Futile stirring the pot when you can’t serve the gravy

 

From Terence Netto

By lobbing accusations at Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s alleged accumulation of wealth for self and family, Anwar Ibrahim is engaging in verbal fisticuffs he cannot hope to win.

In filing a defamation suit against Anwar, Mahathir has justified for Anwar a strategy of keeping quiet until the court battle is joined.

In declining to take that as cue, Anwar is ignoring something at which Mahathir is expert – deployment of half-truths to throw up a smokescreen that would make it difficult to sort fact from fiction.

Mahathir has already been at it.

In drawing support from PAS for his Malay Proclamation, and in justifying his collaboration with a former adversary, Mahathir said non-Malays had nothing to fear from the “green wave” that saw PAS (and Bersatu) sweep the north and north-east states of the peninsula at GE15 last November.

He reasoned that past Malay domination of these seats, hitherto mainly achieved through Umno, did not see a diminution of non-Malay rights in those states.

Therefore, Mahathir argued, there was no necessity for non-Malays to fear that the current domination of these seats by PAS forebode disaster for them.

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Here he conflated Umno’s domination with PAS’ domination; you have to be blind to lump the two.

By throwing flames at Mahathir’s alleged wealth-accumulation, Anwar is giving his nemesis the opportunity to revel in the half-truth.

In his latest response to Anwar’s darts, Mahathir said Anwar had also been accused when he was deputy prime minister (1993 to 1998) of garnering wealth for relatives and associates.

This exchange of barbs is unhelpful to Anwar.

It takes scant note of what has become clear, that Mahathir is a damp squib in Malaysian politics.

His defeat — to the extent of losing his deposit — in his bastion of Langkawi in GE15 says all you want to know about his current prowess as a vote-getter.

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His political vehicle Pejuang’s annihilation at the Melaka and Johor state polls last November and in March respectively, was a harbinger of what was to come for him and his cohort at GE15.

Broadsides at Mahathir from Anwar do stir the pot but afford no possibility of a gravy being served soon for the delectation of the public who want to see a resolution of the controversy over who really had waxed rich, via illicit means, on the nation’s resources.

More time will have to pass before that question can be settled satisfactorily. - FMT

Terence Netto is a senior journalist and an FMT reader.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.