YOU HAVE TO GIVE MAHATHIR ‘G’ FOR GUTS – EVEN THOUGH ‘D’ MAY BE FOR ‘DANCING DICTATOR’: SAD TO SAY, GETTING OUT ON A HIGH NOTE IS THE BEST MOVE WHETHER ‘RONGGENG’ OR ‘JOGET’ – TIME IS RUNNING OUT NOT ONLY FOR HIM AT AGE 94 BUT ALSO FOR MALAYSIA, AGED 62 & STILL IN KINDERGARTEN

As a politician, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (pic) has never been known to dance to anyone else’s tune. But with a question mark still looming over the timing of the country’s leadership transition, fans and detractors are closely watching his every move for clues on how and when the handover will happen.

NO Malay politician, regardless of which Malay-based party they are from, would dare to dance the ronggeng in public as it would be regarded as politically and religiously incorrect.

It has long been frowned upon by the conservatives.

That wasn’t all. The event held over last weekend, with the theme Pesta Ronggeng, was organised to raise funds for Sisters in Islam.

 The outspoken SIS, which champions the rights of Muslim women within the framework of Islam and universal human rights, has long been a massive headache for Islamist groups.

Most of the time, these groups, unable to rebut convincingly the arguments put forward by SIS, choose the easier way out – by branding the movement “liberal”, a word that has become a crime for no good reason.

The presence of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was a boost to the event organisers but it was the viral video of the Prime Minister and his daughter, Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir, dancing away, that set tongues wagging.

Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali also took to the stage to entertain guests with two pieces on her violin.

At the time of writing, none of the PAS leaders – fond of labelling their political rivals as infidels and would have poured scorn on such a haram party – have made a squeak.

It does help to be an elder as Dr Mahathir couldn’t care less what conservative Muslims would say about him.

PAS, in any case, wants him to stay till he is 98, since the next general election is due in 2023.

So, let’s close an eye to a little merrymaking between father and daughter.

For one night, the guests were thrilled to go beyond the usual poco poco line dancing, which seems to be the “limit line” for most Muslims, including the royalty, who love to dance.

Meanwhile, as former (and even present) political nemeses from Umno, PAS and PKR rushed to dance to Dr Mahathir’s tune, with some of them learning the steps albeit uncomfortably, the world’s oldest PM has committed to a deadline – he would step down after the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit to be held in November, in Kuala Lumpur.

The KL Apec summit will see the world’s top leaders, including President Donald Trump, Chinese president Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, standing side by side, next to him.

It will certainly be the most honourable farewell for Dr Mahathir, and he surely deserves it.

Let’s face it. Without Dr Mahathir, it would not have been possible for Pakatan Harapan to win the 2018 general election. Pakatan didn’t even believe that it could win, and that’s why they made all those outrageous electoral promises that they have problems fulfilling now.

While many critics had cynically dismissed Dr Mahathir’s latest pledge, there were also those who think he would fulfil it.

It’s the most conclusive pledge so far.

Many pointed out his earlier promises – that he would serve two or three years and then if the person to succeed him has the support of the majority of MPs as required by the Federal Constitution, he may step up.

But there is also a caveat – Dr Mahathir may leave after Apec but will that mean the successor will automatically be Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim?

The reality is that Dr Mahathir will be 95 years old, sitting in the nation’s highest office. The demands of the job are eating away those precious seconds, minutes and hours of his life.

Those who want him to stay, claiming that he is the best and fairest of them all, don’t love him. They just want to protect their political and business interests.

Within PKR itself, some want to make sure Anwar does not get the top job. After all, he can’t even control his party, so how could he run a country, they argue.

It doesn’t help that the succession as the eighth PM of Malaysia seems to be Anwar’s main preoccupation – that’s the impression – right or wrong this certainly does not help matters.

Then there is PAS, which also has a similar aim, and hope to extract more oil royalty from Dr Mahathir.

Some of these PAS leaders have shown how incompetently they have run Kelantan and Terengganu.

And some of those in Umno think that they can get themselves off the hook for their wrong-doings.

After all, strange things have been proven possible in Malaysia.

The motion of confidence, initiated by PAS, is odd because Dr Mahathir has said that he has no part in it. He should then tell his coalition partners to ignore the PAS motion.

Dr Mahathir doesn’t even need it as he is in total control and there’s no one foolish enough to challenge him directly. There’s plenty of whining about Dr Mahathir being shifty about the date but that’s about it.

No one in Malaysian history has been more comfortable than ever – who can imagine that an Opposition party, or parties, are scrambling to get MPs to sign statutory declarations to pledge support?

It’s insane and unthinkable, and no Hollywood or Bollywood directors would even think of such a script.

But Dr Mahathir has held the strings superbly, and as he said, he was literally floating when his political rivals heaped adulations upon him, to ensure he remained for a longer period as PM.

Well, as in all dances, the music stops at some point. Getting out on a high note is the smartest dance move.

ANN