Let's rejoice over Mahathir's departure!

Let's rejoice over Mahathir's departure!
21 May, 2008

Aliran

Why should clear thinking Malaysians not take the opportunity to rejoice and take this as yet another step forward for a new Malaysian cultural and political landscape to bloom post GE12—this time to get rid of all that is vile about the politics of Mahathir, writes Wong Kok Keong.

So, former PM Mahathir Mohamad has decided to leave UMNO until PM Abdullah Badawi resigns as President of UMNO. All Malaysians, including UMNO members, should rejoice!

And why not? Here is a man who, for at least half the life span of independent Malaysia, has corrupted Malaysian politics and economy and poisoned Malaysian culture. Why should clear thinking Malaysians not take the opportunity to rejoice and take this as yet another step forward for a new Malaysian cultural and political landscape to bloom post GE12—this time to get rid of all that is vile about the politics of Mahathir, one who has cynically exploited the diversity of Malaysia for his self-serving politics instead of celebrating and building it into a wonderful whole that is truly Malaysia?

Many academics and analysts writing about Mahathir have long tried to excuse or justify his megalomaniac Manichean politics as though he has something truly meaningful to offer as leader. They are prone or quick to see contradictions in him. But as long as we understand that Mahathir does things only to serve his interests, everything makes sense. There is hardly any contradiction. Today, it's Bangsa Malaysia coming out of his mouth, and the next day he is playing the race card. Only analysts who think he is deep or excuse his self-serving politics will see contradictions. In reality, he is saying one or the other only to advance his interests.

Such is the measure of Mahathir, and academics and analysts would do well to keep this in mind front and center when assessing his place in Malaysian history. The only bit of intriguing question is whether he is aware or not of the kind of person he is. Even so, he likely could not care less one way or the other.

Some also observed that Mahathir’s resignation is in keeping with the history of UMNO, citing past UMNO leaders having difficulties with the current UMNO presidents. Problem is that, aside from Onn Jaafar, Tunku Abdul Rahman and Hussein Onn left UMNO because of one thing only—Mahathir’s leadership as UMNO President. The kind of relationship Mahathir had with past leaders, and now with PM Abdullah, is actually in keeping with his inability to nurture future leaders and his pathological problems with his deputies. Such a character in a leader is what makes for a dictator. And some UMNO members are unhappy with him leaving the party? Well, dictators triumph only when they are people willing to be lorded over.

PM Abdullah's public response to Mahathir's resignation did not show any sign of panic. He was ready to admit the resignation would have some impacts. And while he said he could not really tell as yet the extent of the impact, he gently reminded, instead of harangued or preached to, other UMNO members why it was important to continue to support UMNO. To a question from the press, he rejected outright the idea of having a meeting with Mahathir to talk things over. Really, what’s left to talk about? In short, PM Abdullah was calm, measured and firm.

Abdullah’s passive-aggressive behavior appears to be a good antidote to Mahathir's alpha-male aggression. It has so frustrated Mahathir all along that the latter’s desperate moves as counter responses to Abdullah only served to show just what kind of person he (Mahathir) really is and why his kind of political leadership is so wrong for the country. Although he fails miserably as PM for not living up to his promises to the rakyat, Abdullah may yet prove to be a match for Mahathir! Oh, how richly ironic that would be.

But, of course, one would be overly hasty to conclude that this resignation ploy is the end of what Mahathir is capable of doing in his contempt for Abdullah. Who knows what lies in store next? But one thing is for sure: whatever it is that Mahathir will do next it will yet again show to be motivated by no other reasons than a self-serving one.

The sooner Malaysians come to accept that about him, the sooner the country will be able to see him for what he is, and move on and forward to a new Malaysia post GE-12.

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The impact of Dr Mahathir’s resignation from Umno

21 May, 2008

It really doesn’t matter, I mean the way Umno works is that the people who decide on the Prime Ministership is probably a group of less than 2500 people, basically we’re talking about the Umno divisional heads and the delegates to the Umno convention.

Radio Singapore International

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has announced his immediate resignation from the United Malays National Organisation or Umno yesterday.

He made the decision in protest over Abdullah Badawi’s continued leadership as both the Prime Minister and President of the ruling Umno party.

Mr Abdullah Badawi has responded that he will not be stepping down.

Mahathir was at the helm of Malaysian politics and the dominant Umno party for more than two decades until 2003 when he handed power to Abdullah Badawi.

The departure of the long serving former Umno leader came amid uncertain and volatile times in the Malay party after it lost much support during the country’s 12th general elections in March.

To get a reaction on the latest twist in the Malaysian political landscape, Saifulbahri Ismail spoke with Professor James Chin (JC), political analyst from Monash University, Malaysian campus.

He wasn’t too surprised at Mahathir’s resignation :

JC : I think since about 2005, Dr Mahathir has been attacking the Prime Minister consistently especially on his leadership qualities and the attacks increased after the defeat of the Barisan Nasional in March 2008. I think what happened was that Dr Mahathir came to realize that it is not possible to remove the Prime Minister under the present system where if you want to challenge the Prime Minister or the President of Umno, you need 30 per cent nominations from the branches. Ironically, you would probably be aware that this system was actually brought in by Dr Mahathir himself to protect himself from being challenged by other leaders when he was Prime Minister. So, I think the general consensus here in Malaysia is that it would not have been possible for him to challenge Badawi with this 30 per cent nomination rule and that the only way to get rid of Badawi is to enforce mass resignations from the grassroots of the party.

Following Dr Mahathir’s resignation, he also urged all Umno ministers and party leaders to also quit the party and return only when Abdullah steps down. Now, this as you said is targeted to enforce mass resignations from Umno. Do you think Mahathir has enough influence to stir such a flurry of resignations and how will it affect Abdullah Badawi’s position as Prime Minister and President of Umno?

JC : It really doesn’t matter, I mean the way Umno works is that the people who decide on the Prime Ministership is probably a group of less than 2500 people, basically we’re talking about the Umno divisional heads and the delegates to the Umno convention. So, I’m not sure even if you have mass resignations this will necessary mean that Badawi will have to step down. You might see a lot of people resigning en masse just to show their support for Mahathir, or the other way of reading is that to show their unhappiness with Badawi. But I’m saying that Badawi’s position may not be necessarily threatened by this mass resignations. Badawi will only be threatened if the divisional chiefs and the delegates are against him.

There’s been a lot of reaction from Mahathir’s sudden decision to leave Umno. While others say that this might actually cripple the party, former Deputy Prime Minister, Tun Musa Hitam has described that Mahathir’s resignation is good for Umno. He said that a thorn in the flesh has been removed from the party. Do you think that this is really beneficial to Umno?

JC : That really doesn’t apply because whether he is inside or outside Umno he can still attack the Pak Lah’s leadership and being the former President of Umno, of course whatever he says would carry a lot of weight. So I think the membership is really not that important.

So do you think he can do even more damage outside Umno?

JC : I’m not sure he can do even more damage. I think he has already damaged the government substantially. As you recalled, straight after the elections, it was very clear that one of the people that Umno blames for the poor showing of the Barisan Nasional was Mahathir himself. As you recall Mahathir actually told many people not to vote for Umno or Barisan Nasional before the elections.

Leader of the opposition Islamic party PAS, Nik Aziz Nik Mat said Mahathir’s departure is good for the opposition. It will motivate and strengthen the position of the opposition coalition parties. Do you think Mahathir will join the opposition now he is out of Umno?

JC : I doubt it very much. I’m quite certain that he will not join the opposition, and I think we have to accept the words that he used during his resignation, which is that he will stay out of party politics until Pak Lah is removed and he will re-join Umno then.

That was Professor James Chin, political analyst from Monash University, Malaysian campus speaking with Saifulbahri Ismail.

Malaysia’s Domestic Trade Minister Shahrir Samad said on Tuesday that no members of the ruling Umno party were resigning despite Dr Mahathir’s call for them to quit.