Try to scam Malays openly...
He formed “UMNO Baru” (new UMNO) after the old UMNO (United Malays National Organization) was declared an “unlawful society” in 1987. He then exited UMNO in 2016. Later, he formed Pejuang in August 2020, only to quit in February 2023. He formed GTA (Homeland Movement), but abandoned it 2 days ago. Mahathir Mohamad appears to be chasing his own tail.
He formed the new UMNO in 1987 because he was almost defeated by Razaleigh Hamzah and Musa Hitam in the party election. He exited the same party in 2016 because he lost control of ex-premier Najib Razak. He formed Pejuang because he lost Bersatu. And he quit Pejuang because he lost in the Nov 2022 General Election. Whenever he lost power, he will form a new party.
Hilariously, after losing power, he will blame everyone except himself. He blamed Razaleigh in 1987, blamed Badawi in 2009, blamed Najib in 2016, blamed Muhyiddin in 2020, and is now blaming 10th Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. Interestingly, all of them were once his trusted lieutenant, deputy or protégé. As far as Mahathir is concerned, only he is right while others are wrong.
He endorsed Abdullah Badawi as his successor in 2003, only to see the “sleeping beauty” slept on the job. He then supported Najib Razak as the next premier in 2009, only to see the “crook” stole billions of dollars in the 1MDB scandal. He took back power and became PM for the second time in 2020, only to see his trusted lieutenant Mahiaddin (Muhyiddin) betrayed him.
To prevent Anwar from becoming the prime minister, Mahathir quietly endorsed traitor Mahiaddin as backdoor prime minister, only to see the power-hungry man siphoned billions in the RM600 billion Covid scandal. He tried to return to power for the third time, only to see Anwar emerged as the prime minister instead and launched a crackdown on corruption.
What’s next for the 97-year-old former prime minister? His options are extremely limited because not only he had been defeated in his own stronghold in Langkawi constituency, he was royally humiliated when, for the first time, he lost his deposit in the 2022 General Election. Worse, his GTA and Pejuang lost all the 125 seats contested as well as deposits.
Taking a page from the “Malay Dignity Congress” in Oct 2019, Mahathir has launched the “Malay Proclamation” under the same boring pretext of uniting the Malays. The 12-point proclamation is Mahathir’s platform to provoke, mobilize and rally Malays – arguably his last trick to stop Anwar from dismantling his dynasty and web of cronies still in control of the country’s monopoly.
But was it not Mahathir who has been busy dividing the Malays in the first place? From only UMNO and PAS, the divided Malays are presented with a wide variety menu – Semangat 46 (defunct), PKR (People’s Justice Party), Bersatu (Malaysian United Indigenous Party), Pejuang (Homeland Fighter’s Party), MUDA and others thanks to Mahathir.
The half-baked proclamation expressed the fear of the Malays losing political and economic power to the ethnic minorities, especially the Chinese. Yet, Mahathir could not explain why the Malay community whom he was supposed to nurture during his 22 years iron-fist rule (1981-2003) has remained uncompetitive, backward and generally poor. It was an admission of his failure to uplift the living standards of the Malays.
He was unable to explain how the Malays allegedly lost political power when all the past and present premiers have been of Malay ethnicity. Perhaps he was referring to himself, who is not genuinely Malay, but the son of Iskandar “Kutty”, a migrant from the southern Indian state of Kerala. While he conveniently blames Malay poverty on past Malay leaders, he has forgotten that he was one of them.
And he certainly cannot explain how his family members and cronies have become mega billionaires – owning private jets, yacht, mansions, super cars, offshore accounts and whatnot – while the ordinary Malays lost their alleged economic power. Unless Mahathir is willing to donate half of his wealth to the Malays, as suggested by PM Anwar, he has lost his legitimacy to defend Malay rights.
Besides, the country’s civil service is overwhelmingly dominated by Malays. More than 90% of Malaysian Armed Forces and Royal Malaysia Police are predominantly composed of the Malay Bumiputera. The Attorney General, the IGP (Inspector General of Police), the Chief of Defence Forces, the Yang diPertuan Agong (King), and all nine Rulers are all Malays.
It was absolutely laughable for Mahathir to lecture people not to be afraid of the “green wave”, referring to opposition Perikatan Nasional he’s trying to ride on. As he desperately and shamelessly scrambled to hire the radical PAS Islamist party to join his crusade, he has conveniently forgotten that it was him who had condemned the religious extremists for dividing the Malays.
Mahathir Mohamad, Abdullah Badawi, Najib Razak
In fact, as recent as Nov 2022, just days before the 15th General Election, Mahathir said Islam will be abused if PAS forms the Federal Government and leads the country. He said – “I think we will face a lot of problems if they win because there are extremists among them. We found that Perikatan Nasional were trying to manipulate the religion and try to show that they were trained in Islamic matters.”
In the same breath, PAS president Hadi Awang’s support for the dubious proclamation was an insult to his own party (PAS – Parti Islam Se-Malaysia). Mahathir had publicly rejected PAS’ Islamic law and even ridiculed Hadi’s zero political knowledge, telling him to just be an “ustaz at some kampung (village)”. Heck, he had even labelled Hadi as a “kafir (infidel)” and a Muslim traitor.
Religious extremist Hadi is the last person on the planet qualified to talk about Malay dignity or unity. PAS could not even provide clean water to the people of Kelantan, the state under the Islamic party’s rule almost uninterrupted since 1959. Kelantan is so underdeveloped and poor that the Malays there have no access to running water and have only intermittent power supply.
When PAS was finally part of the backdoor Perikatan Nasional government in March 2020, the clueless PAS deputy president – Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man – stunningly said the “Malay-Muslim” government still needed a mind-boggling 40 years to end the agony of brown water coming from the pipes. Did he realize China took only 12 years to build the “Three Gorges Dam”, an engineering marvel?
The Malay Proclamation was actually “Mahathir Proclamation”, a gathering to incite and provoke Malays to overthrow Anwar-led unity government. The real goal was to protect “Mahathirism” – privatisation and crony capitalism. Malays do not need defending because the Federal Constitution has provisions to safeguard the special positions of the Malays, the Malay Rulers, the Malay language and Islam as official religion.
Rather, the signing of the Malay Proclamation could backfire spectacularly on PAS. Malays have already overwhelmingly rejected the “toxic” Mahathir – proven when Pejuang-GTA was annihilated in the general election. Voters in Langkawi had sent a message to Mahathir that the former premier is no longer relevant. His rhetoric of race and religion does not work anymore
By signing “Mahathir Proclamation”, PAS leaders foolishly allowed the Islamist party to be tainted with an expired old man who has nothing to lose. Abdul Hadi Awang and his minions claimed they signed the proclamation because they wanted to “save” the Malay race. It was like telling the Malays to trust a fox to guard the hen house and protect the chickens.
PAS can’t even save Kelantan Malays from consuming bacteria-infested drinking water, so how could the fake holy men save the entire Malay race? Heck, the Malays in PAS-led states like Kelantan and Terengganu are so poor that they have to migrate to cities administered by rival Pakatan Harapan – even as far as Singapore – for better paying jobs.
And now “prostitute” PAS is sleeping with Mahathir, the same man responsible for the suffering of Malays so that he can enrich his own families and cronies. The funny part is Mahathir is also the same man who repeatedly mocks and insults Malays as lazy and untrustworthy. Yes, the so-called Malay hero does not believe the Malays can be trusted as they have no sense of responsibility.
Mr Hadi was absolutely right when he blabbered that Malays are being conned openly. However, the “con man” trying to scam the Malays are none other than Mahathir and his new sidekick, Hadi Awang. The PAS supremo openly lied that non-Muslims have plundered the country. Najib Razak, who bribed Hadi with RM90 million not too long ago, is a good example of a Malay plunderer.
Muhyiddin, with whom PAS works happily since 2020, is another excellent Malay plunderer who stole money during Covid-19 lockdown. While thousands Malays were killed due to Perikatan Nasional incompetence, not to mention hundreds Malays raising white flag begging for food, the former prime minister creatively proclaimed a State of Emergency in order to plunder the national coffers.
In fact, it was Hadi-led opposition who revealed that close to 500 companies were registered under the names of Mahathir and four of his children. While 16 companies were under Mahathir Mohamad’s name and 29 were under his daughter Marina’s name, a jaw-dropping 156 were under Mirzan’s name and 158 were under Mokhzani’s whereas 126 were under Mukhriz’s name.
Like the story of a boy who cried wolf, both Hadi and Mahathir were doing the same thing. As plunderer Mahathir falsely cried that Malays have lost political and economic power, conman Hadi falsely cried that Malays were being conned. Amusingly, both snake oil salesmen cried about saving the Malay race only after they lost power, or about to go to jail.
Still, to be fair, it was not entirely Mahathir and Hadi’s fault for repetitively scam the Malays. They knew the majority of ethnic Malay, especially those in rural areas, would foolishly swallow the hook, line and sinker whenever the race and religion card game is being played. They are too lazy to think critically, therefore can be easily manipulated and conned by con men like Mahathir and Hadi. - FT
