook the task of reform with a sense of new-broomism.
After a bright start, Harapan proceeded to equivocate in the face of the forces of reaction, made U-turns to placate them, and pleaded with disgruntled supporters for time to implement the loftier goals of their reform agenda.
But after 20 months of Harapan rule, it is generally agreed that the process of wide-ranging institutional and political reform promised in the GE14 Harapan manifesto has stalled.
Who is responsible for the stall?
This question is pertinent and demands a straightforward answer but is best answered by analogy.
A French general was once tactlessly asked, after a famous victory, if it hadn't really been won by his second-in-command.
“Maybe so,” he replied. “But one thing is certain: if the battle had been lost, I would have lost it.”
Mujahid's assertion that Mahathir is unpredictable yet principled is more graphically seen in the context of a situation in which Mujahid had placed himself.
Was Mujahid being unpredictable yet principled when in September 2018 he pronounced controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik “unsuitable” for proselytising work in Malaysia and followed up that opinion, in March 2019, with an embrace of the preacher and a compliment to his “inspirational” preaching?
Many would insist in the instance of his about-face on Zakir, that Mujahid was being unpredictable and unprincipled.
No doubt Mujahid would disagree. He seemed earnest in the incomprehension of his contradictions exposed when he faced an unceremonious inquisition of his stances on the BBC programme, Hardtalk, in November last year.
Redoubtable interviewer Zeinab Badawi had Mujahid writhing in a hopeless attempt to justify positions he had adopted concerning Zakir and on the LGBT question.
Zeinab punched holes in Mujahid's reasoning that one wondered about the wisdom of the minister's decision to accept to be interviewed on the programme in the first place.
Mujahid discovered that an earnest manner is no substitute for clear and substantive reasoning aided by lucid articulation.
In like vein, Mujahid is earnest in his belief that Dr M is principled even if unpredictable.
If to Mujahid the preacher Zakir is “unsuitable” for the work of proselytisation in a multi-racial and multi-religious society like Malaysia, and yet is regarded by the minister as “inspirational”, then it isn't such a stretch for Mujahid to regard Mahathir as principled, his unpredictability regardless.
To be principled it's axiomatic one has to be consistent. Unpredictability is an attribute of the inconsistent.
Once, in response to a critic of his, Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz, who on the particular occasion had described Mahathir as the “biggest racist” around, Mahathir pointed out that it was the pot calling the kettle black because Nazri belonged to a race-based party, Umno.
Dr M has a ready explanation for his willingness to talk with anyone who presumably wants to talk to him.
“I talk to everyone,” he rationalises, in response to speculation about his meetings with leaders from PAS and Umno.
If as Shafee Abdullah, leading counsel to former premier Najib Abdul Razak in his current legal quandaries, is to be believed, Mahathir has even talked with the convicted killer of Altantuya Shaariibuu, presently resident in Kajang prison, though the PM has dismissed this speculation.
But the speculation does indeed show his willingness to engage with all-comers.
Doesn't such indiscrimination stem from want of principle?
TERENCE NETTO has been a journalist for more than four decades. - Mkini
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