When ex-PMs become ‘interfering fools’

 

We have four living ex-prime ministers. One is in jail, another is suffering from dementia, while two others continue to be “interfering fools”.

There has to come a time when former PMs should be told straight up that when you are no longer in power, please be aware that few will actually listen to what you have to say, let alone take your instructions. Certainly, not your successor.

Let’s deal with the oldest and most controversial former PM, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, first. In all fairness, all of us have to give it to our grand old man, even if we strongly abhor some of his politics.

Just seven months ago, in February, Mahathir said that he thought he was going to die following his health scare and admission into the National Heart Institute. Last month, he founded a new political coalition and announced it was taking the plunge into the coming GE15 on its own.

What an extraordinary feat for a 97-year-old! A lesser man would have called it quits a long time ago. But not Mahathir. We have to salute him for the man he is; that, we owe him.

Mahathir lives and breathes politics, or to be more precise, he genuinely believes that his job is to put things right by interfering in the sitting prime minister’s decisions. If the sitting PM does not heed his advice, chances are there will be trouble.

Ask PM5 Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, or PM6 Najib Abdul Razak of the 1MBD fame. They were directly on the receiving end of Mahathir’s wrath.

Dr Mahathir Mohamad

Abdullah crumbled under intense pressure from Mahathir after he led BN to a disastrous 12th general election in 2008. He resigned as prime minister the following year and his deputy, Najib, took over.

Dark horse Muhyiddin

It must be mentioned that PM8 Muhyiddin Yassin also played a pivotal role in the downfall of Abdullah. This was possibly the first time Muhyiddin also played the role of an “interfering fool” in the ouster of a prime minister, albeit as an errand boy for Mahathir then.

Fast-forward 13 years later, Muhyiddin himself is now an ex-prime minister himself, trying to tell the sitting PM, Ismail Sabri Yaakob, what to do and how to run his government.

Rightly, Ismail Sabri would have none of the nonsense from an interfering fool. He fought back. (We will come back to that later.)

Muhyiddin was clearly the “runner” for Mahathir when they executed their plan to oust Abdullah and replace him with Najib. Oh yes, Muhyiddin had a personal stake too – he was in line to be Number Two.

Malaysians will never forgive Muhyiddin and his band of bad boys in Bersatu for their treachery in the Sheraton Move. After becoming prime minister, he declared that he harbours no such craving for the coveted post.

Talk about a man lying through his teeth! This is one. Every political manoeuvre Muhyiddin was involved in, he had a personal interest in. This is why voters do not trust Muhyiddin. Rightly, none of us should.

Bersatu leaders during the Sheraton Move

I feel duty-bound to repeat this again and again. Come GE15, the first priority for Malaysians is to ensure that the Sheraton traitors, especially Muhyiddin and his ex-Umno parasites plus Azmin Ali and his 10 ex-PKR leeches, including three from Sarawak, are voted out.

Their political opponents, either from Pakatan Harapan, BN, Pejuang, Warisan, and other groups must consistently harp on this objective. I feel it is the only target worth going out to vote on come polling day.

The contesting coalitions should spare Malaysians the usual ideological or philosophical crap and not waste their time producing a noble-sounding manifesto, most of which is meaningless garbage anyway. Just tell the voters why they must get rid of treacherous scumbags in Malaysian politics.

Ismail Sabri’s resistance

Muhyiddin’s first salvo as an “interfering fool” against Ismail Sabri was fired on Sept 19 when he suggested that “if the prime minister continues to fail to properly manage the economy and nation, it is best for a general election to be called so a new, more efficient, caring and corruption-free government can be chosen by the people”.

Wow, now it seems that the Perikatan Nasional chairperson has joined the bandwagon to pressure Ismail Sabri to call for early elections.

What we understand in Muhyiddin’s criticism is not his desire for a corruption-free government but that the prime minister did not accede to his (Muhyiddin’s) demands to sack Bersatu turncoat Zuraida Kamaruddin from the cabinet as well as to appoint Azmin as deputy prime minister.

The “interfering fool” is furious that the prime minister did not meet his requests, even after he had supported Ismail Sabri to be PM.

Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob

Good for Ismail Sabri on Azmin. He must be aware that Azmin is not a suitable candidate for the DPM’s post.

One up too for the PM as he hit back at Muyhiddin by saying that if the government had failed to manage the economy, Muhyiddin and his party should shoulder some blame too, given they are also part of the administration.

This should put Muhyiddin in his place and perhaps remind him to stop being an interfering fool.

I agree with Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi for describing Muhyiddin’s salvo against Ismail Sabri as an “act of sabotage” against the prime minister.

Finally, to put my notion of an “interfering fool” in social science studies, I would liken it to two archetypes - the competent jerk and the lovable fool.

The competent jerk knows a lot but is unpleasant to deal with; the lovable fool, who doesn’t know much but, is a delight to have around. Both are liabilities to a sitting prime minister. - Mkini

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FRANCIS PAUL SIAH is a veteran Sarawak editor and heads the Movement for Change, Sarawak (MoCS). He can be reached at sirsiah@gmail.com.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.